Dedication
Dedication
I have dedicated this book to Ed Sanders and Jim Charlesworth. I had once dreamed of studying with Geza Vermes and especially E. P. Sanders at Oxford, but, knowing that this dream was financially impossible for me, I applied instead to Princeton, Duke, and Yale. Of the three, Princeton was initially my first choice, because I desired to study with James Charlesworth; yet I ended up at Duke, which had its own strong set of advantages (not least of which was that they accepted me into their program). Providentially (from my perspective), Ed later interviewed at Duke, and I met him when, as Orval Wintermute was giving him a tour of the campus, they visited the classics reading room where I was then working through Epictetus.
After Ed took the position at Duke, I had the privilege of being his graduate assistant, hence hearing him engage undergraduates as well as my fellow graduate students. From one of his earlier books, I had expected him to be harsh, but soon discovered that some of his more graphic statements were intended rhetorically, to hold attention (not infrequently in a humorous way). He was thoroughly supportive of his students, fair toward us when we disagreed, and has remained kind and supportive in the years following. I do not expect him to agree with everything in this book (though I think I have agreed with him more often than disagreed), but I trust that he will recognize his seminal influence on me, as well as on a generation of scholars working in Jesus research from an especially Jewish context.
I met James Charlesworth briefly when I visited Princeton before my doctoral work, but have gotten to know him more fully in more recent years. Although I did not have the privilege of studying with him in person, he has nevertheless shown great kindness and generosity in welcoming my scholarship. His work on different aspects of early Judaism and Jesus research, as well as his collaboration with and organization of a broad range of scholars for numerous important projects, has likewise helped to shape the current generation of scholarship in these areas. (Not least, Jim’s industry in organizing the massive Pseudepigrapha project has preserved many of us from depending too much on earlier translations published nearly a century ago.) Again, I do not presume that either scholar will agree with every decision I have made in the book (no two scholars agree on everything anyway),1 but I remain grateful for their example and support.