Studies in ancient Judaism and early Christianity Over the past 45 years Professor Pieter W. van der Horst contributed extensively to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The 24 papers in this volume written since his early retirement in 2006 cover a wide range of topics all of them concerning the religious world of Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Roman and early Byzantine era. They reflect his research interests in Jewish epigraphy Jewish interpretation of the Bible Jewish prayer culture the diaspora in Asia Minor exegetical problems in the writings of Philo and Josephus Samaritan history texts from ancient Christianity which have received little attention (the poems of Cyrus of Panopolis the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati the Letter of Mara bar Sarapion) and miscellanea such as the pagan myth of Jewish cannibalism the meaning of the Greek expression without God  the religious significance of sneezing in pagan antiquity and the variety of stories about pious long sleepers in the ancient world (pagan Jewish Christian) Provided by the publisher