Includes bibliographical references and index.

Jews and Israelites in antiquity : the need for a new paradigm -- The other Israelites : Samaritans, Hebrews, and non-Jewish Israel -- Judah's bible and the narrative construction of biblical Israel -- Between disaster and restoration : the prophets, exile, and restoration eschatology -- The restoration of Israel in the Persian and Hellenistic periods : incomplete, delayed, failed -- Exile and diaspora theology -- Israel, Jews, and restoration eschatology in Josephus -- Israel and restoration in Philo of Alexandria -- Exile and Israel's restoration in the Dead Sea scrolls -- Israel, Jews, and restoration in other second temple narrative literature -- Israel in second temple eschatological and apocalyptic literature -- Israel, Hebrews, Jews, and restoration eschatology.

"In this book, Jason Staples proposes a new paradigm regarding the biblical concept of Israel and how it was shaped by Jewish apocalyptic hopes for restoration after the Babylonian Exile. Challenging conventional assumptions about Israelite identity in antiquity, his argument is based on a close analysis of a vast corpus of biblical and other early Jewish literature and material evidence. Staples demonstrates that continued aspirations for Israel's restoration in the context of diaspora and imperial domination remained central to Jewish conceptions of Israelite identity throughout the final centuries before Christianity and even into the early part of the Common Era. He also shows that Israelite identity was more diverse in antiquity than is typically appreciated in modern scholarship. His book lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the so-called "parting of the ways" between Judaism and Christianity and how earliest Christianity itself grew out of hopes for Israel's restoration"-- Provided by publisher.