Ethnicity, race, religion: identities and ideologies in early Jewish and Christian texts, and in modern biblical interpretation

Religion, ethnicity and race are facets of identity that have become increasingly contested.

They intersect and overlap in complex and varied ways, and study of the Bible and Christian origins contributes much to a discussion of these ideas.

The modern discipline of biblical studies developed in the context of Western Europe, concurrent with the emergence of various racial and imperial ideologies.

The essays in this volume deal both with historical facets of ethnicity and race in antiquity, in particular in relation to the identities of Jews and Christians and also with the critique of scholarly ideologies and racial assumptions which have shaped biblical studies.