Lester L. Grabbe is a retired American scholar and Emeritus Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull, England.[1] As an historian of ancient Judaism, he has authored several standard treatments.[2] He founded and convenes the European Seminar on Methodology in Israel’s History, and publishes the proceedings in the sub-series European Seminar in Historical Methodology.[1] Before retirement, he established and taught for several years a module, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and another module, Religious Sectarianism in History and the Modern World.[1]
At age sixty-five,[5] Grabbe was presented with a Festschrift, a memorial book, by editors Philip Davies and Diana Edelman, containing a collection of thirty essays by his colleagues and friends, offering "reflections on the practice and theory of history writing, on the current controversies and topics of major interest". The essays show Grabbe's influence on the field of biblical studies and history.[6]
Published works
As of October 2013, Grabbe had: 95 works in 234 publications in 3 languages and 7,650 library holdings listed in WorldCat.[7]
A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period 1: Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah (London/New York: T & T Clark International, 2004) xxi + 471 pp. ISBN0-567-08998-3.
Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian: Vol. I: Persian and Greek Periods; Vol. II: Roman Period (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992) lx + 722 pp. British edition in one-volume paperback (London: SCM, 1994) xxxv + 722 pp. (Fortress) ISBN0-8006-2620-6 (v. 1); ISBN0-8006-2621-4 (v. 2).
Exile and restoration revisited essays on the Babylonian and Persian periods in memory of Peter R. Ackroyd
Leading captivity captive : "the Exile" as history and ideology ISBN9781850759072
Judaic Religion in the Second Temple Period: Belief and Practice from the Exile to Yavneh (London/New York: Routledge, 2000) xix + 424 pp. ISBN978-0-415-21250-2
Etymology in Early Jewish Interpretation: The Hebrew Names in Philo (Brown Judaic Studies 115; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988) xvi + 268 pp. ISBN9781555400804
Ancient Israel : what do we know and how do we know it? (2007, rev. ed 2017) ISBN9780567032546
Works on Second Temple Judaism
Priests, Prophets, Diviners, Sages: A Socio-historical Study of Religious Specialists in Ancient Israel (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995) xviii + 261 pp. ISBN9781563381324
An Introduction to First Century Judaism (1996 Grabbe), ISBN9780567085061
A History of Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. Vol. 1: Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah (2004 Grabbe), ISBN978-0567043528
A History of Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period. Vol. 2: The Coming of the Greeks: The Early Hellenistic Period (2008 Grabbe), ISBN9780567033963
An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism : history and religion of the Jews in the time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel and Jesus (2010 Grabbe), ISBN9780567552488
^December 2010 Festschrift notice "Lester Grabbe turned 65 on Nov 5 (which dates him, contrary to popular rumor, well after the Persian period)." (Birth date: 5 November 1945)