This unparalleled reference work offers general readers as well as scholars clearly written introductions to over seven hundred of the main religious and philosophical writings of Greco-Roman paganism, early Judaism, and formative Christianity from the period of Alexander the Great to Mohammed.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University and Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He holds sixteen honorary degrees and academic medals.
Alan J. Avery-Peck is Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. He is, along with Jacob Neusner and William S. Green, editor of the Encyclopaedia of Judaism (second revised edition, Brill, 2006).
Contributors are forty-five of the top scholars in North America, Europe, Australia, and Israel in the fields of ancient religion and philosophy.