Theology and Ethics in Early Judaism

The question of theology and ethics cannot be separated from the methodological problems connected with studying it. Whereas the Apocrypha come to us from different life settings and represent many different, often unknown, groups and socio-religious traditions in Second Temple Judaism (538 bce–70/135 ce), the same is the case with the Pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, unlike the Jewish or Christian Bible, none of these writings have a present-day faith community to represent them, so that there present-day ethical relevance is quite uncertain and any systematic theological approach is nearly impossible.