The Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt

In 1929 Erwin R. Goodenough published his famous book on The Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt: Legal Administration by the Jews Under the Early Roman Empire As Described by Philo Judaeus. I just recently discovered that the book was republished in 2002 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.. You can find further info here or here on Amazon.com. Their book description runs thus:Goodenough, Edwin R. The Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt: Legal Administration by the Jews under the Early Roman Empire as Described by Philo Judaeus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1929. vii, 268 pp. Reprinted 2002 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 00-058809. ISBN 1-58477-152-6. Cloth. $75. Goodenough takes a look at the work of the great ancient Jewish philosopher from the unique point of view of the practical lawyer, rather than the theologian, and as such illuminates much about law as practiced in the Jewish courts in Alexandria. "...an absorbingly interesting monograph on Philo's `De Specialibus Legibus.'" Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University (1953) 238. Those of you who knows my disseration will know that I take this book as a point of departure for my own investigation of Establishment Violence in Philo and Luke. Hence I can't resist the temptation to point you to a further description of my book. Click here! In this work I argued "that Philo of Alexandria should be read as advocating zealotic establishment violence­ against some specific deviances from the Torah, and as evidencing the presence of zealous persons in Alexandria ready to take such actions. Correspondingly, several records of actions planned or taken against Christians according to the Lukan Acts of the Apostles ought to be read in light of aspects of the Philonic material dealt with here."
The first chapter then, reviewed and evaluated some relevant aspects in recent research. Its first part dealt with the research of E.R. Goodenough concerning the issue of ‘lynching’ in the works of Philo, and the second part with the phenomenon of ‘Zealotism.’ The first part particularly presented and evaluated the debate raised by Goodenough’s The Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt. My conclusion in that work was that I strengthened that part of E.R. Goodenough’s theory stating that Philo here did not deal with theoretical laws but with actual issues of Law to be observed. I did not, however, further explore that part of his theory suggesting that Philo’s expositions were derived from his experience and practice in the Jewish courts of Alexandria. This view is much debated, but is not probable in the form Goodenough gave it. My alternative to this part of Goodenough's thesis was that of Establishment Violence (i.e., vigilantism). Further arguments for my thesis can be found in the book....
Later on I have also applied this view in an article on Galatians 1.13-14 in order to understand Paul's actions against the early Christians. This article was published in Biblica, and can still be found on the Internet here.
Have a nice day!