Continuity and Innovation in the Aramaic Legal Tradition
ISBN: 9789047442226
Platform/Publisher: BRILL / BRILL
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Philosophy.;

Ever since the Elephantine papyri were first published over a century ago, scholars have speculated on the origins of the well-developed legal formularies used in these documents. Since then, many more Aramaic deeds of conveyance both from Elephantine and from elsewhere have been published, especially within the last decade or so. With this expanded text base now available, the time is ripe for a comprehensive re-assessment of these legal formularies. This book endeavors to show that these disparate Aramaic documents, whose chronological scope spans several centuries, form a discrete and coherent tradition. It isolates and identifies the distinctive elements that form the core of this tradition and traces the histories of these elements back through the cuneiform record.


Andrew Gross was born in 1952 in New York City. He grew up in Manhattan and attended the Barnard School for Boys. Both his father and grandfather were successful clothing manufacturers; they ran the Leslie Fay Companies. Gross received a degree in English from Middlebury College in 1974. In 1982, he received a Masters in Business from Columbia University. He attended the Writers Program at the University of Iowa.

The draft of his first book Hydra, a political thriller, was completed in 1998. After dozens of rejections from agents and ultimately publishers he received a phone call from James Patterson. Gross met with Patterson and discussed the early concepts for what ultimately became the Women's Murder Club series. Gross worked with Patterson on several books in this series, including Second Chance and Third Degree, both of which were bestsellers. Then, they branched out on different themes together, co-authoring the bestsellers, The Jester, Lifeguard, and Judge and Jury.

In pursuing his solo career, Gross wrote such works as The Blue Zone, which debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in the United States. A year later, It was followed up by The Dark Tide ( 2007), which was nominated for Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association. The Dark Tide featured the Gross fictional detective Ty Hauck of Greenwich, Connecticut, who became the lead character in his corruption and political conspiracy-based bestsellers Don't Look Twice and Reckless. His titles 12 Seconds and Everything to Lose also made the New York Times bestseller list. The One Man was published in August 2016. His latest bestseller is The Saboteur.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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