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Libra Esoterica

Secret Societies in Ancient Judaism

by Michael E. Stone

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English

Description

Description from OpenAlex (opens in a new tab)

This chapter deals with the sources available for knowledge of Jewish esoteric groups, distinguishing between “insider” and “outsider” sources. The Essenes and the Qumran covenanters as a secret society are introduced. The keeping of secrets in the Greco–Roman world and the consequent importance of archaeology in discovering these secrets are briefly discussed. Typical features of secret societies are given: gradual initiation and limitation of membership, hierarchical organization with different levels, and stages of admission to the special knowledge. The main categories are “secret–open,” not “sectarian–normative,” as in previous studies. Analogous secret cults in the Greco–Roman world are also listed.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Initiatory orders and secret societies and Occultism and esotericism.

  • Occultism and esotericism

    Retained metadata contains “esoteric” in the description.

    • “esoteric”· in description
  • Initiatory orders and secret societies

    Controlled discovery queries from crossref and openalex matched “secret societies”. Retained metadata contains “Secret societies” in the title, “Secret societies” in the description, and “Secret societies” in the edition title.

    • “secret societies”· via Crossref
    • “secret societies”· via OpenAlex
    • “Secret societies”· in title
    • “Secret societies”· in description
    • “Secret societies”· in edition title

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

Crossref publisher-supplied book record

2017-10-19Oxford University Press; Oxford University Press eBooksEnglish—Unknown

Subjects

14 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Catalog id
crossref:10.1093/oso/9780190842383.003.0001
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved