Based on a conference convened at the University College London under the auspices of the Institute of Jewish Studies in the summer of 2008.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preliminary Material / S. Stern -- Prologue: How Do We Know When We Are On To Something? / Albert I. Baumgarten -- Religious Variety And The Temple In The Late Second Temple Period And Its Aftermath / Martin Goodman -- The ‘Sectarian’ Calendar Of Qumran / Sacha Stern -- Defining Sectarian By ‘Non-Sectarian’ Narratives In Qumran / Ida Fröhlich -- The Nazoraeans As A ‘Sect’ In ‘Sectarian’ Judaism? A Reconsideration Of The Current View Via The Narrative Of Acts And The Meaning Of Hairesis / Joan E. Taylor -- Legal Realism And The Fashioning Of Sectarians In Jewish Antiquity / Christine Hayes -- The Qaraites As Sect: The Tyranny Of A Construct / Marina Rustow -- The Hasideans And The Ancient Jewish ‘Sects’: A Seventeenth-Century Controversy / Francis Schmidt -- Jews For Jesus: Occupying Jewish Time And Space / Elliot Cohen -- Is A Historical Comparative Sociology Of (Ancient Jewish) Sects Possible? / David J. Chalcraft -- Weber-Foucault-Nietzsche: Uncertain Legacies For The Sociology Of Religion / Paul-François Tremlett -- Index Of Names / S. Stern -- Index Of Topics / S. Stern.

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Sects and sectarianism are popular themes in Jewish history, but the meaning of these terms is elusive, often raising more problems than solutions. This volume, drawing on the expertise of a wide range of scholars, examines several Jewish groups from Antiquity to the present day that have been traditionally identified as ‘sects’ or as ‘sectarian’, including most famously the Qumran community and the Qaraites. It questions whether ‘sect’ and ‘sectarianism’ are appropriate or effective as historical categories for the interpretation of social and religious movements in Jewish history.