For Second Temple Judaism “the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the other books of our ancestors” (Sir, preface 5) was both a religious duty and devotional practice. Unlike other religions with their mythologies, Jews were proud that they had books of history, morality, and oracles. The reading and interpretation of these books was a specific and important activity, as we see in Philo of Alexandria’s writings, for understanding their identity. Indeed, the synagogue liturgy…