This volume explores two major questions: “What is that makes a Jew a Jew, and a non-Jew a non-Jew?” and “Can a gentile become a Jew?” (p. 2). The term “Jew” was ambiguous because “there was no single or simple definition of Jew in antiquity . . . ,” and there were no “empirical or ‘objective' criteria by which to determine who was ‘really' a Jew. . . . Jewishness was a subjective identity, constructed by the individual . . . other Jews, other gentiles, and the state” (p. 3). Cohen points to Herod to demonstrate that one could be called a Jew and an Idumean at the same time (p. 23).