This volume represents the final output of a long-standing collaboration by an international and cross-disciplinary team sponsored by the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. It tells the history of human cultural production in the Eastern Mediterranean rather than the history of specific states or religions. Simultaneously, the volume argues that the agency of local communities is a key to understanding the history of long-term change and cultural production in the Levant. It narrates the story of the crystallization of a type of sub-imperial power, illustrated by the canonical discourses associated with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.