A Question of Identity: Social, Political, and Historical Aspects of Identity Dynamics in Jewish and Other Contexts

Description

'''Who am I?' and 'Who are we?' are the existential, foundational questions in our lives. In our modern world, there is no construct more influential than 'identity' - whether as individuals or as groups. The concept of group identity is the focal point of a research group named "A Question of Identity" at the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The papers collected in this volume represent the proceedings of a January 2017 conference organized by the research group which dealt with identity formation in six contextual settings: Ethno-religious identities in light of the archaeological record; Second Temple period textual records on Diaspora Judaism; Jews and Christians in Sasanian Persia; minorities in the Persian achaemenid period; Inter-ethnic dialogue in pre-1948 Palestine; and redefinitions of Christian Identity in the Early Modern period. Preface Contents A question of identity: Introduction Part I: Ancient Mesopotamia and Further East 1. In His Majesty’s Service 2. Judean Identity during the Exile 3. Issues in the Historical Geography and the Ethno-Linguistic Character of the Zagros and Adjacent Regions 4. Going West 5. Jewish Identity in Babylonia in the Period of the Incantation Bowls 6. The Quest of the Historical Metatron: Enoch or Jesus Part II: The Hellenistic and Roman World 7. Priests in Exile 8. Iron Wall or Common Feast? 9. Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the Letter of Aristeas §§1–27 10. Literary Genres and Identity in the Letter of Aristeas 11. Monotheism as an Identity Norm 12. Material Culture and Ethnic Identity in Hellenistic-Period Galilee 13. “How Fine are the Works of this People”? Part III: Religious and National Identities in a Complex World 14. The Context of Conversions in Early Modern Europe 15. So What’s Really in a Name? Theology of Etymology in Sixteenth-Century Arian Thought 16. “It’s All Hebrew to Me” 17. Social and Spatial Borders between “Us” and “Them” Contributors Index