A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: Third Century BCE to Seventh Century CE

Description

This companion volume brings together 30 scholarly essays covering many different topics within the larger subject of late ancient Jews and Judaism. Organized thematically these essays explore identity, gender, material culture, sacred and domestic spaces, as well as literary motifs and theological questions and issues within late ancient Jewish history, historiography and methodology. Chronologically these essays cover material from the third century BCE to the seventh century CE. Geographically these essays map out late ancient Jewish life and remains throughout the Mediterranean world and the ancient Middle East. The purpose of this volume is not to retell the political or social history in a linear fashion, but to explore the subject area from many facets and points of inquiry. In addition, by pulling our lens to the wider setting of "late antiquity" and our geography to Mediteranean and Middle East, these essays highlight the variety of Jews, Judaisms, and Jewish expressions that flourished across these spaces and time periods. Yet in addition, this volume demonstrate the ways in which our scholarly constructs of ancient history (e.g. "Roman," or "Hellenistic") or Jewish history ("second temple," or "rabbinic") can be reconstructed, and productively so, when studied through other varied and creative lenses. A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: 3rd Century BCE - 7th Century CE Contents List of Figures List of Maps Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments Maps 1 Introduction Opening Section Where Jews Live Literatures, Languages, and Materialities Identities and Ethnicities Bodies and Genders Spaces Appendix 1: An Historical Outline Appendix 2: Further Reading PART I: Where Jews Live 2 Where Jews Lived in the West Introduction The Sources for Jewish Habitation—An Overview The Quality of These Sources What These Sources Suggest About Where Jews Lived: Some Granularity Alexandria Egypt (Outside Alexandria) The City of Rome Jews in Italy Outside Rome Europe Outside Italy Greece, the Balkan Peninsula and the North Coast of the Black Sea Asia Minor Mediterranean Islands North Africa Antioch on the Orontes and Coastal Syria Why Jews Lived Where They Did During This Particular Thousand Years ABBREVIATIONS NOTES REFERENCES 3 Jewish Towns and Neighborhoods in Roman Palestine and Persian Babylonia Introduction Summary of Scholarly Debate and Methodological Issues Roman and Byzantine Palestine Persian Babylonia Suggestions for Future Developments REFERENCES PART II: Languages and Literatures 4 Late Ancient Jewish Languages The Literary Landscape in Judaea The Non‐Literary Landscape in Judaea The Diaspora Language Ideology NOTE REFERENCES 5 Literature of the Jews, Fourth Century BCE to Second Century CE Introduction Chronologies and Categories The Challenges Key Features Language Constructing Identity Pseudonymous Attribution Apocalypticism Spotlight on Key Genres and Texts 1 Enoch and Daniel: Apocalypse, Pseudepigraphy, and Expanding Collections Jubilees and Pesharim: Ancient Figures, New Scriptures, and Genres of Interpretation Ben Sira: Wisdom and Pedagogy The Maccabean Revolt: History, Identity, and Edification Philo of Alexandria: Alexandrian Philosophy and Ancestral Tradition Early Jewish “Novels” 4Ezra and Josephus: After the Fall of Jerusalem Conclusion REFERENCES 6 Rabbinic Literature Introduction Mishnah Tosefta Midrash Tannaitic Midrash Aggadic Midrashim Talmuds Palestinian Talmud Babylonian Talmud Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES 7 Material Culture of the Second Temple Period (pre-70 CE) Introduction Terminology and Methodology Devotional Activities Proseuchai and Synagogues Text and Prayer Theology and Belief Household/Daily Life Marriage and Family Life Death, Commemoration, and the Afterlife Afterlife? Places in Society Assessment REFERENCES Guide to Relevant Corpora and Abbreviations 8 How Do Jews Matter? Exploring Late-Ancient Mediterranean Jews and Jewishness Through Material Culture Introduction Everyday Life Food and Drink Clothing and Hairstyles Shelter Work Synagogues and Burials Synagogues Burials How Does the Matter of Late‐Ancient Jews Matter? REFERENCES 9 Material Culture of the Jews of Sasanian Mesopotamia Introduction Materiality of the Sasanian Environment Incantation Bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia Jewish‐Sasanian Seals Conclusion NOTE REFERENCES 10 Non-Jewish Sources for Late Ancient Jewish History Introduction Types of Sources Hellenistic and Roman Texts Christian Texts Peshitta and Syriac Christian Authors Papyri and Inscriptions Methodologies “New” Data Corroborative Data Comparative Data REFERENCES PART III: Identities and Ethnicities 11 Contesting Identities: The Splitting Channels from Israelite to Jew Introduction The Heritage of Ezra Hellenism and the Birth of “Judaism” Sectarianism and the True Israel Jewish Identity under Roman Imperialism The “ekklesia” of the Torah REFERENCES 12 Imagining Judaism after 70 CE Interpreting an Event Facing a Chasm Projecting a Catastrophe Countering a Projection Unanswered Questions? Clarifying Survival The Sects and 70 CE Looking Ahead: Imagining Catastrophe Without Crisis REFERENCES 13 Rabbis and the Poor in Palestinian Amoraic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud Introduction The Quotidian Lives of the Poor Palestinian Amoraic Literature The Lives of the Poor in the Babylonian Talmud Portrayals of Rabbinic Interpersonal Interactions with the Poor Theological Constructions of the Poor Rabbis, Tzedakah (Charity), and the Poor Conclusion REFERENCES 14 Diaspora and Center Introduction Home and Away The Temple Trade Life During Wartime A New Center Emerges Exile at Home and Home in Exile Conclusions REFERENCES 15 Jews and Their Others (New Testament) Scholarship, Paul, and Jewish Identity Paul’s Identit(ies) in Philippians 3 Paul’s Identit(ies) in Acts Political Implications Concerning Identity Philippians 3 Expulsion from Rome: Acts 18 Concluding Remarks NOTES REFERENCES 16 Rabbis and Their Others Introduction Non‐Jews Women Non‐rabbinic Jews (ʿamey ha‐ʾaretz) NOTES REFERENCES 17 What is Jewish Law? Jewish Legal Culture and Thought in Antiquity (Fifth Century BCE to Seventh Century CE) Introduction: What Is (and Is Not) Jewish Law? Laws and Jewish Law Sources Key [Quasi‐] Legal Terms and Ideas: Covenant, Torah, Halakhah, Code (a) Covenant (b) Torah (c) Halakhah (d) Code Law as Extra‐Juridical Discourse Norms Legal Discourse in Cultural Context: Case Studies (a) Confrontation: Freedom to Obey God (1 Maccabees, Josephus, Dead Sea Scrolls) (b) Coexistence: Mimicry and (Apolitical) Resistance: Rabbinic Halakhah (c) Translation: Hellenism and the Law (Aristeas and Philo) Conclusion NOTE REFERENCES 18 Arabian Judaism at the Advent of Islam: A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Judaism Introduction Arabian Jews in the Historiographical Tradition Ḥijāzī Jews Ḥimyarite Jews Arabian Jews and the Question of Jewish Identity Conclusions NOTES REFERENCES PART IV: Bodies and Genders 19 Sexualities and Il/licit Relationships in Late Ancient Jewish Literatures Introduction The Hebrew Bible Pseudepigrapha and Other Early Jewish Texts Qumran Early Tannaitic Texts Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES 20 Embodied Scriptural Practice Introduction The Shema and Ritual Enacting the Instruction Verses as Embodied Ritual Ritualizing “These Words” Philo: “These Words” as “The Rules of Justice” Josephus: Words Publicize God’s Beneficence Material Evidence for “These Words” Limiting the Scope of “These Words” The Emergence of the Rabbinic Shema Shema and Tefillin as an Embodied Internalization of Scripture Halakhic Repercussions NOTES REFERENCES 21 Bodies That Matter: Piety and Sin Introduction Rabbinic Concepts of Valuation Bodies That Sin One or Two Bodies? Between Arakhin and Sanhedrin Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES 22 Rabbinic Gender: Beyond Male and Female Introduction Expanding the Field of Gender: Tannaitic Midrashim Expanding the Field: Mishnah and Tosefta Figuring (Away) the Tumtum and Androginos Person Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES 23 Disability Studies in Jewish Culture in Late Antiquity: Gender, Body, and Violence Amidst Empire Introduction Conceptualizing Disability in Rabbinic Literature Idolatry, Disability, and the Divine Body Is God a Clever Crip? Divine Disability and the Limits of Justice Beyond the Diagnosable Body: Disability and Roman Imperium State Violence and the Brutalized Body: Race, Disability Studies, and Rabbinic Flesh “Women are Lightminded”: Gender and the Production of Impairment “Alas That I See You So”: Contesting the Narrative of the Tragic Disabled Body NOTES REFERENCES 24 Gender, Sex, and Witchcraft in Late Ancient Judaism Introduction Changing Definitions of Magic and Witchcraft Rabbis, Women, and Witches That Tannaitic Magic The Bewitched and Bothered Rabbis of the Palestinian Talmud Every Little Thing She Does in the Babylonian Talmud Is Magic You Can Do Magic: Women, Witchcraft, and the Reality of Everyday Life in Babylonia Strange Magic NOTES REFERENCES PART V: Spaces 25 Domestic Spaces Introduction Religious Identity Living and Making a Living Evidence for Domestic Space Socio‐Economic Factors Wealthy/Elite Houses Urban Merchants Urban Poor Rural Poor Geography Judaea/Palestina Samaria Egypt Syria Asia Minor Rome and Environs Ostia Interior Decorating Literary Representations of the Home Tobit Joseph and Aseneth Susanna Judith Religion and Domestic Space Summary NOTE REFERENCES 26 “Do Not Say ‘I am Poor and Cannot Seek Out Knowledge’”: The House of Study and Education in the Second Temple Period Introduction Background to the Chapter The Persian Period (538–332 BCE) The Hellenistic Period (332 BCE–63 BCE) Languages Intellectual Centers: The First Half (332 BCE–175 BCE) Intellectual Centers: The Second Half (175 BCE–63 BCE) Houses of Instruction The Roman Period REFERENCES 27 Locating Diaspora Jewish Philanthropy in the Ancient Mediterranean Public Arena Introduction Civic Allegiance Philanthropy as Apologia Conclusion References 28 Sacred Spaces Introduction Jerusalem and its Temple Competing Conceptions of the Temple as a Sacred Space Coins as Visual Depictions of Jerusalem’s Sacredness Post‐Destruction Jewish Literature about Jerusalem’s Sacredness Synagogues and Shrines Ritual Spaces as Sacred Spaces Off‐Limits: Forbidden Sacred Spaces Creating Sacred Spaces in Transit Conclusions NOTE REFERENCES 29 Jewish Prayer, Liturgy, and Ritual Introduction Terms and Nomenclature Boundaries of Time and Space Texts and Contexts Large Scale Space Public and Communal Space Domestic Space Conceptual Space Embodied Space Conclusions REFERENCES 30 Agriculture and Industry Introduction Agriculture An Example of Rabbinic Difference: Pe’ah Grain Olives Grapes Vegetables Interlude: Teach Your Son a Trade Industry Olive Oil Wine Trades and Crafts Final Thoughts REFERENCES Index