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

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