Jews Judaism And The Classical World

The studies, by one of the most distinguished scholars of antiquity, cover a span of time beginning with the Hasmoneans and the earliest intervention of Roman power in the land of Israel - that is, from the second and first pre-Christian centuries - and extended as far as the third and fourth centuries of the present era. Most of the questions dealt with originate in the inner world of Judaism and Jewish law (halachah). The issues are examined in relation to other factors as well, such as the Hellenistic literature of the Jews, early Christian traditions, and classical culture as a whole.

John Hayes and Sara Mandell provide a clear exposition of Jewish history from 333 BCE to 135 CE. This volume focuses on the Judean-Jerusalem community from a historical rather than ideological or theological perspective. With the inclusion of charts, maps, and ancient texts, the authors have constructed a fascinating account that is indispensable for the study of this crucial period.

This volume continues the studies on the most important source of late antique Judaism, the Talmud Yerushalmi, in relation to its cultural context. The text of the Talmud is juxtaposed to archaeological findings, Roman law, and contemporary classical authors. The attitude of the Rabbis towards main aspects of urban society in the Mediterranean region of late antiquity is discussed. Hereby Rabbinic Judaism is seen as integrated in the cultural currents prevalent in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. From reviews of the first volume: The essays in this volume do not seek to establish a global approach to the task, or any general methodological principles. Caution is everywhere apparent. ... This is an excellent beginning, and more is promised. It would be good if this initiative prompted more Talmudic scholars to take the Greek background of Palestinian rabbinism seriously, and finally put paid to the tendency to consider it as in some way separated from or in conflict with late antique Hellenism.N.R.M. De Lange in Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies Winter 1998/99, no. 23, p. 24

Twenty-seven interdisciplinary essays on aspects of Judaism in the Greco-Roman world, exemplifying a wide range of techniques, by a well-known scholar. Three are previously unpublished, including a reappraisal of the Judaism and Hellenism debate and a study of the Sardis synagogue. The book's overall coherence derives from the author's long-standing interests in the analysis of texts as documents of cultural and religious interaction, and in how Jewish communities were woven into the social fabric of Greek cities in the Hellenistic and Roman East. The four sections are: Greeks and Jews, Josephus, The Jewish Diaspora and Epigraphy, and finally Beyond the Greeks and Romans, essays which extend into Christian literature and on to the nineteenth century reception of the Judaism/Hellenism dichotomy. Scholars and students from a wide variety of backgrounds will benefit. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

Two of the world's leading authorities on the classical era bring together a comprehensive treasury of sources on Judaism in the ancient period.

Examines Judaism in Palestine throughout the Hellenistic period, from Alexander the Great's conquest in 334 BC to its capture by the Arabs in AD 636.