The Talmud Yerushalmi And Graeco Roman Culture

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

This volume focuses on a wide range of topics such as gender studies, aspects of everyday life, Roman festivals, magic, etc., hereby reflecting on the methodological problems inherent in intercultural studies.

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. 24Survey of contentsPreface - Martin Goodman: Palestinian Rabbis and the Conversion of Constantine to Christianity - Catherine Hezser: The (In)Significance of Jerusalem in the Talmud Yerushalmi - Hayim Lapin: Rabbis and Cities. Some Aspects of the Rabbinic Movement in its Graeco-Roman Environment - Giuseppe Veltri: Römische Religion an der Peripherie des Reiches. Ein Kapitel rabbinischer Rhetorik - Martin Jacobs: Pagane Tempel in Palästina; rabbinische Aussagen im Vergleich mit archäologischen Funden - Catherine Hezser: Interfaces Between Rabbinic Literature and Graeco-Roman Philosophy - Catherine Hezser: Rabbis and Other Friends. Friendship in the Talmud Yerushalmi and in Graeco-Roman Literature - Aharon Oppenheimer: The Attempt Of Hananiah, Son of Rabbi Joshua's Brother, to Intercalate the Year in Babylonia. A Comparison of the Traditions in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds.

This third volume, which offers further insights into the most important source of late antique Judaism, the Talmud Yerushalmi, in relation to its cultural context, marks another step in a research project on the Talmud Yerushalmi initiated by the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Free University (Berlin) in 1994 and concluded by a conference held at Princeton University in November 2001. This volume focuses on a wide range of topics such as gender studies, aspects of everyday life, Roman festivals, magic etc., hereby reflecting on the methodological problems inherent in intercultural studies. Thus, this collection of articles could also serve as a model for similar enterprises in other studies of Judaism in various cultural contexts. From reviews of the previous volumes: »This collection reflects the state of contemporary scholarship and its struggle to understand and thoughtfully reconstruct Jewish culture in late antique Palestine. It belongs in all specialized Judaica libraries and in research libraries that collect deeply in classical civilization.«Steven Fine in Religious Studies Review 3 (1999) vol. 25, p. 331f.Survey of contentsPreface - Hans-Jürgen Becker: The Magic of the Name and Palestinian Rabbinic Literature - Gideon Bohak: The Hellenization of Biblical History in Rabbinic Literature - Daniel Boyarin: Shattering the Logos; or, the Talmuds and the Genealogy of Indeterminacy - Yaron Z. Eliav: Viewing the Sculptural Environment; Shaping the Second Commandment - Steven Fraade: Priests, Kings, and Patriarchs: Yerushalmi Sanhedrin in its Exegetical and Cultural Settings - Shamma Friedman: The Further Adventures of Rav Kahana: Between Babylonia and Palestine - Fritz Graf: Roman Festivals in Syria Palestina - Christine Hayes: Genealogy, Illegitimacy, and Personal Status: The Yerushalmi in Comparative Perspective - Catherine Hezser: The Social Status of Slaves in the Talmud Yerushalmi and in Graeco-Roman Society - Martha Himmelfarb: The Mother of the Messiah in the Talmud Yerushalmi and Sefer Zerubbabel - Tal Ilan: »Stolen Water is Sweet«: Women and their Stories between Bavli and Yerushalmi - Richard Kalmin: Jewish Sources of the Second Temple Period in Rabbinic Compilations of Late Antiquity - David Kraemer: Concerning the Theological Assumptions of the Yerushalmi - Hayim Lapin: Institutionalization, Amoraim, and Yerushalmi Sebi'it - Andreas Lehnardt: The Samaritans (Kutim) in the Talmud Yerushalmi: Constructs of »Rabbinic Mind« or Reflections of Social Reality? - Jeffrey L. Rubenstein: Some Structural Patterns of Yerushalmi Sugyot - Michael L. Satlow: Fictional Woman: A Study in Stereotypes - Peter Schäfer: Jews and Gentiles in Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah - Seth Schwartz: Rabbinization in the Sixth Century.

Greco-Roman Culture and the Galilee of Jesus, a book-length investigation of this topic, challenges the conventional scholarly view that first-century Galilee was thoroughly Hellenised. Examining architecture, inscriptions, coins and art from Alexander the Great's conquest until the early fourth century CE, Chancey argues that the extent of Greco-Roman culture in the time of Jesus has often been greatly exaggerated. Antipas's reign in the early first century was indeed a time of transition, but the more dramatic shifts in Galilee's cultural climate happened in the second century, after the arrival of a large Roman garrison. Much of Galilee's Hellenisation should thus be understood within the context of its Romanisation. Any attempt to understand the Galilean setting of Jesus must recognise the significance of the region's historical development as well as how Galilee fits into the larger context of the Roman East.

Since Judaism has always been seen as the quintessential 'religion of the book', a high literacy rate amongst ancient Jews has usually been taken for granted. Catherine Hezser presents the first critical analysis of the various aspects of ancient Jewish literacy on the basis of all of the literary, epigraphic, and papyrological material published so far. Thereby she takes into consideration the analogies in Graeco-Roman culture and models and theories developed in the social sciences. Rather than trying to determine the exact literacy rate amongst ancient Jews, she examines the various types, social contexts, and functions of writing and the relationship between writing and oral forms of discourse. Following recent social-anthropological approaches to literacy, the guiding question is: who used what type of writing for which purpose? First Catherine Hezser examines the conditions which would enable or prevent the spread of literacy, such as education and schools, the availability and costs of writing materials, religious interest in writing and books, the existence of archives and libraries, and the question of multilingualism. Afterwards she looks at the different types of writing, such as letters, documents, miscellaneous notes, inscriptions and graffiti, and literary and magical texts until she finally draws conclusions about the ways in which the various sectors of the populace were able to participate in a literate society.

This volume introduces students of rabbinic literature to the range of historical and interpretative questions surrounding the rabbinic texts of late antiquity. The editors, themselves well-known interpreters of Rabbinic literature, have gathered an international collection of scholars to support students' initial steps in confronting the enormous and complex rabbinic corpus. Unlike other introductions to Rabbinic writings, the present volume includes approaches shaped by anthropology, gender studies, oral-traditional studies, classics, and folklore studies.