Author: Seth Schwartz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691155437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
How well integrated were Jews in the Mediterranean society controlled by ancient Rome? The Torah's laws seem to constitute a rejection of the reciprocity-based social dependency and emphasis on honor that were customary in the ancient Mediterranean world. But were Jews really a people apart, and outside of this broadly shared culture? Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? argues that Jewish social relations in antiquity were animated by a core tension between biblical solidarity and exchange-based social values such as patronage, vassalage, formal friendship, and debt slavery. Seth Schwartz's examinations of the Wisdom of Ben Sira, the writings of Josephus, and the Palestinian Talmud reveal that Jews were more deeply implicated in Roman and Mediterranean bonds of reciprocity and honor than is commonly assumed. Schwartz demonstrates how Ben Sira juxtaposes exhortations to biblical piety with hard-headed and seemingly contradictory advice about coping with the dangers of social relations with non-Jews; how Josephus describes Jews as essentially countercultural; yet how the Talmudic rabbis assume Jews have completely internalized Roman norms at the same time as the rabbis seek to arouse resistance to those norms, even if it is only symbolic. Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? is the first comprehensive exploration of Jewish social integration in the Roman world, one that poses challenging new questions about the very nature of Mediterranean culture.
Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society?
Author: Seth Schwartz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691155437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
How well integrated were Jews in the Mediterranean society controlled by ancient Rome? The Torah's laws seem to constitute a rejection of the reciprocity-based social dependency and emphasis on honor that were customary in the ancient Mediterranean world. But were Jews really a people apart, and outside of this broadly shared culture? Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? argues that Jewish social relations in antiquity were animated by a core tension between biblical solidarity and exchange-based social values such as patronage, vassalage, formal friendship, and debt slavery. Seth Schwartz's examinations of the Wisdom of Ben Sira, the writings of Josephus, and the Palestinian Talmud reveal that Jews were more deeply implicated in Roman and Mediterranean bonds of reciprocity and honor than is commonly assumed. Schwartz demonstrates how Ben Sira juxtaposes exhortations to biblical piety with hard-headed and seemingly contradictory advice about coping with the dangers of social relations with non-Jews; how Josephus describes Jews as essentially countercultural; yet how the Talmudic rabbis assume Jews have completely internalized Roman norms at the same time as the rabbis seek to arouse resistance to those norms, even if it is only symbolic. Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? is the first comprehensive exploration of Jewish social integration in the Roman world, one that poses challenging new questions about the very nature of Mediterranean culture.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691155437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
How well integrated were Jews in the Mediterranean society controlled by ancient Rome? The Torah's laws seem to constitute a rejection of the reciprocity-based social dependency and emphasis on honor that were customary in the ancient Mediterranean world. But were Jews really a people apart, and outside of this broadly shared culture? Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? argues that Jewish social relations in antiquity were animated by a core tension between biblical solidarity and exchange-based social values such as patronage, vassalage, formal friendship, and debt slavery. Seth Schwartz's examinations of the Wisdom of Ben Sira, the writings of Josephus, and the Palestinian Talmud reveal that Jews were more deeply implicated in Roman and Mediterranean bonds of reciprocity and honor than is commonly assumed. Schwartz demonstrates how Ben Sira juxtaposes exhortations to biblical piety with hard-headed and seemingly contradictory advice about coping with the dangers of social relations with non-Jews; how Josephus describes Jews as essentially countercultural; yet how the Talmudic rabbis assume Jews have completely internalized Roman norms at the same time as the rabbis seek to arouse resistance to those norms, even if it is only symbolic. Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? is the first comprehensive exploration of Jewish social integration in the Roman world, one that poses challenging new questions about the very nature of Mediterranean culture.
A Mediterranean Society
Author: Shelomo Dov Goitein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520032651
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."--Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520032651
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."--Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
A Mediterranean Society
Author: S. D. Goitein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520221648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."—Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520221648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."—Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
A Mediterranean Society
Author: Shelomo Dov Goitein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category : Cairo Genizah
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
S.D. Goitein's five-volume work on Jewish communities in the medieval Mediterranean world has been abridged and reworked into this volume that captures the essential narratives and contexts.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category : Cairo Genizah
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
S.D. Goitein's five-volume work on Jewish communities in the medieval Mediterranean world has been abridged and reworked into this volume that captures the essential narratives and contexts.
Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora
Author: John M. G. Barclay
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520218437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546
Book Description
"Barclay's study corrects the traditional oversight that would equate early Judaism with Palestinian Judaism. This highly readable introduction . . . brings together material that is otherwise available only in regional studies or highly technical works. Barclay strikes a rare balance between local conditions and broad issues, and between supporting detail and coherent argument. It is hard to imagine how the chronic need for a synthesis of the Mediterranean Diaspora might have been better satisfied."—Steve Mason, Pennsylvania State University "The book reflects the best of contemporary scholarship and is likely to become an indispensable source of information and reflection on the problems Jews encountered with living in a frequently hostile environment."—A. P. Hayman, Edinburgh University "This is a superb book which has lifted our discussion of Jews in the Diaspora to a new plane. Since understanding the Diaspora is vital to comprehending a good deal about early Christianity, Barclay has also made a significant contribution to this latter field of investigation."—Paul Trebilco, University of Otago
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520218437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 546
Book Description
"Barclay's study corrects the traditional oversight that would equate early Judaism with Palestinian Judaism. This highly readable introduction . . . brings together material that is otherwise available only in regional studies or highly technical works. Barclay strikes a rare balance between local conditions and broad issues, and between supporting detail and coherent argument. It is hard to imagine how the chronic need for a synthesis of the Mediterranean Diaspora might have been better satisfied."—Steve Mason, Pennsylvania State University "The book reflects the best of contemporary scholarship and is likely to become an indispensable source of information and reflection on the problems Jews encountered with living in a frequently hostile environment."—A. P. Hayman, Edinburgh University "This is a superb book which has lifted our discussion of Jews in the Diaspora to a new plane. Since understanding the Diaspora is vital to comprehending a good deal about early Christianity, Barclay has also made a significant contribution to this latter field of investigation."—Paul Trebilco, University of Otago
Imperialism and Jewish Society
Author: Seth Schwartz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824850
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
This provocative new history of Palestinian Jewish society in antiquity marks the first comprehensive effort to gauge the effects of imperial domination on this people. Probing more than eight centuries of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule, Seth Schwartz reaches some startling conclusions--foremost among them that the Christianization of the Roman Empire generated the most fundamental features of medieval and modern Jewish life. Schwartz begins by arguing that the distinctiveness of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods was the product of generally prevailing imperial tolerance. From around 70 C.E. to the mid-fourth century, with failed revolts and the alluring cultural norms of the High Roman Empire, Judaism all but disintegrated. However, late in the Roman Empire, the Christianized state played a decisive role in ''re-Judaizing'' the Jews. The state gradually excluded them from society while supporting their leaders and recognizing their local communities. It was thus in Late Antiquity that the synagogue-centered community became prevalent among the Jews, that there re-emerged a distinctively Jewish art and literature--laying the foundations for Judaism as we know it today. Through masterful scholarship set in rich detail, this book challenges traditional views rooted in romantic notions about Jewish fortitude. Integrating material relics and literature while setting the Jews in their eastern Mediterranean context, it addresses the complex and varied consequences of imperialism on this vast period of Jewish history more ambitiously than ever before. Imperialism in Jewish Society will be widely read and much debated.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824850
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
This provocative new history of Palestinian Jewish society in antiquity marks the first comprehensive effort to gauge the effects of imperial domination on this people. Probing more than eight centuries of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule, Seth Schwartz reaches some startling conclusions--foremost among them that the Christianization of the Roman Empire generated the most fundamental features of medieval and modern Jewish life. Schwartz begins by arguing that the distinctiveness of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods was the product of generally prevailing imperial tolerance. From around 70 C.E. to the mid-fourth century, with failed revolts and the alluring cultural norms of the High Roman Empire, Judaism all but disintegrated. However, late in the Roman Empire, the Christianized state played a decisive role in ''re-Judaizing'' the Jews. The state gradually excluded them from society while supporting their leaders and recognizing their local communities. It was thus in Late Antiquity that the synagogue-centered community became prevalent among the Jews, that there re-emerged a distinctively Jewish art and literature--laying the foundations for Judaism as we know it today. Through masterful scholarship set in rich detail, this book challenges traditional views rooted in romantic notions about Jewish fortitude. Integrating material relics and literature while setting the Jews in their eastern Mediterranean context, it addresses the complex and varied consequences of imperialism on this vast period of Jewish history more ambitiously than ever before. Imperialism in Jewish Society will be widely read and much debated.
A Mediterranean Society
Author: S. D. Goitein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520221583
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 586
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."—Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520221583
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 586
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."—Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
A Mediterranean Society
Author: S. D. Goitein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520221628
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 700
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."—Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520221628
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 700
Book Description
"One of the best comprehensive histories of a culture in this century."—Amos Funkenstein, Stanford University
A Companion to Mediterranean History
Author: Peregrine Horden
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118519337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504
Book Description
A Companion to Mediterranean History presents awide-ranging overview of this vibrant field of historical research,drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to discussthe development of the region from Neolithic times to thepresent. Provides a valuable introduction to current debates onMediterranean history and helps define the field for a newgeneration Covers developments in the Mediterranean world from Neolithictimes to the modern era Enables fruitful dialogue among a wide range of disciplines,including history, archaeology, art, literature, andanthropology
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118519337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504
Book Description
A Companion to Mediterranean History presents awide-ranging overview of this vibrant field of historical research,drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to discussthe development of the region from Neolithic times to thepresent. Provides a valuable introduction to current debates onMediterranean history and helps define the field for a newgeneration Covers developments in the Mediterranean world from Neolithictimes to the modern era Enables fruitful dialogue among a wide range of disciplines,including history, archaeology, art, literature, andanthropology
A Mediterranean Society
Author: Shelomo Dov Goitein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780520081369
Category : Cairo Genizah
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780520081369
Category : Cairo Genizah
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description