Imperialism and Jewish Society: 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World)

335 Pages·2004·1.7 MB·English

by  Seth Schwartz

IMPERIALISM AND JEWISH SOCIETY,
B.C.E. TO C.E.
200 640
JEWS,CHRISTIANS,ANDMUSLIMS
FROMTHEANCIENTTOTHEMODERNWORLD
SERIESEDITORS
R.STEPHENHUMPHREYS,WILLIAMCHESTERJORDAN,ANDPETERSCHAEFER
ImperialismandJewishSociety,200B.C.E.TO640C.E.
bySethSchwartz
IMPERIALISM AND
JEWISH SOCIETY,
B.C.E. TO C.E.
200 640
Seth Schwartz
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
COPYRIGHT2001BYPRINCETONUNIVERSITYPRESS
PUBLISHEDBYPRINCETONUNIVERSITYPRESS,41WILLIAMSTREET,
PRINCETON,NEWJERSEY08540
INTHEUNITEDKINGDOM:PRINCETONUNIVERSITYPRESS,
3MARKETPLACE,WOODSTOCK,OXFORDSHIREOX201SY
ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
SCHWARTZ,SETH.
IMPERIALSIMANDJEWISHSOCIETY,200B.C.E.TO640C.E./SETHSCHWARTZ
P. CM.—(JEWS,CHRISTIANS,ANDMUSLIMSFROMTHE
ANCIENTTOTHEMODERNWORLD)
INCLUDESBIBLIOGRAPHICALREFERENCES(P.)ANDINDEX.
ISBN0-691-08850-0(ALK.PAPER)
1.JEWS—HISTORY—168B.C.–135A.D.2.JEWS—HISTORY—70–638.
3.JUDAISM—HISTORY—POSTEXILICPERIOD,586B.C.–210A.D.
4.JEWS—CIVILIZATION—GREEKINFLUENCES.5.PALESTINE—HISTORY—TO
70A.D.I.TITLE.II.SERIES.
DS121.7.S392001
933—dc21 2001021486
THISBOOKHASBEENCOMPOSEDINELECTRATYPEFACE
PRINTEDONACID-FREEPAPER.∞
WWW.PUP.PRINCETON.EDU
PRINTEDINTHEUNITEDSTATESOFAMERICA
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
ABBREVIATIONS ix
Introduction 1
PARTI:THEJEWSOFPALESTINETO70C.E. 17
ONE
PoliticsandSociety 19
TWO
ReligionandSocietybefore70C.E. 49
PARTII:JEWSINPALESTINEFROM135TO350 101
THREE
RabbisandPatriarchsontheMargins 103
FOUR
JewsorPagans?TheJewsandtheGreco-RomanCitiesofPalestine 129
FIVE
TheRabbisandUrbanCulture 162
PARTIII:SYNAGOGUEANDCOMMUNITYFROM350TO640 177
SIX
Christianization 179
SEVEN
ALandscapeTransformed 203
EIGHT
OriginsandDiffusionoftheSynagogue 215
NINE
Judaization 240
TEN
TheSynagogueandtheIdeologyofCommunity 275
Conclusion 291
SELECTEDBIBLIOGRAPHY 293
INDEX 317
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I
WOULDLIKEtothankthefollowingpeopleforhavingreadandcom-
mented on parts of this manuscript: Roger Bagnall, Benjamin Gampel,
CatherineHezser(whoreadpartsofthe bookinearlyversions,andthe
entiremanuscriptforthePress),MarthaHimmelfarb,RichardKalmin,Nata-
lie Kampen, Hayim Lapin, Lee Levine, Ivan Marcus, Bruce Nielsen, and
JeffreyRubenstein.LeslieKurkereadandmadecrucialsuggestionsaboutthe
introduction, as did Juliet Fleming, who has furthermore been a source of
inspirationthroughouttheoverlonggestationofthisbook.MartinGoodman
not only endured my stumbling presentations of primitive versions of seg-
ments of this book at his seminar in Wolfson College, Oxford, but also read
it in its entirety for the Press and made many important comments. Keith
Hopkinsreadnearlytheentiremanuscript,talkedmethroughitswritingand
rewriting,andhasbeeninfinitelyencouragingandprovocative.WithoutKeith
Icouldneverhavewrittenthisbook.
I have been fortunate to have lived and taught in environments—King’s
College,Cambridge,andtheJewishTheologicalSeminary—richlyendowed
with colleagues and students who made it fun to work out the argument of
thebook.Iwillnotattempttoprovideafulllist,sinceitwouldcontainhun-
dreds of names if it could be compiled. However, I should thank especially
the conveners of the King’s College Research Centre, Martin Hyland and
AlanMacfarlane,forenablingmetobeginthebook;SimonGoldhillforhis
friendship, generosity, and stimulation during the period of its composition;
and the chancellor and provost of the seminary, Ismar Schorsch and Jack
Wertheimer, for enabling me to complete it, by granting me a premature
sabbatical leave. The generosity of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundationallowedmetoextendtheleavetoafullyear.
Components have been presented at conferences and seminars in (from
east to west) Jerusalem, Berlin, Heidelberg, Cambridge, London, Oxford,
New Haven, New York, and Princeton; I am indebted to the organizers and
participantsforinvitationsandcomments.Finally,IthankMarkCohenand
ShalomSabarfortimelyadvice.
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ABBREVIATIONS
AqAp AgainstApion(inJosephus,ed.H.St.J.Thakerayetal.,
9vols.LoebClassicalLibrary(Cambridge,1926–
1965)
AJP AmericanJournalofPhilology
ANRW AufstiegundNiedergangderRo¨mischenWelt,ed.W.
HaaseandH.Temporini(Berlin,1974–)
Ant JewishAntiquities
B Bavli(BabylonianTalmud)
BA BiblicalArchaeologist
BAR BritishArchaeologicalReports
BASOR BulletinoftheAmericanSchoolsofOrientalResearch
BethShearim B.Mazaretal.,BethShearim,3vols.(NewBrunswick,
1973)
BJPES BulletinoftheJewishPalestineExplorationSociety
BullEp J.andL.Robert,BulletinEpigraphique(Paris,1938-)
CBQ CatholicBiblicalQuarterly
CERP A.H.M.JonesTheCitiesoftheEasternRomanProvinces
(Oxford,1971)
CIJ J.-B.Frey,CorpusInscriptionumJudaicarum,2vols.
(Paris,1936–1952)
CIL CorpusInscriptionumLatinarum
CJ CodexJustinianus
CPJ CorpusPapyrorumJudaicarum,ed.V.Tcherikover,
A.Fuks,andM.Stern,3vols.(Cambridge,1957–
1964)
CRINT CompendiaRerumIudaicarumadNovumTestamentum
CSEL CorpusScriptorumEcclesiasticorumLatinorum
CTh CodexTheodosianus
Donateurs B.Lifshitz,Donateursetfondateursdanslessynagogues
juives(Paris,1967)
EI EretzIsrael
EJ EncyclopediaJudaica,16vols.(Jerusalem,1971)
GCS GriechischeChristlicheSchriftsteller
GLAJJ M.Stern,GreekandLatinAuthorsonJewsandJudaism,
3vols.(Jerusalem,1976–1984)
HA HadashotArkheologiyot
HTR HarvardTheologicalReview
HUCA HebrewUnionCollegeAnnual
IEJ IsraelExplorationJournal