Table Of ContentJEWISH SLAVERY IN ANTIQUITY
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Jewish Slavery in
Antiquity
CATHERINE HEZSER
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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(cid:1)C.Hezser2005
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Acknowledgements
A number of individuals and institutions have supported me in the
writingofthisbook.Themainpartofthetextwaswritteninthespring
and summer of 2003, when I was a Lady Davis Visiting Research
ProfessorattheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem.Iwouldliketothank
Trinity College Dublin for granting me sabbatical leave and Shaye
Gafni, Mark Sopher, and the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust for their
graciousassistanceduringmystayinIsrael.JonathanPricehassearched
his inscriptions database for epigraphic references to slaves. Benjamin
Isaacallowedmetoreadthechapteronslaveryinanearlierdraftofhis
nowpublishedbook,TheInventionofRacisminClassicalAntiquity,and
was always available for conversation. William Horbury invited me to
giveapresentationonthepresenttopicattheJewishStudiesSeminarof
Cambridge University in October 2003. The subsequent discussion
helpedmeclarifyandexpandearlierideas.Iowethankstotheaudience
of this seminar and especially to William Horbury, Peter Garnsey, and
Nicholas de Lange for their many valuable suggestions. Iwould Wnally
like to thank Martin Goodman for recommending Oxford University
Press as the publisher. Hilary O’Shea, the senior editor of the Classics
and Ancient History division of Oxford University Press, and her
colleague Jenny WagstaVe have accompanied the book during the
variousstagesofitsdevelopment.
TelAviv
July2004
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Contents
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
PartI. TheStatusofSlaves 25
1. TheDenationalizationofSlaves 27
2. TheSlaveasChattelandHumanBeing 55
3. Women,Slaves,andMinors 69
4. HierarchicalEquationsandDiVerentiations 83
5. BetweenSlaveryandFreedom 105
Summary 116
PartII. SlavesandtheFamily 121
6. SlaveswithintheHousehold 123
7. Master–SlaveRelationships 149
8. ProstitutesandConcubines 179
9. PowerRelationships 202
Summary 212
PartIII. SlavesandtheEconomy 217
10. TheSourcesofSlaves 221
11. TheAcquisitionandSaleofSlaves 247
12. SlavesasIntermediariesinBusinessTransactions 275
13. TheLocationofSlavesinAncientJewishSociety 285
14. TheManumissionofSlaves 304
Summary 318
viii Contents
PartIV. TheSymbolicSigniWcanceofSlavery 323
15. SlaveryasMetaphor 327
16. SlaveParables 346
17. SlaveryandtheExodusExperience 363
Summary 377
Conclusions 380
Bibliography 393
IndexofReferences 409
IndexofSubjects 429
Abbreviations
Ant. Antiquitates,byFlaviusJosephus
b. BabylonianTalmud(Bavli),citationsaccordingtotractateand
foliointheVilnaedn.,1880–6
Bell. BellumIudaicum,byFlaviusJosephus
C.Ap. ContraApionem,byFlaviusJosephus
CIJ CorpusInscriptionumIudaicarum,ed.J.-B.Frey,Paris,1936–52
CIRB CorpusInscriptionumRegniBosporani
C.J. CodexJustinianus
CPI Corpus Papyrorum Iudaicarum, ed. V. A. Tcherikover and
A.Fuks,Cambridge,Mass.,andLondon,1957–64
C.Th. CodexTheodosianus
Dig. DigestofJustinian
Diod.Sic. DiodorusSiculus
Exod.R. MidrashExodusRabbah,citationsaccordingtotheVilnaedn.,
1887,repr.Jerusalem,1969–70
Gen.R. MidrashGenesisRabbah,citationsaccordingtoMidrashBere-
shitRabba,ed.J.TheodorandH.Albeck,2ndedn.,Jerusalem,
1996
ILS InscriptionesLatinaeSelectae,ed.H.Dessau
Jos.As. JosephandAseneth
Josephus Flavius Josephus, citations according to H. S. J. Thackeray et
al., Loeb Classical Library edn., Cambridge, Mass., and Lon-
don,1986–93
Description:This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Jewish attitudes towards slavery in Hellenistic and Roman times. Against the traditional opinion that after the Babylonian Exile Jews refrained from employing slaves, Catherine Hezser shows that slavery remained a significant phenomenon of ancient Jew
