The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity

237 Pages·2015·1.09 MB·English

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OXFORD STUDIES IN THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS
GeneralEditors
Adam Silverstein Guy G. Stroumsa
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OXFORD STUDIES IN THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS
Thisseriesconsistsofscholarlymonographsandothervolumesatthecutting
edgeofthestudyofAbrahamicreligions.Theincreaseinintellectualinterest
in the comparative approach to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reflects the
strikingsurgeintheimportanceofreligioustraditionsandpatternsofthought
and behavior in the twenty-first century, at the global level. While this
importance is easy to detect, it remains to be identified clearly and analyzed,
fromacomparativeperspective.Ourexistingscholarlyapparatusisnotalways
adequate in attempting to understand preciselythe nature of similarities and
differences between the monotheistic religions, and the transformations of
their“familyresemblances”indifferentculturalandhistoricalcontexts.
The works in the series are devoted to the study of how “Abrahamic”
traditions mix, blend, disintegrate, rebuild, clash, and impact upon one
another, usually in polemical contexts, but also, often, in odd, yet persistent
waysofinteraction,reflectingthesymbiosisbetweenthem.
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The Making of the
Abrahamic Religions in
Late Antiquity
GUY G. STROUMSA
1
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3
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For Sarah
Forty years later
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Acknowledgments
TheideaofthisbooktookformduringmytenureasProfessoroftheStudyof
theAbrahamicReligionsatOxford(2009–14).Asthefirstholderofthechair,
Isoughttorepresentinanewlightaspectsoflateantiquereligioushistory,on
whichIhadbeenworkingforafewdecades.Itstruckmethatsomepatterns
later to be identified as ‘Abrahamic’ were already present during the first
centuries ce, as Jews and Christians were vying for the title of the true
inheritors of Abraham. The book’s main argument, then, is that it is in the
religioushistoryoflateantiquitythatweshouldlook,ifwewishtounderstand
thegenesisofIslambetter.
The book’s ten chapters (most of them published previously in a different
version)tackledifferentissuesofthiscentralproblem.Althoughmuchhasalready
beenwrittenonaspectsoftheproblem,itisfairtosaymoreworkisneededbefore
a synthetic study can be attempted. At this stage, it is important to realize that
the birth of Islam must be seen as an integral part of late antiquity.1 Without
developing a teleological approach, it is possible to analyze the trajectories of
conceptsandthoughtpatternsthatrenderedconversiontoIslam,onalargescale,
possibleintheseventhcenturyandafterwards,throughouttheNearEast.
During the long period of gestation of this book a great number of
colleagues have helped me formulate my views, in a number of ways. I am
mostgratefultothemall,althoughImightnotbeabletomentionthemall.At
Oxford, Moshe Blidstein, Markus Bockmuehl, Dame Averil Cameron, Beate
Dignas, Mark Edwards, Martin Goodman, Neil McLynn, Sir Fergus Millar,
Robert Parker, Nicolai Sinai, were my main interlocutors. Other colleagues
andfriendsfromvariousplaces,NicoleBelayche,CorrineBonnet,JanBrem-
mer, Patricia Crone, Ronnie Goldstein, Yonatan Moss, John Scheid, Shaul
Shaked, and Sarah Stroumsa have discussed various aspects of the problems
tackled in chapters of this book. So had the late Sabine MacCormack and
Evelyne Patlagean. Thanks to their remarks, this book is probably less inad-
equatethanitwouldhavebeen.
MygratitudealsogoestoRamiSchwartz,whohasbeenextremelyhelpfulin
preparing the final manuscript for the press and compiling the index, and to
DonaldWatt,forhisprecioushelpinreadingtheproofs.
1 Inthisregard,Ishouldliketomentionheretwoimportantbooks,whichappearedtoolate
formetodiscusstheirfindingsinthepresentwork:AzizAl-Azmeh,TheEmergenceofIslamin
LateAntiquity:AllāhandhisPeople(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2014),andGarth
Fowden, Before and After Muhammad: The First Millenium Refocused (Princeton, N.J. and
Oxford:PrincetonUniversityPress,2014).
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viii Acknowledgments
Finally, I should like to honor the memory of the Saudi benefactor who
endowed the Chair for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at Oxford (and
wishedtoremainanonymous).Forhim,scholarshiphasaroletoplayinthe
fightagainstreligiousbigotryamongthechildrenofAbraham.Hisvisionhas
sustainedmeduringdarkhoursofviolenceandhatred.
GuyG.Stroumsa
Jerusalem
August5,2014(9Ab5775)
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Contents
Sources xi
Introduction:FromQumrantoQur’an:TheReligious
WorldsofLateAntiquity 1
PartI: TransformationsofReligioninLateAntiquity
1. TheEndofSacrifice 23
2. PatternsofRationalization 43
PartII: TheTrueProphet
3. FalseProphetsofEarlyChristianity 59
4. FalseProphetandFalseMessiah 73
5. SealoftheProphets 87
PartIII: ReligiousCommunitiesandGod’sLaw
6. ReligiousDynamicsbetweenJewsandChristians 103
7. God’sRuleinLateAntiquity 123
PartIV: TheWaytoMecca
8. Jewish-ChristiansandIslamicOrigins 139
9. ChristianMemoriesandDreamsofJerusalem 159
10. BarbariansorHeretics? 175
Envoi: Athens,Jerusalem,Mecca:praeparatiocoranica 189
Bibliography 199
Index 223
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