The Talmud Meets Church History

30 Pages·2007·1.99 MB·English

Review: The Talmud Meets Church History
Author(s): Daniel Boyarin
Reviewed work(s):
Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of the Apocryphal Acts by Virginia Burrus
'Equipped for Victory': Ambrose and the Gendering of Orthodoxy by Virginia Burrus
The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy by
Virginia Burrus
...
Source: Diacritics, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 52-80
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566244
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THE TALMUD MEETS
CHURCH HISTORY
DANIELB OYARIN
Virginia Burrus. CHASTITYA S AUTONOMY:W OMENI N THE STORIESO FTHE
APOCRYPHALA CTS. New York:E dwinM ellen, 1987.
. "'EQUIPPED FOR VICTORY': AMBROSE AND THE GENDERING OF
ORTHODOXY."J ournalo f EarlyC hristianS tudies4 .4 (1996): 461-75.
. THE MAKING OF A HERETIC: GENDER, AUTHORITY, AND THE
PRISCILLIANISTC ONTROVERSY.B erkeley:U of CaliforniaP , 1995.
. "READINGA GNES: THE RHETORICO F GENDER IN AMBROSE AND
PRUDENTIUS."J ournalo f EarlyC hristianS tudies3 .1 (1995): 25-46.
. "WORD AND FLESH: THE BODIES AND SEXUALITY OF ASCETIC
WOMENI N CHRISTIANA NTIQUITY."J ournalo f Feminist Studies in Religion
10.1 (1994): 27-51.
[I] Prologue: MorningsideH eights, 1941-A TalmudistM eets a ChurchH istorian
In 1944, my teacherS aul Liebermanp ublisheda classic essay in which he treatedt almudic
martyrologyi n the context of patristicl iterature.'T he articleh ad been writtenu ndert he
inspirationo f his meeting and friendshipw ith HenriG regoire,t he great Belgian church
historian,t hena refugee fromt he Nazis in the MorningsideH eightsn eighborhoodi n New
York, whereL ieberman,t he greatL ithuaniant almudist,h ada lso found refuge andw here
the two met. Nearly a half-centuryl ater,t his studento f Lieberman'sm et anotherc hurch
historian,V irginia Burrus,i n MorningsideH eights underh appierc ircumstances,w hen
botho f us werep articipantsa t a conferenceo n asceticisma t Union Theological Seminary,
and a similari ntellectuali nteractionb egan. This paperr epresentss ome of the first fruits
of thats econde ncountera nda spirest o modestlyc ontinuet hee nterpriseb egunb y thef irst.
[2] Intertextualitya nd Interdisciplinarity
Averil Cameronh as recently written:
The mytho f early Christianitya s the resort of the poor and underprivilegedi s
precisely that, and a very conveniento ne it has been. It is a myth that rests,
moreover,o n thefallacy of an original Christianityu ncontaminatedb y external
influences;b ut its holders thenh ave to explainh ow this "new" faith could make
I wish to thankC havaB oyarin,E rich Gruen,a nd FromaZ eitlinfor readinge arlier versionso f this
essay and providing very helpful comments.
1. Lieberman," TheM artyrso f Caesarea." I plan to engage in a detailed readingo f thisa rticle
in another essay, tentatively entitled "'The Martyrs of Caesarea'; or, Zionism and the Art of
Writing."
52 diacritics 28.2: 52-80
the leap to center stage. Thus, we have been told, "the naivete of the early
Christians peech came in the course of time to wed itself to the cultureso f the
world." But while mucho f currentN ew Testaments cholarshipi s directeda t the
internal( that is, theological) articulationo f the texts,t here is also a perceptible
trend towardsa mode of interpretationt hat balances the externala nd internal
factors operative in the literaryt exts. It is thus less a question of the degree of
"influence"o f Greco-Romano r Jewish literary or philosophical elementso n
early Christianw riting than of their integral relationship.[ 37-38]
Judaism also (and Jewish scholarship)h as had a stake in inscribing itself as pure and
uncontaminatedf, or reasons that Philip Alexanderh as articulated:" The attemptt o [lay
down a normf or Judaismi n the firstc entury]b arelyc onceals apologeticm otives-in the
case of Christianitya desire to prove that Christianityt ranscendedo r transformed
Judaism,i n the case of Jews a desire to suggest that Christianityw as an alien form of
Judaismw hich deviatedf rom the truep ath"[ 3]. Indeed,t he very distinctnesso f Judaism
has been articulatedb y Jews as precisely its distance from a "syncretistic"C hristianity
whose defining featurei s that it is somehow a composite of Judaisma nd Hellenism.2
In this essay, in conversationw ith some of the work of Burrus,I wish to begin to
suggest a few of the ways that study of the Talmudc an be furthere nrichedt hrought he
engagement of talmudic scholars with the recent sophisticated( and especially gender-
oriented)w ork being done on early Christianity.I ndeed,I will be hinting (and in future
work explicitly arguing)t hatw e have to begin seriously thinkinga boutJ udaeo-Christi-
anity as a single cultural system: contentious, dialectical, polemical, and sometimes
friendly,b ut-I hastent o add-not moralistici n the homogenized" familyv alues"s ense
impliedb y the modem usage of this term.I putf orthh ere,a s a case in point,t hatt her ichest
contexts for understandingt he sets of cultural tensions that gave rise to a particular
talmudict ext are to be uncoveredi n contemporaryp atristicl iterature.F romt he point of
view of a New Historicista pproacht o talmudicl iteraturet, his suggests thatt he relevant
documentarya nd literaryi ntertextsa re much broadert hant hose that I have proposedi n
earlier work, especially in the introductiont o Carnal Israel, where I posited a wide-
rangingc ollection of Jewish texts as the relevanti ntertextf or Jewishc ulturalp oetics.T he
differenceb etween the analysis of this talmudict ext as presentedh ere and the version in
my coauthoredb ook Powers of Diaspora, written before my encounter with church
history, is indicativeo f the shift in my readings trategiese ngenderedb y this meeting. In
the talmudict exts thatw ill be analyzedh ere, we find dramatizeds ocial contestationt hat
is nearly identical to conflicts found in contemporary( ca. fourthc entury,t o which the
talmudict ext can plausiblyb e assigned)p atristict exts andd ocuments.T hese contentions
have been broughtt o the fore in the worko f VirginiaB urrus,e specially in herr ecentb ook,
TheM akingo f a Heretic: Gender,A uthoritya nd the PriscillianistC ontroversyL. ooking
beyond the official doctrinalc onflicts thato rthodoxh eresiologistsh ave identifieda s the
reason for Priscillian's execution, Burrus "finds broaderu nderlying social conflicts"
being "negotiatedt hrought he 'talk' about Priscillian"[ 5]. Looking at the talmudict ext
with lenses burnishedb y her accounto f the Priscillianistf racas,I have found startlingly
similar social conflicts being negotiatedw ithin the borderso f a single extendedp assage
of talmudicl egendaryn arrative.F urthermorec, lose study of the textuala nalyseso f this
feminist scholar have enabled me to see other (gendered)p atternsa nd meanings in the
talmudicp assaget hatn eitherI , noro thers,a ppeart o have seen before.I n bothl ate ancient
2. 1 would like to acknowledgeh ere the productivei nfluenceo f KarenK ing's worko n the use
of "syncretismv"i s-a-visG nosticismin the constructiono f "authenticC hristianityi"n the
developmenotf my own thinkinga boutt he use of Christianitiyn the productiono f "authentic
Judaism."
diacritics / summer 1998 53
Christianitya nd Judaism, ideal male identity was secured in part via cross-gender
identificationw ith female virgins. Affinities, it seems, run strong and deep. This essay,
based essentially on a readingo f the work of one scholar,i s intendedt o serve as a vade
mecumt o the riches thata re aroundt o be uncoveredw hen scholarso f Talmude nteri nto
conversationw ith the scholarshipo n early contemporaryC hristianitya, nd I dares ay, the
opposite will likely prove true as well.3 In this early version of this study, I am focusing
broadlyo n thew ays thatt he worko f Burrush as stimulatedm y investigationo f theT almud
in new directions,s o this will be a kind of idiosyncraticr eview of her oeuvre to date, as
well as the partialp aymento f an intellectuald ebt. This review is idiosyncratici n that it
treatso nly those aspects of Burrus'sw ork thath ave opened ways into the talmudict ext,
and indeed, into only one talmudicp assage at that. In later avatarso f the same study, a
more synthetica pproacht o the presentationo f the issues will be attempted:in particular,
my forthcomingD yingf or God: Martyrdoma nd the Makingo f Christianitya nd Judaism
will treatt hese issues andt exts in muchg reaterd etaila ndi n conversationw ithm anym ore
Christiant exts and scholarso f early Christianityf, or which and whom the encounterw ith
Burrus'sw ork providedm y own initial vade mecum.
[2.1] Accommodation,R esistance, and the Hidden Transcript
The two key themes thatB urrusi dentifiesa s havingb een active in the developmento f the
Priscillianc ontroversya re the contest between privatea nd public as valorized loci for
Christianw orship and study and the question of accommodationt o or alienationf rom
Romanp ower.4" Heresies"w ere being defined (and hereticsk illed) in ordert o produce
an orthodoxC hristianityc ontrolledb y bishopsa ndc onformingi n its culturet o the culture
of the Empire.I n the talmudict ext thatI will readi n this paper,b oth of these themes are
centrallyc ontested,a lthought hey are inflected somewhatd ifferentlyf rom the ways that
they appeari n Burrus'sa rchive.T he differencesc an be accountedf or by attendingt o the
differentl ocation of the rabbiso f Palestinea nd ParthianB abylonia with respectt o both
Romanc ulturea nd Romanp ower. Althoughw e will see thats ome of the rabbisa dopted
strikinglya ccommodationists tances vis-a-vis the "Evil Kingdom,"n one of them had
been or ever could be simply ands traightforwardlRy omans,a s were manyo f the bishops,
and even many of the ascetic "monks"a nd scholars of the fourth century as well, for
example such figures as Sulpicius Severus and Jerome-both high-class Roman citi-
zens-as discussed by Burrus [Making of a Heretic 126-29]. As Kate Cooper has
remindedu s, following Alan Cameron:" Inl ate fourth-centuryR ome, amongt he litterati
'pagans' and 'Christians'w ere first of all Romans"[ 89]. In contrastt o figures such as
these,t her abbisa lways belong to a linguisticm inoritya nda dominateds ocial andc ultural
entity within the Empire, no matter what their socioeconomic status within Jewish
society. All the more striking,t hen, is the extent to which we find convergenceb etween
3. Obviously,I am not claiming to be the first or the only talmudistt o read or make use of
patristics cholarship,b ut there is much,m uchm ore to be done in thisfield, as I hope this case study
of the worko f one historian of late ancient Christianityw ill make obvious. See especially Jacob
NeusnerJ, udaisma ndC hristianitiyn the Age of ConstantineH: istoryM, essiahI, srael,a ndt he
InitialC onfrontation.
4. It shouldb e madec lear thatB urrusd oes not reifye ithero f these sets ofoppositionsa s "real"
entities,a nd neithers hould we. Thesea re, however,r epresentationst hata re active in the textsa nd
controversieso f antiquitya s terms of argumentationa nd self-fashioning,a nd likewise, I suggest,
in the Talmud.T heyw ill be even morep roductivei nf urther worko n such oppositionalfiguresa s
RabbisA kivaa nd Eli'ezer, comparablet o suchf igures as Tertulliana nd Clemento f Alexandria,
thatI intendt o carryo ut in thef uture,d eo volente. Thei mportantpointtor ecognizeh ere is thatt hese
cultural/politicald ivides cut throught he so-called religions as much as they cut betweent hem.
54
theirc oncernsa ndt he concernst hatm otivate,a ccordingt o Burrus,t he powerfulc onflicts
within the Christians ociety of their days. Differences are less surprising.
[2.2] Hidden Transcripts
In additiont o the comparativeh orizona nda nalyticalv ista thatB urrus'sw orkh as afforded
me, the otherc rucial interdisciplinarym oment in this analysis of the talmudict ext is the
theoreticalp erspectiveo f JamesC . Scott on the modes of discourseo f colonizedp eoples.
In his recent analysis of the modes of resistanceo f dominatedp opulations,S cott argues
eloquentlya gainstt he notiono f hegemony, claiming thatt he appearanceo f hegemony is
only the "publics cript"w hich serves the purposeso f both the colonizera ndt he colonized
in situationso f near-totadl omination": Int his respect,s ubordinateg roupsa rec omplicitous
in contributingt o a sanitizedo fficial transcriptf, or thati s one way they cover theirt racks"
[Domination and the Arts of Resistance 87]. It follows that what might appear to be
accommodationt o the cultureo f the dominatingp opulationm ight, in fact, be the very
opposite. According to Scott, the discourses of dominated populationsf all into four
categories, the "public"w ithin which they are actually working within the terms of the
discourseo f the dominatorst, he "hidden,o ffstage, wheres ubordinatesm ayg athero utside
the intimidating gaze of power" and "where a sharply dissonant political culture is
possible." A thirdi s the realmo f the trickstert ale within which the "hiddent ranscript"is
encoded in a public one, and finally the speech of open rebellion. As Scott remarks,w e
rarelyh ave access to the hiddent ranscripti tself and most often must determinei t from
suspicious readingso f the tricksterm aterial[ Domination1 8]. It seems thatt he talmudic
discourse,h owever,g ives us directa ccess to the "hiddent ranscript,f"r equentlyth ematizing
the doublenesso f its own tricksterl anguage.T his literaturec, omposedi n a language that
the conquerorsd id not know,p rovideda safe and privates pace withinw hich to elaborate
the transcripth idden away from the colonizer.5
A text from the PalestinianT almud explicitly thematizes alienated strategies vs.
accommodation( not, of course,c ollaboration)a s the appropriater esponset o oppressive
power:
Theys aid to Rabbi Hiyya the Great: Rabbi Shim'onb ar Yohait eaches, "'You
shall buyfoodfromt hem[ Edom= Rome]for money,a nd eat, and also buyw ater
from themf or money,a nd drink' (Deut. 2:6): Just as water [is that] which has
not been modifiedfromi ts original state [lit. its creation], so also everythingt hat
has not been modifiedfromi ts original state. " He rejoinedt o them: "Butt heir
liverwort,d rieda pricots,p ickled vegetables, andp arched corn are permitted."
All ofthefirst threea re notproblematicb ecausey ou can soak themi n watera nd
they returnt o theiro riginal state, but what aboutp arched corn? Rabbi Yosit he
son of Rabbi Bun in the name ofRav said, "Anyf ood that can be eaten raw as
it is, does not enteri nto the category offorbiddenf oods cookedb y Gentiles,a nd
one may use it rawfor ritualst hat normallyr equirec ookedfoods. " How, then,
does Rabbi Hiyya the Great explain the verse: "Yous hall buyfoodfrom them
for money,a nd eat" ?-If you feed him, you have boughta nd defeatedh im,f or
if he is harsh withy ou, buy/defeath im withfood, and if [that does] not [work],
then defeat him with money.
5. Thisw asl ess truei n theM iddleA ges,w henf or a varietyo f historicarl easonst, heT almud
becamea vailablet o non-Jewsa, nda sort of delayed-reactiovni olentr esponsew as generated,
producinfgi nallya self-directecde nsorshipo f the Talmudo n thep arto f earlym odemJ ews.
diacritics / summer 1998 55
They say: That is how Rabbi Yonatanb ehaved. Whenh e saw a powerful
personage come into his city, he used to send him expensivet hings. Whatd id he
think?I f he comes to judge an orphano r a widow, we willfind himp ropitious
towards them. [YerushalmiS habbat1 : 3; 3c]
Two different interpretationso f the verse in Deuteronomyl ead to two almost directly
opposed practices vis-a-vis the Roman overlords( or perhapsv ice versa), one of direct
alienationa ndo ne of (seeming)a ccommodationT. he verse itself is explicitly aboutE sau,
who (throughh is alternativen ame, Edom) is always in rabbinicl iteraturea n eponym for
Rome. Seeing the verse in its immediate context will illuminate the interpretative
controversya nd its political/culturaml eanings:" AndH e commandedt he people, saying,
'You are passing within the bordero f the Childreno f Esau who dwell in Se'ir, and they
will be afraido f you, so be very careful.D o not provoket hem, for I will not give you their
land, not even to stando n, for I have given the Mounto f Se'ir to Esau as an inheritance.
You shall buy food from them for money, and eat, and also buy water from them for
money, and drink."R abbi Shim'on bar Yohai, whose opposition to any rapprochement
whateverw ith Rome was proverbial,6p ulls the verse completely out of its context-well-
respectedm idrashicp ractice-and accordinglyr eadsi t formalisticallya ndt echnicallya s
a limitationo n the possible formso f interactionb etweenJ ews andG entiles.Y ou can only
acquirec ertaint ypes of foodstuffsf rom them,h e says, those thath ave a characteristico f
water,n amely thatt hey are unprocessed.O ne can see immediatelyt hats uch a regulation
would have two powerfule ffects, a restrainto n tradeb etween Jews and Gentiles, as well
as a powerful chill on eating togethero r sharingf ood, commensality (in additiont o the
chill that the kosher rules alreadyp rescribe.)
RabbiH iyya,h owever,i s quiteo pposedt o thisv iew, bothp oliticallya ndm idrashically.
His notion is thatJ ews may purchasea ny sort of foodstuff from Gentiles, as long as it is
kosher,o f course. The Talmuda sks, then, how he would go about interpretingt he same
verse thatR abbi Shim'on has read as stronglyl imiting commensalityb etween Jews and
Gentiles. Rabbi Hiyya develops a whole political philosophy of Jewish-Gentilei nterac-
tion-actually of Jewish-Romanin teraction-from this verse, a procedurejustifiedb y the
fact thatt he verse actuallyd oes refert o the properb ehavioro f Israelt owardt he children
of Esau, who via his "tribal"n ame, Edom,f unctionsa s the eponymousa ncestoro f Rome
in rabbinicJ ewish lore. The Bible explicitly says not to provoke them. An alternativet o
provokingt hem is also offeredb y the verse, which RabbiH iyya understandsin a way that
takes it out of its immediateb iblical historicalc ontext and gives it new culturalp ower,
namely as a suggestion to use gifts to turnt heirh eartsf avorablyt o theirJ ewish subjects.
This is derived from the verse by typically clever midrashicp unning,i n additiont o the
mobilizationo f the foundationali ntertext:t he story of the original Jacob and Esau. The
phrase "buy food from them" can also, with only relatively modest stretchingo f the
syntax-well withint heb oundso f midrashicp ractice-and none whatevero f the lexicon,
be reada s "defeatt hem,"s ince the word" buy"a ndt he word" defeat"a reh omonyms.T he
verse is thus read as: "Withf ood, buy them, and [if that doesn't work], break[ defeat by
suboring] them with money."T his is an obvious allusion to the situationw ithin which
the weak, "feminine"J acobb oughtt he favoro f the "virile,"d ominantE saub y giving him
food. Baksheeshi tself becomes institutionalizeda s a discursivep racticeo f oppositiont o
oppression. At additionalp oints in this discussion, we will be observing how various
"dishonest"p ractices,d eceptions,a re valorizedb y rabbinica nd otherc olonized peoples,
6. 1u se this terma dvisedly.I do not have to assumet hatt hese are ipssissimav erbao fthe "real"
Rabbi Shim' on in order to mobilize what is said about him elsewhere in interpretinga passage
attributedt o him. The individual rabbis came to be personifications of particular ideological
stances withint he tradition,a nd we don't have to knowh ow "authentic" thesep ersonalitys ketches
are in order to read them.
56
in direct opposition to the "manly"a rts of violent resistance.A s an Indianu ntouchable
phrasedi t: "We must also tactfully disguise and hide, as necessary, our true aims and
intentionsf rom our social adversariesT. o recommendi t is not to encouragef alsehoodb ut
only to be tactical in order to survive" [Scott, Domination 33; see also Ophir]. Rabbi
Hiyya's philosophy, then, is to follow the biblical injunctionn ot to provokea uthorityb y
standingu p to it but to attemptt o oblige it, with the resultt hatt he authorityw ill favor the
entire people and act justly toward them. "Kill them with kindness"i s the lesson. This
"hidden transcript,"p reserved before our eyes in the Talmud, provides an elegant
demonstrationo f Scott's argumentt hat "Whatm ay look from above like the extraction
of a requiredp erformancec an easily look from below like the artfulm anipulationo f
deferencea ndf latteryt o achieve its own ends"[ScottD, omination3 4]. A neatc omparison
is afforded by the following injunction of an African American grandfathert o his
grandsoni n Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: "I want you to overcome 'em with yesses,
undermine' em with grins,a gree 'em to deatha ndd estructionl, et 'em swollery ou till they
vomit or bust wide open.... Learni t to the young 'uns" [qtd.i n Scott, Domination 133].
If flatteryf ails, says RabbiH iyya, then defeatt hemb y bribingt hem.T hust he conclusion:
"If he comes to judge an orphano r a widow, we will find him propitioust owardst hem."
[2.3] The Trickstera nd the Martyr
If Esau is the legendarya ncestoro f Rome, Jacob,h is brother,w as the exemplaryr abbinic
male. It is importantt o emphasizet o what extent Jacob( alreadyi n the Bible) is a virtual
"trickster,"th at figure of folklore all over the world who "represent[s]t he weak, whose
wit can at times achieve ambiguousv ictoriesa gainstt he powero f the strong"[ J.B oyarin].
Twice in his life, as describedi n the Bible, Jacob, the weak emblem of Israel,a chieved
victory,o ver Labant he ancestoro f the Aramaeansa ndt hen-and muchm orer elevantf or
laterJ ewishh istory-over Esau,t hee ponymousa ncestoro f Romea ndt huso f Christendom
[Niditch7 0-125]. These figures and theirs toriesw ere, as we have seen, paradigmaticfo r
Jewish (male) self-fashioning. The positive self-representationo f Jewish maleness as
"feminized"t hus is overdeterminedO. n the one hand,i t grows, as we have seen, from a
valorizationo f certaint ypes of activity over othersa nd out of a need to define self over-
againsto ther. On the otherh and, it develops as a responset o the privationi n a diaspora
people of certainm odes of power and the developmento f others as a compensation.
The DiasporaJ ew is a tricksterp are xcellence.7A s David Biale has recentlyr emarked
in his magisterials tudyP ower and Powerlessness in Jewish History:' The rabbisb uilt a
much more durablep olitical system than had any of the earlier leaders, whether tribal
elders, kings, or priests, who were only partiallys uccessful in confrontinga n imperial
worlda ndi n maintainings ome partials emblanceo f Jewishs overeignty"[ 11] . Thats ocial
system enabled the continuede xistence of the Jews as a deterritorializedcu lturale ntity
7. This thinkingh as been much influencedb y the worko f my brother,J onathan,w ith whomI
am now writinga book tentativelye ntitledP owerso f Diaspora,i n which we will attemptt o hook up
the Jewish experienceo f diaspora with the situationo fpostcoloniality in the moder world and in
particular to the use of "diaspora"a s a mode of thinkinga bout that situation.
Erich Gruen has remindedm e of an excellent early version of a Jewish trickstert ale with a
hidden transcript.I n III Maccabees 7:10-16, Jews who had remaineds teadfasti n thef aith trick
theirP tolemaic mastersi ntoa llowing themt o executet hosew ho had becomea postateso n the king's
orders, "usingt he cleverargumentt hat those who were disloyal to theiro wn commandmentcs ould
not be trustedt o be loyal to the king.H ence those who hada ctuallyr esistedt he royalo rderst riumph
over collaborators by posing as protectors of royal interest." This is a typical, rather clever
interpretationo f thep assage and quitea convincingo ne indeed.T heb est editiono f the texti s Hadas,
ed. and trans., The Thirda nd FourthB ooks of Maccabees[ 80-82]. See also Charlesworth2 : 528.
diacritics / summer 1998 57
for nearly two thousand years. One of my underlying hypotheses is that part of the
durabilityo f the political, and thus cultural,s ystem that the rabbisb uilt was foundedo n
antiphallicm odes of resistancea nd the exercise of power, the use of the "weaponso f the
weak."8I am not, of course, claiming that this strategyi s unique to the rabbis.E dwards
remarkst hat "Cicerow arnsa gainst the slipperyw ays of Greeks and Asiatics, which are
to be connected,h e says, with theirl acko f politicalp ower (Ad Q. fr. 1.16).B y implication,
those who have been conqueredb ehavel ike otherd ominatedg roups,w omen and slaves"
[93]. What we learn from Jewish texts of late antiquity is that this was not only an
accusationf rom without but a valorizedr epresentationf rom within at least one "domi-
natedg roup."9S uch modes of resistancew ere, moreover,c oded as feminizedf romw ithin
the Jewish culturals ystem. We need only thinko f the Book of Esther,t he paradigmb ook
of diasporap olitics, to see that this is so [Niditch 126-45; Levine].
The text to be read in this essay consists of an extended talmudic narrativet hat
thematizes the tricksterf igure in tales of witty escapes by rabbis from the threato f
martyrdomf or teachingT orah.A t the same time, this materiala lso providesu s with the
exact opposite model, that of the martyr,a rabbiw ho bravely goes to his death in order
to publicly deny the authorityo f the Romans.T hese two figures of resistancea re known
fromd ominatedp opulationsa ll over the world,a s JamesS cott has remarked':T hose who
did assert themselves defiantly won themselves a place in black folklore-that of the
'baaaadN igger'-that is one of both admirationa nd fearfula we. Admirationf, or having
actedo ut the hiddent ranscripat ndf earfula we, for havingo ften paidf or it with theirl ives.
... The more common folk hero of subordinateg roups-blacks included-has histori-
cally been the tricksterf igure, who manages to outwit his adversarya nd escape un-
scathed"[ Domination4 1]. By the end of the narrativeh, owever, a surprisea waits us, for
the story leads us to a reading wherein the most powerful figure for the tricksterlike
resistanceo f the Jewish People to the depravityt hatw as "Rome"i s a female virgin-in
a brothel'.
[3] The Virgini n the Brothel
InT ractate' AvodahZ arah1 6b- 19bo f the BabylonianT almud,w e finda complicateda nd
fascinating discourse having to do with Roman power, different modes of cultural
resistancet o it, and issues of sexualitya ndg ender.U nwindingt he intricatelyi nterwoven
halakhica nd aggadic expression of this text will help us understandh ow gendera nd the
situationo f a subjugatedm ale populationa re entangledw ithin the culturalf ormationo f
talmudicJ udaism.R eadingt his text with Burrusa s cicerone will help us also to begin to
sort out the similar and the dissimilar between the Jewish and Christiand iscourses of
gender and resistancei n late antiquity."
The text opens with a discussion of the types of building projectst hatJ ews may not
engage in for or with Romans.'2T hese all turno ut to be edifices thata re connectedw ith
8. Thet ermi s again drawnfromS cott, Weaponso f the Weak:T he EverydayF ormso f Peasant
Resistance.
9. See DanielB oyarinU, nheroicC onductT: heR iseo f Heterosexualiatyn dt heI nventionof
theJ ewish Man; "JewishM asochism:C ouvade,C astrationa, nd Rabbisi n Pain ";a nd "Homotopia:
The FeminizedJ ewish Man and the Lives of Womeni n Late Antiquity".
10. Thise loquentp hrase has been borrowedfromR achelAdler, "TheV irgini n the Brothela nd
OtherA nomalies: Charactera nd Contexti n the Legend of Beruriah."
11. For a muchm ore extendeda ndfine-graineda nalysis, see Daniel Boyarin,D ying for God:
Martyrdoman dt heM akingo f Christianitayn dJ udaism.
12. The text given here will be based on the excellent Spanishm anuscripto f Tractate 'Avoda
Zara in the collection of the Jewish Theological Seminaryo f America,R abbinowitz1 5.
58
the judging and execution of criminals and especially of seditious persons [see Hayes].
The Talmudc ondemnst he complicity of Jews with Romanp ower,t hematized,a s we shall
see, as "phallic,"a nd proposes either tricky or submissive ways of evading it. This
halakhicc ontext, the passage of the Mishna,s ets the themes thatw ill be elaboratedi n the
Talmud's much more complicated discursive forms. The talmudic text wanders and
seemingly meanders.I ts strategies of making meaning are not teleological as a philo-
sophical or legal text would be but in some ways more like the strategieso f a dream,i n
which the underlyingt hematicsa nd meaningsc an be drawno ut only by paying attention
to repeatingp atterns,u ndertones,a nd overtones. As LaurieD avis has put it:
Thought he Gemaraw ritteni n responset o this Mishnahm ays eem to venturefar
afieldfrom whatJ ews may or may not build, what they may or may not sell, the
real topic of this Mishnahc oncerns injustice:i ts immediatea nd obviouss ource
in the oppressiveg overnment,h ow Jews mightu nwittinglyc ollude in their own
oppression and the oppression of others, and the alternativep ulls of coercion
and seduction which power exercises. Thus the many stories that ensue all
concernt hew ays in whichJ ewishm ena re eithercoercedo rseduced into wrong-
doing, whethert hey resist and what the consequences of their actions are.
In other words, these are narrativest hat explicitly thematize the issues of hegemony,
resistance, and transcripts,h idden and public, which are dealt with by both Burrus's
historicalw ork on Priscilliana nd Scott's theoreticalw ork.
[3.1] The Seductionso f Jesus: Rabbi Eli'ezer and the Christian
Following the halakhicd iscussion, we immediatelye mbarko n the following narrative,
in which the link between the architecturatlh eme-Jews may not participatei n building
places of judgment-and the "moral"t hemes is immediatelyr enderedv isible:
WhenR abbiE li'ezer was arrested [by the Romans]for sectarianism,t hey took
him up to thep lace ofjudgment[ gradus]. 3 Thej udge [hegemon]'4s aid to him:
"Ane lder such as you, has dealing with thesef oolish things?!" He [Eli'ezer]
said: "Ih ave trusti n theJ /judge." Thejudget houghtt hath e was speakinga bout
him,b uth e was speakinga bouth is Fatheri n heaven.H e [thejudge] said: "Since
you have declared yourf aith in me, you are free [dimus]. "
Whenh e came to his house, his disciples came to comforth im, but he was
inconsolable.R abbiAkivas aid to him: "Allowm e to say to you one of the things
thaty ou have taughtm e " [an honorifice uphemismfort he studentt eaching the
teacher]. He said to him: "Say!" He said to him: "Rabbi,p erhaps you heard
some mattero f sectarianism,a nd it gave you pleasure, and because of thaty ou
were arrestedfor sectarianism." He said: "Byh eaven,y ou have remindedm e.
Once I was walking in the upper marketo f Sephorris,a nd one of the disciples
of Jesus the Nazarene,5 a man by the name of Jacob of KefarS ekania, met up
13. Lit., "thes tairs leading up to the place of judgment," one of the structurest he Mishna
forbids Jews to participate in building [see Hayes]. For the gradusa s equivalentt o the catastao f
such textsa s the Passiono fPerpetuaa nd otherearlyC hristianm artyrologies,s ee LiebermanT, exts
and Studies 69-71.
14. A provincial governor serving as judge.
15. The referencest o Jesus,f ound in both manuscripts,a re deleted in the printed editions, as
have nearly all such referencess ince thef irst editions, owing to the ItalianJ ewish (self-)censors.
In this way, the hidden transcript, which had threatened to become public owing to the wide
diacritics / summer 1998 59
with me. He said to me, 'It is writteni n your Torah: "Do not bring the wages of
a prostituteo r thep roceeds of a dog [to the house ofyour Lord]" (Deut. 23:19).
Whata bout using themt o builda latrinefort he High Priest? 'AndI said nothing
to him.A nd he told me that thush ad taughtJ esus his teacher: "'Itw as gathered
from the wages of a prostitute, and to the wages of a prostitute it will return
[Micah 1:7] "-it comesfroma place off ilth, and to a place offilth it will return'
[i.e., for buildinga latrine one may use the proceeds of a prostitute], and the
mattergavem ep leasure,a ndforthat was arrestedforsectarianism,s ince I had
violated that whichi s written:K eeph er waysfar awayfromy ou!" [Proverbs5 :
8].
This complex little text compresses within its almost humorousf orm several weighty
matters of rabbinic culture and ideology. Perhaps most relevant here is the political
function of the double entendre[ Scott, Domination4 ]. This story exemplifies an almost
literal thematizationo f the "publict ranscript"f'hiddentr anscript"ty pology as analyzed
extensively by Scott. Dominated people, according to him, "make use of disguise,
deception, and indirectionw hile maintaininga n outward impression, in power-laden
situations,o f willing, even enthusiasticc onsent" [Scott, Domination 17]. Our talmudic
narratives eems designed to illustratet he hypothesis, in the way the narrativee legantly
encapsulatest he public and hidden transcriptsi nto one ambiguousl inguistic utterance.
The text has a theological dimensiona s well, however.
The basic theologicalq uestiona ddressedi s theodicy,a questiont hatr eturnso ver and
over in rabbinicl iteratureW: hy has God punishedt he apparentlyr ighteous?A s we shall
see, this is one of the major subthemes of the entire text-sequence that we shall be
following in this essay. The basic rabbinict heological thoughtt hata nswerst his question
is that somehow God's punishmentsf it the crimes-"measure for measure"i n rabbinic
parlance.W hen RabbiE li'ezer says in this text, "I have trusti n the Judge,"h e fools the
Roman hegemon, but not himself.'6 He assumes that there cannot be any punishment
withouta crime and thatt he Divine Judgeh as found him wanting.B ecause he had been
attracteda nd pleasedb y heresyi n God's eyes, thati s, Christianityt, herefore,t he text tells
us God allowed him to be arrestedb y the Romansf or engaging in thatv ery heresy. The
Romanj udge is, in a sense, only an unwittinga vataro f God's judgment on earth.T he
acceptance of the judgment is indeed what releases Rabbi Eli'ezer. This point will be
returnedt o explicitly in a latere pisode of the legend cycle as well. In the context of the
text that I am discussing here, this momentous theological issue is interleaved and
imbricatedw ith otherq uestionst hatt he rabbisa sk aboutt hemselvesa ndt heirp lace in the
world. This opening story sets all the themes that will be developed throughoutt he text:
sex, heresy, and the threato f violence.'7 We will hardly be surprisedt o find gender
prominentlyt hematizedi n this context as well.
The strongestc lue to this connection is the arbitrarinesso f the particularh alakhic
discussion betweent he rabbia ndt he Christianf, or therei s no specialr easonw hy it would
be this specific issue thata disciple of Jesus would raise with a pharisee.T he choice of an
interlocutionh avingt o do with prostitutiona ndt he Temple must be laid at the dooro f the
talmudic" author"o f this legend, andi ts significances ought withint he context of Jewish
distributionof printedT almudas nd increasingk nowledgeo f its languagea nd textb y learned
Christian(se speciallyc onverts)w, as renderedh iddena gain,i nterestingleyn ought, hist imef rom
mostJ ewsa s well.
16. Thefactt hatt her abbiw asu singa fixeda ndc onventionalel galt ermd oesn otw eakenth is
interpretatioant all. See LiebermanT,e xtsa ndS tudies7 6n136.
17. Interestingleyn ought, hise pisodeh asa paralleli n Palestinianli teraturen, amelyin the
midrasho n EcclesiastesK, ohelleRt abba1 . Thec ontextw ithinw hichi t is embeddedh,o weveri,s
entirelyd ifferentth ere.
60