Table Of ContentZutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture
Editors:
Shlomo Berger
Universiteit van Amsterdam ,Amsterdam ,The Netherlands
Michael Brocke
Salomon Ludwig Steinheim-Institut,
Gerhard Mercator-Universität, Duisburg, Germany
Irene Zwiep
Universiteit van Amsterdam ,Amsterdam ,The Netherlands
Advisory Board:
Gad Freudenthal (CNRS, Paris)
Lewis Glinert (Dartmouth College, Hanover NH )
Steven Harvey (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan)
Pieter W. van der Horst (Universiteit Utrecht)
Yosef Kaplan (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Ada Rapoport-Albert (University College London)
Angel Säenz-Badillos (Universidad Complutense, Madrid )
Karel van der Toorn (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Christian Wiese (Universitä t Erfurt)
VOLUM E 2
ZUTOT
2 0 02
Edited by
Shlomo Berger
Universiteit van Amsterdam ,Amsterdam ,The Netherlands
Michael Brocke
Salomon Ludwig Steinheim-Institut,
Gerhard Mercator-Universität, Duisburg, Germany
Irene Zwiep
Universiteit van Amsterdam ,Amsterdam ,The Netherlands
Gues teditors
Resianne Fontaine
Universiteit van Amsterdam ,Amsterdam ,The Netherlands
Reinier Mün k
Universiteit Leiden ,Leiden/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ,The Netherlands
k 4
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS, MEDIA, B.V.
ZutOt
2 0 02
A CLP. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
This publication has been realized thanks to the financial support of the Salomon
Ludwig Steinheim-Institut für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in Duisburg. The
editors would like to thank the Stichting Vrienden van het Juda Palache Instituut,
Erik-Jan Verweij en JAPES.
Desk editors
Lies Meiboom
Paul Schrijver
ISBN 978-94-010-3980-2 ISBN 978-94-010-0199-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-010-0199-1
Printed on acid-free paper
All rights Reserved
©2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2.003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2.003
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the cpyright owner.
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED TO
ALBERT VAN DER HEIDE
PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH STUDIES
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY
AMSTERDAM, 7TH EAJS CONGRESS, 22 JULY 2002
ZUTOT 2002: CONTENTS
ANTIQUITY
10 Price,].]., OnJewish Metronymics in the Graeco-Roman Period
18 Horst, P.W. van der, 'His Days Shall Be One Hundred and Twenty
Years': Genesis 6:3 in EarlyJudaism and Ancient Christianity
POETRY AND PIYYUT
26 Bekkum, W.-]. van, Qumran Poetry and Piyyut: Some Observations
on Hebrew Poetic Traditions in Biblicaland Post-Biblical Times
34 Beeri, T., A New Rahat bySaadia Gaon
4 Yahalom,]., Lyricand Liturgy in the Gabirolian Tradition
I
56 Schippers, A., A Muwashshah from the Genizah
65 Hollender, E. ,Flora and Fauna in Medieval Piyyut-Commentary
MIDDLE AGES
72 Zwiep, I.E., Why Medieval Hebrew Studies? Some Thoughts on
Stefan C. Reif's Inaugural Lecture (1999)
77 Fenton, P.B., A Letter of Greetings to R. Hayyim ben Hanan'el
ha-Dayyfm from the Genizah
85 Saenz-Badillos,A. ,Abrahamibn Ezra: BetweenTradition andPhilo
logy
95 Trautner-Kromann, H., From 'Jacob or Esau?' to 'Has the Messiah
Come?' Controversies Between Jews and Christians as H..eflected in
Bible Exegesis
MAIMONlDES
104 Cohen, M.Z., Logic to Interpretation: Maimonides' Use of
al-Fiirfibi's Model ofMeta!Jhor
I 14 Freudenthal, G., Four Im!Jlicit Quotations ofPhilosophical Sources
in Maimonides' Guide ofthe Perplexed
[26 Seroussi, E., More on Maimonides on Music
7
BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
138 Lange, N. de, The Greek Glosses ofthe fitzwilliam Museum Bible
148 Olszowy-Schlanger, ]., An Early Hebrew Manuscript from Byzan
tium
156 Fontaine, R., Abraham ibn Daud and the Midrash ha-Hokhmah: a
Mini-Discovery
164 Offenberg, A.K., A Hidden Treasure in the Athias Cabinet, or Quid
Novum in Armariolo Athii
170 Schrijvcr, E.G.L., An Unknown Passover Haggadah by Joseph ben
DavidofLeipnik in the Library ofBlickling Hall
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY
182 Goodman, M., The Problems ofJewish Studies
189 Laenen,].H., The Twilight between Scholarship andMysticism
200 Jacobs, N.C., Soiree bei Kohn: Jewish Elements in the Repertoire of
Hermann Leopoldi
209 Baanders, B., The Writer Who Wrote More than He Meant to Write:
On ArthurMiller's Broken Glass.
CORRIGENDA
218 Gruschka, R. and M. Aptroot
219 Offenberg, A.K.
8
ANTIQUITY
ONJEWISII METRONYMICS IN THE GRAECO-RoMAN PERIOD
This brief note anses from my work on the Corpus Inscriptionum
Iudaeae/Palaestinae, the multi-lingual epigraphicalcorpuswhich is now
being prepared in Israel and Germany; theworkwillcontain neworfirst
editions of all inscriptions found in modern-day Israel and dating from
thefourth centuryBeEtoca.theseventhcenturyCEo Inthecourseofour
search for unpublished material Ihavefound at leastthree texts, soonto
beformally published,containinga highly unusual feature, the namesof
persons identified solely by their mothers' names - metronymics. One
text is from Beth She'arim and reads:
<I>tMcrtpatoc; 'louA-lac; Philostratos son ofJulia.
The other two are ossuaries from a private collection and bear remark
ably similarnames:
I
lJJtll'?~lJ ~Dlil'lJ pnlil'Johanan son ofJoseph son ofElisheva2
11':'m?tl!lJ~D'il'lJpmil'JohanansonofJosephsonofShlamzion
How to interpret this phenomenon? The purpose ofthis note is to offer
some basic methodological guidelines.
Thereisnoinformationabouttheprovenanceofthesetwoossuaries,orevenwhether
I
theywerefound together;buttheidenticalhandoftheinscriptions,aswellastheidentical
form andmaterialoftbeossuariesandthefactthattheycameOil themarketandweresold
together, indicatethat infacttheyarc indeed related.
2 Is Elisheva a man's name? For J)1tl1'71" from the Judaean Desert (4Q:142), see
A. Yardeni, Textbook ofAramaic, HebrewandNabataean Docul11('11taryTexts from the
]udaemlDesertandRelatedMaterialI(.Jerusalem2000) IR4.Thepossibilitythatthesetwo
inscriptionsareforgerieswill he dealtwith in thefinal puhlication.
S.lkrga. M.Hr()(:keandJ.Zwic!J(eds), Zulo/2()()2., !O-/7
©zool KluwefA(:adernicl'uhlis!Jer5.. TO
ON JEWISH METRONYMICS IN TliE GRAECO-RoMAN PERIOD
Principle I: One must assume that there is some stJecial reason for a
persontobeidentifiedsolelybyhis/hermother'sname,evenifthatreason
cannotalways be found.3
Herodotus (1.173) discovered the practiceonlyamongthe Lyciansof
hisday, and concludedwrongly4thatitwas uniquewith them. Although
metronymics appear in literary and documentary sources through the
end of the Roman empire, the practice never became a widespread
cultural norm, especially not in Judaism,s and special reasons for the
exceptions can often be found.
The phenomenon holds obvious interest for Christian historians
becauseofthetroublesomeappellation'JesussonofMary'inMark6:13.
The apparent insinuation ofillegitimacywas accepted atface value by a
few commentators butexplainedaway bymostas a manuscripterror,as
aneutralexpressionarisingfromJoseph'sdeathlongbeforethepointitis
used, as an appellation used ofan only son ofa widow, or as an indica
tion ofthe virgin birth. Yetitwas not until Harvey McArthur'sarticle in
1973 that a systematic study of metronymics in Jewish sources was
attempted, in an effort to put the troublesome passage in context.6
Collecting literary examples from the Bible through rabbinic literature,
McArthur classed the reasons for metronymics as follows: 'secondary
identification' (the mother's name is needed to clarify genealogy); matri
archalfamilies (allexamplesbiblical);themotherisJewishbutthefather
J Idonotincludehere:mothersnamedafterthcirchildrcn(c.g.,atIkthShe'arim,seeM.
Schwabeand B. Lifshitz, Beth Shearim II: The Greek Tnscriptions (.Jerusalem 1974),nos.
22,27,48,66,125, 156,182,18);forotherexamples,Ilan(n.8below),41-42;metronyms
appearingtogetherwithpatronyms(thisoccursoftcninJcwishinscriptions,andisaspecial
mark ofEtruscan inscriptions); 'secondary identification' (McArthur's phrase, sec below
n. 6). Ialsoexcludemen'snamesbasedonwomen'snames,cf. F.Timm, Matnmymikaim
aschkenasichen Kulturbereich: ein Beitrag zur Mentalitdts- und Sozialgeschichte der
europdischenfuden(Tiibingen 1999).Ontheexclusionofmagicaltexts,secbelow.hnally,
Ihave notdistinguished here between malesand females identified by theirmetronymics,
although thatdistinction might he meaningful,seetextsfrom Rome, helow.
1 SeeSEGXXVI 10\0,a Cretan pithosca. 700HeE;ef. Hom. II. 6.196-206.
\ Cf. hIm. 109h:thefather's family,notthemother's, is regarded asone'sownfamily;
also hYeh. 54h,hKidd. 69a,etc.
f, [-I.K. McArthur, 'Son of Mary', Not'. Test. 15 (197.0) .,8-58; and see this article for
hibliographyofpreviousinterpretations.
I I
