Our understanding of ancient Jewish history and culture has been transformed in recent years by two kinds of scholarship: first, the patient and meticulous labor of the archaeologists, who have shed fresh light on the origins of the Jews and their relationships with the cultures that surrounded them and at times threatened to destroy them; and second, the work of literary scholars, who have brought to bear the methods of modern literary criticism on the Bible, revealing a literature as rich and complex as any in the ancient world.
This course aims to illuminate both the history and the literature of the ancient Jews, examining their relationships with other peoples and cultures, and showing how the Bible not only served to forge a distinctive Jewish identity, but also enabled the Jews to survive even the most catastrophic encounters with the larger empires of the period. And although we cannot consider the origins of Christianity in detail in this course, we will try to suggest why the religion and culture of the ancient Jews have played such important roles in the subsequent history of Western civilization.
Week 1: "Origins: The Evidence of Archaeology" Thursday Oct 6, 2011
Topics: Jews and Canaanites—Egypt, Babylon and Persia.
LECTURE NOTES:
REQUIRED READING:
Scheindlin, Chapter 1: Israelite Origins and Kingdom (Before 1220 B.C.E. to 587 B.C.E.)
Reviews
"[A] well-written, handy little textbook....The book is well supplied with pedagogical aids, including excellent maps, boxes that explore allusions in the text itself in greater depth, a selected bibliography for each chapter, and a thorough index. As such it will be of great use as the first text in introductory surveys of the history of the Jews or the history of Judaism. It will also provide instructors with good foundations upon which to add more detailed material."--Religious Studies Review
"Scheindlin's short book provides a concise and readable summary of more than 3,000 years of Jewish history. It provides the student and general reader with an excellent introduction to the topic."--Marvin Swartz, University of Massachussetts at Amherst
RECOMMENDED READING:
Review
"This engaging and carefully written undergraduate textbook provides a brief history of the development of Judaism." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Product Description
The Origins of Judaism provides a clear, straightforward account of the development of ancient Judaism in both the Judean homeland and the Diaspora. Beginning with the Bible and ending with the rise of Islam, the text depicts the emergence of a religion that would be recognized today as Judaism out of customs and conceptions that were quite different from any that now exist. Special attention is given to the early rabbis' contribution to this historical process. Together with the main narrative, the book provides substantial quotations from primary texts (biblical, rabbinic and other) along with extended side treatments of important themes, a glossary, short biographies of leading early rabbis, a chronology of important dates and suggestions for further reading.
Product Description
This book addresses one of the most timely and urgent topics in archaeology and biblical studies — the origins of early Israel. For centuries the Western tradition has traced its beginnings back to ancient Israel, but recently some historians and archaeologists have questioned the reality of Israel as it is described in biblical literature. In "Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?" William Dever explores the continuing controversies regarding the true nature of ancient Israel and presents the archaeological evidence for assessing the accuracy of the well-known Bible stories.
Confronting the range of current scholarly interpretations seriously and dispassionately, Dever rejects both the revisionists who characterize biblical literature as "pious propaganda" and the conservatives who are afraid to even question its factuality. Attempting to break through this impasse, Dever draws on thirty years of archaeological fieldwork in the Near East, amassing a wide range of hard evidence for his own compelling view of the development of Israelite history.
In his search for the actual circumstances of Israel's emergence in Canaan, Dever reevaluates the Exodus-Conquest traditions in the books of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, and 1 & 2 Samuel in the light of well-documented archaeological evidence from the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. Among this important evidence are some 300 small agricultural villages recently discovered in the heartland of what would later become the biblical nation of Israel. According to Dever, the authentic ancestors of the "Israelite peoples" were most likely Canaanites — together with some pastoral nomads and small groups of Semitic slaves escaping from Egypt — who, through the long cultural and socioeconomic struggles recounted in the book of Judges, managed to forge a new agrarian, communitarian, and monotheistic society.
Written in an engaging, accessible style and featuring fifty photographs that help bring the archaeological record to life, this book provides an authoritative statement on the origins of ancient Israel and promises to reinvigorate discussion about the historicity of the biblical tradition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
ArchaeologyWeek 2: "The Bible As Literature I: Genesis and Ruth" Thursday Oct 13, 2011
Topics: Patterns in Biblical Narrative: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—Women in Biblical
Narrative: Rebecca, Dinah, Tamar, and RuthLECTURE NOTES:
REQUIRED READING:
Reading: Genesis 1-36 (the translation by Robert Alter is recommended) and Ruth
RECOMMENDED READING:
Robert Alter
Genesis: Translation and Commentary
W. W. Norton & Company (September 17, 1997)
ISBN 039331670X
Review
From Publishers Weekly
Of the making of many translations and commentaries on the book of Genesis there is no end. After all, the book of Genesis contains not only two of the Western world's most enduring myths of creation but also chronicles the history of early Israel. While past commentators like Hermann Gunkel and Gerhard von Rad were concerned with the ways in which the various literary forms present in the book of Genesis reflected the historical and theological concerns of the texts' writers and hearers, literary critic Alter (The Art of Biblical Narrative) emphasizes the overall narrative unity of the disparate textual units that comprise the book of Genesis. In his translation of the first 11 chapters, for example, Alter carefully reproduces the stylistic devices of repetition and parallelism so characteristic of Hebrew poetry, while his translation of chapters 12-50 captures the dramatic tension and characterization that are the hallmarks of Hebrew narrative style. Alter is ever attentive to the power of paronomasia in the Hebrew so that his translation of Genesis 1:1, "When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste (tohu wabohu, in Hebrew) and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters...," attempts through alliteration to translate the lilting poetry of the Hebrew phrase. Although Alter's translations lack the sparkle and elegance of Everett Fox's translations of Genesis in The Five Books of Moses (Schocken 1995), his commentaries on the literary qualities of Genesis and his casting of the Hebrew Bible's opening book as a single narrative woven together by the threads of character and theme ensure that Alter's work will take its place in the distinguished ranks of commentaries. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Unlike the many devout readers who approach the Bible to find salvation, unlike even the secular scholars who take up the Bible to advance linguistic and historical understanding, Kass comes to Genesis in pursuit of philosophical wisdom. And he finds it. As a distinguished researcher in molecular biology and bioethics, Kass well understands how modern science has rendered untenable many traditional readings of the holy book. But he also recognizes how scientific expertise has created dilemmas demanding anew the kind of moral insights that generations have gleaned from Scripture. And though he demurs as to its divine inspiration, Kass finds in Genesis a richly rewarding narrative challenging readers to explore the promise and peril of human life. Unfolding a unified series of pedagogical investigations (developed over two decades of teaching the text at the University of Chicago), Kass guides readers in profound reflections on natural and human origins: How did Eden's forbidden fruit deliver Adam and Eve to death yet simultaneously endow them with spiritual freedom? How did the failure of the Tower of Babel expose the limits of civilization--including our own? Kass must ask different questions once Abraham appears (in Genesis 12), for his covenantal relationship with deity transcends philosophic reasoning. Yet in limning the rise of the Israelite nation, Kass probes the meaning--and contemporary significance--of a communal commitment to reverence and justice. Readers unattached to church or synagogue may be surprised at how much the Bible still has to teach them. Bryce Christensen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
From Booklist
The ancient patriarch Abraham lives here as a vibrant historical presence. Rosenberg warns, however, that readers will not see this remarkable man of antiquity if they persist in looking for him over the shoulders of Christian or Islamic guardians of orthodoxy. Instead, Rosenberg invites readers to see Abraham against the cultural background of ancient Jerusalem in the tenth century BCE. Hardly the unlettered nomad of Christian imagination, the historical Abraham, Rosenberg argues, studied Sumerian and Akkadian texts intensely before embarking on his epoch-making journey to Canaan. It was these archival sources, melded with oral tradition, that produced the biographical narrative that enshrined Abraham in scripture. Rosenberg's explanations of how the God of Scripture and first Hebrew appeared together on the stage of history draw on both immense research and shrewd speculation. Many devout Bible readers will resist those speculations as incompatible with traditional religious faith, but lively controversy--such as that surrounding The Book of J, which Rosenberg coauthored with Harold Bloom in 1990--always attracts readers. Bryce Christensen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Week 3: "The Bible As Literature II: Joseph and His Brothers" Thursday Oct 20, 2011
Topics: Israel and Egypt—Character in the Bible: Joseph
LECTURE NOTES:
REQUIRED READING:
Genesis 36-50
RECOMMENDED READING:
Review
“Not only is Dr. Zornberg’s book leagues removed from popular trivial izations, it also does what all successful midrash is meant to do: open up new perspectives on ancient texts.” —Commonweal
“I know of no other book that presents the enormous subtleties and complexities of rabbinic biblical interpretation with such skill, intelligence, literary flair, and sheer elegance of style . . . Quite simply, a masterpiece.” —The Washington Post Book World
Product Description
A Jewish biblical scholar sheds new light on the stories of Genesis, interweaving biblical, rabbinic, and literary sources in a sensitive study of the stories of Noah, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau, and others. Reprint.
From Publishers Weekly
Kugel's tour de force of biblical scholarship juxtaposes two different ways of reading the Bible: the ancient biblical interpretations, ranging from the Book of Jubilees to Augustine, that he explored in The Bible as It Was, and the modern historical approach that challenges the historical veracity of scripture and seeks instead to find its writers' original sources and purposes. It can be a jarring journey for those schooled in traditional views, but what emerges is a fresh, even strange, and very rich view of everything from the Garden of Eden to Isaiah's dream vision of God. Refreshingly undogmatic and often witty, Kugel brings an intimate knowledge of the Hebrew Bible to illuminate small points as well as large. He discusses who the ancient Israelites were; the resemblances between YHWH and Canaanite gods; the unique role of the prophet in Ancient Near Eastern religions; the nature of ancient wisdom literature; and what the Bible means when it calls Solomon the wisest of men. The result is a stunning narrative of the evolution of ancient Israel, of its God and of the entire Hebrew Bible, contrasted with ancient interpretations that aimed to uncover hidden meanings and moral lessons. So, for example, for the ancients, the story of Cain and Abel is a tale of good versus evil. For the moderns, it was originally a story of origin, about the relation between ancient Israelites and the fierce Kenites to their south. While Kugel is a traditional Jew, he sees the modern approach as compelling, so the dilemma is whether a person of faith can read scripture in both the old way and the new. Drawing on Judaism's nonfundamentalist approach, Kugel's proposed answer is that the original purpose of the texts and their lack of historical accuracy matters less than their underlying message: to serve God. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Booklist
Kugel intends his book as a tour through the Hebrew Bible based on an introductory course he taught at Harvard University for more than 20 years. His first aim is to acquaint readers with the contents of the Bible itself, and he points out that by the end of his introductory course, readers will have met all the major biblical figures: Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Miriam, Aaron, and Solomon, to name just a few. The book also covers all the major events, from the story of Adam and Eve to the Exodus from Egypt, the Babylonian exile, and Israel's eventual return to its homeland. The book not only focuses on what the text says but on the larger question of what a modern reader is to make of it. Geared to both the specialist and the general reader, this is an indispensable guide to a complex subject. Cohen, George --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Week 4: "The Covenant: A Free People" Thursday Oct 27, 2011
Topics: Moses the Liberator—Exodus and the Western Political Tradition
LECTURE NOTES:
REQUIRED READING:
Exodus and Deuteronomy
RECOMMENDED READING:
Product Description
The noted political philosopher offers a moving meditation on the political meanings of the biblical story of Exodus -- from oppression to deliverance and the promised land.
Reviews
Too much scholarship went into this short treatise to call it a meditation, but that's what it is anyway. The author of Just and Unjust Wars, Spheres of Justice, and numerous political essays reflects on the political meaning of the Exodus story, as well as on the use to which it has been put since the Puritan Revolution of the 17th-century. Walzer (professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study) concludes that there are two basic interpretations of the story of the Israelites. One, which he calls Exodus politics, is grounded in a specific set of circumstances of oppression and corruption (i.e., Egypt, where the bondage of the Israelites was coupled with a revulsion against and longing for the luxury of their oppressors). Exodus politics is about the journey from Egypt to Canaan, a journey in which Moses plays the role of guide and teacher, forming the Israelites into a new people fit for the Promised Land. The Promised Land is itself about the transformation of Canaan into Israel - that is, the disappointment of reaching the goal only to discover that the journey is not over. This is a kind of social democratic politics, says Walzer, whose mode is education, realism, and moderation, and it is the interpretation and the politics that defines his position. The other dominant strain he calls messianic politics, and here the story is universalized: rather than Egypt, the deliverance is seen as being from oppression tout court, and the goal of the Promised Land takes on an immediacy and joy in the Final Days. This latter is the politics of some radical groups of the left (in Leninism, Moses and the Levites take on the guise of a vanguard party, an interpretation rendered by Lincoln Steffens, among others), as well as of the messianic right in Israel today. Walzer's method is to proceed through the stages of the story, offering alternative interpretations and political glosses as he goes. The trip is well worth taking, even more for the ease with which he handles the biblical interpretation, and the richness the story acquires, than for the relevance of the story to political theory. All in all: satisfying and exciting at once. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"A rewarding book -- elegantly written, subtly argued, full of stimulating suggestions". -- John Gross, New York Times
"An important book. . . . Walzer shows the real power of the Exodus story as a political document an convincingly demonstrate how it has shaped later thinking about revolutionary alternatives". -- Robert Alter, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley
Harold Bloom, Exodus,
in David Rosenberg
Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P; 1st edition (November 1987)
ISBN 0151463506
Review
From Publishers Weekly
"Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it," so a Jewish sage once described the Torah, and 37 modern Jewish poets, novelists and critics add their biblical interpretations to countless precedents in this somewhat uneven omnibus. At its most personal and contemporaneous, the collection soars: Max Apple fancies a self-doubting Joshua who is "an emblem of all sons hesitating after the death of all fathers"; Anne Roiphe reads in Nehemiah a plea for the return of territories by present-day Israel; Ezra evokes Jay Neugeboren's painful memories of a double lifebeing the least Jewish of his summer friends and the most Jewish of his friends during the school year; and Francine Prose vivifies the irascible God of Malachi. Unfortunately, incongruous here are Harold Bloom's literary analysis of "J," a primary author of Exodus, and Leonard Michaels's repetition of the Freudian interpretation of Jonah. Although many of the writers claim to be rusty or unfamiliar with the Jewish bible, James Atlas on Hosea seems particularly out of his depth and the piece by Gordon Lish, who remembers "whacking off" to the "dirty parts," is insulting. Curiously, Rosenberg (Chosen Days) offers two selections on certain books (Jonah, Daniel, etc.) while ignoring Micah, Haggai and others. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Week 5: "Kings and Kingdoms" Thursday Nov 3, 2011
Topics: The David Story—Israel and the Philistines: The Evidence of Archaeology
LECTURE NOTES:
REQUIRED READING:
Robert Alter
The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel
W. W. Norton & Company (September 2000)
ISBN 0393320774
Amazon.com Review
There are countless good reasons to read The David Story, Robert Alter's new translation of the story of King David (beginning in I Samuel and ending in I Kings 2). In the book's introduction, Alter contends that the story of David is "probably the greatest single narrative representation in antiquity of a human life evolving by slow stages through time, shaped and altered by the pressures of political life, public institutions, family, the impulses of body and spirit, the eventual sad decay of the flesh. It also provides the most unflinching insight into the cruel processes of history and into human behavior warped by the pursuit of power." Alter's translation is more literal than the King James version, which makes his rendering of Scripture newly immediate and jarring. (When Samuel anoints David in I Samuel 16, for instance, "the spirit of the LORD gripped David from that day onward.") This David Story is worth reading for the footnotes alone, which describe in vivid detail the mechanics of sheep-shearing festivals, sacrificial feasts, and other cultural phenomena that add depth and life to this familiar story. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Library JournalIn his latest effort, Alter (Hebrew and comparative literature, Univ. of California, Berkeley) has produced a compelling literary translation of the story of the beginnings of the ancient Israelite monarchy and of one of the Bible's most colorful characters. He argues hereAas he did previously, in his translation of Genesis (LJ 8/96)Athat this story is a literary whole rather than merely a stitched-together collection of independent bits. Alter's translation bears a resemblance to the King James Version (sans "thee" and "thou"), which he considers a true literary translation. But in many instances, his version surpasses King James's by more accurately reproducing the rhythm, syntactical arrangement, and word plays of the Hebrew text. His faithful representation of the Hebrew wawAtranslated as "and"Agives a sense of the story's forward movement and leaves some current translations, in which subordinate clauses often obscure the waw, seeming flat. This is a translation for readers; recommended for all collections.ACraig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Robert Pinsky
The Life of David (Jewish Encounters)
Schocken; Reprint edition (August 26, 2008)
ISBN 0805211535
Review
From Publishers Weekly
Emphasizing biographies of Jewish luminaries but also including books on Jewish themes, the new Jewish Encounters series aims to satisfy the interest in popular and intelligent books on Jewish subjects. The inaugural book in this commendable venture is a well-executed biography of David, written by Pinsky, former poet laureate of the United States. His poetic language is singularly appropriate for recounting the life of the king who is traditionally accepted as the author of the poetic psalms, some of which are included in the narrative. Pinsky's broad scope is reflected in his references to Greek literature, Shakespeare, Dante, Simone Weil, Talmudists and Robert Frost, among others. He acknowledges his indebtedness to Robert Alter, whose definitive book The David Story appeared in 1999, but fails to mention recent biographies by Steven McKenzie, Baruch Halpern and Gary Greenberg. His primary sources are the actual biblical texts that recount David's life. Pinsky dispels the conventional image of David as a simple shepherd who slew Goliath and became Israel's greatest king, depicting him realistically with all his failings as an adulterer, assassin and predator. Pinsky also portrays David's stellar achievements, presenting him as a complex character who deserves to be seen in shades of gray. (Sept. 20) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition
Free Press (April 3, 2007)
ISBN 0743243633
Review
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Lacking clear archeological evidence or extrabiblical testimony, biblical scholars are often challenged in persuading a skeptical world that the Bible's characters really existed and that their stories are actual historical records. The task of separating myth from history can be a daunting one. Finkelstein and Silberman, both renowned archaeologists (Finkelstein chairs the archaeology department [at Tel Aviv University; Silberman is a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine), take a different approach: integrating ancient heroic and warrior archetypes into the lives of the kings of Israel, thus synthesizing history and myth in support of the religious endeavor. The authors are careful to note that the absence of contemporary confirmation outside the Bible is no reason to believe that the characters did not actually exist. Rather, the biblical stories form the basis for a legend tradition in which the Davidic legacy gradually transforms "from a down-to-earth political program into the symbols of a transcendent religious faith that would spread throughout the world." Finkelstein and Silberman, who also had a winner with The Bible Unearthed, tell their story in a clear and easily understood manner, never boring but always challenging. Discovery Club main selection, BOMC, QPB and History book clubs alternate selection. (Feb. 8) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Week 6: "Isaiah and Job" Thursday Nov 10, 2011
Topics: The Prophetic Tradition—The Theodicy Problem
LECTURE NOTES:
REQUIRED READING:
Isaiah, Job
RECOMMENDED READING:
Robert Pinsky, Isaiah, and Leslie Fiedler, Job,
in David Rosenberg
Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P; 1st edition (November 1987)
ISBN 0151463506
Week 7: "The Jews and the Maccabees" Thursday Nov 17, 2011
Topics: A Dangerous Neighborhood—Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews
REQUIRED READING:
Scheindlin, Chapter 2: Judea and the Origins of the Diaspora (587 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.)
RECOMMENDED READING:
Product Description
One of our century's greatest authorities on the ancient world gives us here a vivid account of the Jewish people from the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E. to the revolt of the Maccabees. It is a rich story of Jewish social, economic, and intellectual life and of the relations between the Jewish community and the Hellenistic rulers and colonizers of Palestine—a historical narrative told with consummate skill. Bickerman portrays Jewish life in the context of a broader picture of the Near East and traces the interaction between the Jewish and Greek worlds throughout this period. He reconstructs the evidence concerning social and political structures; the economy of Hellenistic Jerusalem and Judea; Greek officials, merchants, and entrepreneurs as well as full-scale Greek colonies in Palestine; the impact of Greek language and culture among Jews and the translation of Jewish Scriptures into Greek; Jewish literature, learning, and law; and the diaspora in the Hellenistic period. He deploys his profound knowledge gracefully, weaving archaeological finds, literary traditions, the political and economic record, and fertile insights into an abundant and lively history. This first full study of the pre-Maccabean interaction between the Greek and Jewish cultures will be welcomed by historians and specialists in Judaic studies. But any reader interested in the ancient Mediterranean world will find it to be filled with pleasures and discoveries.
Thanksgiving Vacation. No meeting week of Nov 22-26.
Thanksgiving week.
Students have stated they prefer having the week off.
Many are traveling for the holidays.
So no classes during Thanksgiving Week.
Week 8: "Jews and the Roman Empire" Thursday Dec 1, 2011
Topics: The Jewish Revolt—The Dead Sea Scrolls
REQUIRED READING:
Product Description
Josephus' account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada. His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, "The Jewish War" nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written.RECOMMENDED READING:
From Library Journal
Gruen (history and classics, Berkeley) explores four centuries of Jewish life within the dominant classical civilization, from Alexander the Great's conquest of the Near East to the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 C.E. He begins with an investigation of "the conspicuous absence of a philosophy of Diaspora" and attempts very capably to identify the traces of the concept among Jews under Roman rule. He looks at the cultures of the Jews living in Rome, Asia, and Alexandria, finding very vibrant communities in all three places. In exploring Jewish views of the Diaspora, Gruen offers up two chapters on Diaspora humor, one about the way biblical tales were retold and the lessons they could convey and the other about creating fanciful yet didactic stories. Then the author looks at the evidence about the Jewish image of the Greeks and Romans, a subject usually investigated from the opposite viewpoint. This leads into his final chapter on the Jewish view of the homeland during the period, a view not much different from today's. Gruen admits that his work is far from exhaustive, but it is certainly substantial, fascinating, and scholarly. Recommend for all large academic libraries. Clay Williams, Hunter Coll. Lib., New York Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Reviews
[Gruen's] book reminds us that, remarkably, there was a time in history when there was no anti-Semitism. Its virulent strain only broke out in the terrible race riot in Alexandria of 38 CE, when the Romans were already ruling the city and the Jews and the Egyptians were vying for their favor--and their jobs. Gruen's fine book is obviously the labor of a lifetime. --Erich Segal (Times Literary Supplement )
Gruen's greatest contribution is that he sees the events...of Jewish history and the literature produced by Hellenistic Jews against the backdrop of events of contemporary non-Jewish history and culture...I have seldom read a book on such a controversial topic that is so full of common sense--and so readable. --Louis Feldman (American Journal of Philology )
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The Jewish revolt against the Romans, ending with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in A.D. 70, marked an irreparable breach between the pagan-and later Christian-worlds and an outcast Jewish minority. Yet the first two-thirds of this absorbing historical study explores the harmony of Roman and Judaic civilizations before the revolt. Goodman, a professor of Jewish studies at Oxford, finds many similarities in a far-ranging comparative analysis of their religions, cultures, economies and governments, though he gives more space to the worldly, extravagant Romans than to the relatively austere and parochial Jews. Before the revolt, he contends, Romans considered Jews unobjectionable, despite their eccentric monotheism; Jerusalem prospered under Roman rule and Jews living in diaspora were well integrated into Roman society. Goodman argues that the cataclysm could have been avoided (the burning of the Temple was accidental, he believes) but for the politics of the imperial succession, which prompted a needlessly hard line against the revolt and then Judaism itself. Drawing on Josephus's firsthand narrative, Goodman fleshes out his lucid account with archeology, numismatics and commentary from Roman and Jewish sources. The result is a scholarly tour de force, a resonant story of a tragic conflict caused by political miscalculation and opportunism. 16 pages of photos, 8 maps. (Oct. 28) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Week 9: "Rebels to Rabbis" Thursday Dec 8, 2011
Topics: Bar Kochba's Revolt—Origins of Rabbinical Judaism
RECOMMENDED READING:
Reviews
An invaluable piece of current scholarship on ancient Judaism. . . . This book represents a fresh and unique look at a familiar subject, and it should be required reading for any serious scholar of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, or ancient Mediterranean religions. -- Review
Seth Schwartz's work is a much more complex assessment of ancient Jewish society and culture than that which the one-sided traditional accounts present: it is the first consistent and comprehensive attempt to view Jewish society of Hellenistic and Roman-Byzantine times in the context of the broader socio-political, economic, and religious developments of the ancient eastern Mediterranean world. This allows him to interpret the sparse evidence from Roman Palestine in a much more convincing way than has formerly been done. (Catherine Hezser, Trinity College, Dublin )
Week 10: "The Talmud and the Synagogue" Thursday Dec 15, 2011
Topics: From Prophets to Commentators—The Babylonian Talmud
REQUIRED READING:
Scheindlin, Chapter 3: Roman Palestine and Sassanid Babylonia (70 C.E. to 632)
Christmas Vacation (2 Weeks) Dec 20, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011
Christmas Vacation.
No class.
