“A comparison between Avot and Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists underscores striking similarities and differences between the compositions…”
A comparison between Avot and Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists underscores striking similarities and differences between the compositions and thereby functions as a natural springboard into the analysis of Avot in light of the Second Sophistic. The patriarch edited Avot in the early third century, and Philostratus most probably wrote Lives of the Sophists in […] continued…
“The temporal and geographic core of Jewish ritual purity was Second Temple Jerusalem”
The temporal and geographic core of Jewish ritual purity was Second Temple Jerusalem. Like a nuclear reactor in which movements are carefully measured and protocols strictly enforced, the Temple operated according to stringent purity rules, including a gradated access system designed to keep away the tainted. Yet, purity was not only a Jerusalem syndrome. In […] continued…
“The contrast between wine culture of Palestine and beer culture of Babylonia is well documented in the Talmud…”
One of the important distinctions between the diet of Graeco-Roman Palestine and Babylonia was the use of wine or beer as a common beverage. It is abundantly clear that in the Graeco-Roman world, wine was the more usual beverage, rather than beer. In Babylonia, there was a tradition of cultivated wine being imported from the […] continued…
“Universalist ideas were central to Jewish authors living in the Second Temple period…”
Universalist ideas were central to Jewish authors living in the Second Temple period, and to the readers who read and circulated these authors’ texts. The circulation of Jewish universalist ideas at this time indicates that the once-dominant model of Christianity as a universalist religion and Judaism as a particularist one cannot be upheld. Dr. Malka […] continued…
“… in the Second Temple period, Judaism was a petri dish of ideas that nurtured a pluralism which invited all people to worship the Jewish God”
We tend to think of the consecutive developments of Greek philosophy, normative Judaism, and early Christianity as being exclusive to one another. But the opposite is in fact true: these schools shared many ideas, including how to understand and relate to the “Other,” the individual who lived outside of the community in question. Indeed, the […] continued…
“What makes the Second Temple period so unique is that much of its literature sees no need for hard distinctions between religious communities”
Many Jews in the Second Temple period believed that Israel shares a special relationship with God, and at the same time, that all people are capable of participating in a covenantal relationship with God. But as boundaries between religious communities began to lose their fluidity in the early centuries of the Common Era, Jewish universalism […] continued…
“The laying-up of something in the Temple had the effect of dedicating it to God, and so gave it an additional sanctity”
In view of the divine origin which was attributed to the Scriptures, it is not at all surprising to find them described in the literature of the intertestamental and NT periods as ‘holy’. The description is a very common one. Two of the early titles of the Pentateuch are ‘the Holy Law’ (Letter of Aristeas, […] continued…
“…oriental banquets must be compared and contrasted with Greek symposia, and the latter in turn with Roman convivia”
Common consumption of food, and of alcoholic beverages in particular, is one effective way of creating and reinforcing social bonds. At the risk of over-simplifying, the ancient Mediterranean world knew three major varieties of such events, in each of which different social concepts and goals found expression: oriental banquets must be compared and contrasted with […] continued…
“…although much of Second Temple and Rabbinic literature can be read in light of the Greek and later Roman-Christian context in which they were composed…”
…although much of Second Temple and Rabbinic literature can be read in light of the Greek and later Roman-Christian context in which they were composed, we should be wary of attributing all differences to a binary in which Second Temple Jews were the “opposite” of Greeks, and the Rabbis were the “opposite” of Rome. It […] continued…
“Josephus’s invective against John and his rebel cohort should be read within a wider Roman discourse on transgressive gender”
I have argued that Josephus’s invective against John and his rebel cohort should be read within a wider Roman discourse on transgressive gender, both the tendency in political invective to cast tyrants as effeminate objects of anal penetration, as well as the gendered power structures integral to Roman imperial ideology. Effeminacy, and especially sexual passivity, […] continued…
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