Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1000 CE

his volume is dedicated to the cultural and religious diversity in Jewish communities from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Age and the growing influence of the rabbis within these communities during the same period. Drawing on available textual and material evidence, the fourteen essays presented here, written by leading experts in their fields, span a significant chronological and geographical range and cover material that has not yet received sufficient attention in scholarship.

The volume is divided into four parts. The first focuses on the vantage point of the synagogue; the second and third on non-rabbinic Judaism in, respectively, the Near East and Europe; the final part turns from diversity within Judaism to the process of "rabbinization" as represented in some unusual rabbinic texts.

Diversity and Rabbinization is a welcome contribution to the historical study of Judaism in all its complexity. It presents fresh perspectives on critical questions and allows us to rethink the tension between multiplicity and unity in Judaism during the first millennium CE.

L’École Pratique des Hautes Études has kindly contributed to the publication of this volume.

504pp. | 39 B&W or colour illustration | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)

Semitic Languages and Cultures | ISSN: 2632-6906 (Print); 2632-6914 (Online)

ISBN Paperback: 9781783749935
ISBN Hardback: 9781783749942
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783749959
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783749966
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783749973

ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783749980

DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0219

Subject Codes: BIC: JF (Society and Culture: General), JFSR1 (Jewish Studies), CFF (Historical and comparative linguistics), CFP (Translation and interpretation); BISAC: REL006020 (RELIGION / Biblical Biography / General), LAN009010 (LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Historical & Comparative). OCLC Number: 1250645974.

Contents

Contributors

Introduction Download
Gavin McDowell, Ron Naiweld and Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra

Part 1. The Synagogue

1. Diversity in the Ancient Synagogue of Roman-Byzantine Palestine: Historical Implications Download
Lee I. Levine

2. Society and the Self in Early Piyyut Download
Michael D. Swartz

3. Some Remarks about Non-Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinization, and Synagogal Judaism Download
José Costa

Part 2. Evidence for Non-Rabbinic Judaism: The Near East

4. In Search of Non-Rabbinic Judaism in Sasanian Babylonia Download
Geoffrey Herman

5. Varieties of Non-Rabbinic Judaism in Geonic and Contemporaneous Sources Download
Robert Brody

6. Karaites and Sadducees Download
Yoram Erder

7. The Judaism of the Ancient Kingdom of Ḥimyar in Arabia: A Discreet Conversion Download
Christian Julien Robin

Part 3. Evidence for Non-Rabbinic Judaism: Europe

8. The Didascalus Annas: A Jewish Political and Intellectual Figure from the West Download
Capucine Nemo-Pekelman

9. Rabbis in Southern Italian Jewish Inscriptions from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages Download
Giancarlo Lacerenza

10. Jewish Demographics and Economics at the Onset of the European Middle Ages Download
Michael Toch

Part 4. Rabbinization

11. The Rabbinization Tractates and the Propagation of Rabbinic Ideology in the Late Talmudic Period Download
Ron Naiweld

12. Who is the Target of Toledot Yeshu? Download
Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra

13. Rabbinization of Non-Rabbinic Material in Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer Download
Gavin McDowell

14. Seder Eliyahu Rabbah: Rabbinic Tradition for a Non-Rabbinic Society Download
Günter Stemberger

Afterword: Rabbinization and the Persistence of Diversity in Jewish Culture in Late Antiquity Download
Ra‘anan Boustan

List of Illustrations
Index