Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome's Challenge to Israel
552
Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome's Challenge to Israel
552Paperback
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Overview
How encounters with the Roman Empire compelled the Jews of antiquity to rethink their conceptions of Israel and the Torah
Throughout their history, Jews have lived under a succession of imperial powers, from Assyria and Babylonia to Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. Jews and Their Roman Rivals shows how the Roman Empire posed a unique challenge to Jewish thinkers such as Philo, Josephus, and the Palestinian rabbis, who both resisted and internalized Roman standards and imperial ideology.
Katell Berthelot traces how, long before the empire became Christian, Jews came to perceive Israel and Rome as rivals competing for supremacy. Both considered their laws to be the most perfect ever written, and both believed they were a most pious people who had been entrusted with a divine mission to bring order and peace to the world. Berthelot argues that the rabbinic identification of Rome with Esau, Israel's twin brother, reflected this sense of rivalry. She discusses how this challenge transformed ancient Jewish ideas about military power and the use of force, law and jurisdiction, and membership in the people of Israel. Berthelot argues that Jewish thinkers imitated the Romans in some cases and proposed competing models in others.
Shedding new light on Jewish thought in antiquity, Jews and Their Roman Rivals reveals how Jewish encounters with pagan Rome gave rise to crucial evolutions in the ways Jews conceptualized the Torah and conversion to Judaism.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691264806 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Publication date: | 08/20/2024 |
| Pages: | 552 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Maps xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Abbreviations xvii
Note on Translations xxi
Introduction 1
1 Recontextualizing Israel's Encounter with the Roman Empire in the Longue Durée 2
2 A Survey of Scholarship on "Rome and Jerusalem" 7
3 Responses to Empire: Theory, Terminology, and Method 17
Empire, Imperialism, and Imperial Ideology 17
Analyzing Responses to Empire: Coping with Diversity 19
Jewish Responses to the Roman Empire 22
Chapter 1 Coping with Empires before Rome: From Assyria to the Hellenistic Kingdoms 29
1 The Neo-Assyrian Empire 33
1.1 The Nature of Neo-Assyrian Imperialism 33
1.2 The Legacy of Neo-Assyrian Imperialism in the Bible 36
The Notion of a Universal God 37
God's Kingdom and Divine Kingship 38
The Covenant Between God and Israel 40
Specific Laws of the Covenant 41
Human Kingship 43
2 The Neo-Babylonian Empire 46
2.1 The Nature of Neo-Babylonian Imperialism 46
2.2 The Legacy of Neo-Babylonian Imperialism in the Bible 48
The Emergence of Monotheism: Foreign Gods as Idols 49
The Election and Salvific Role of the People of Israel 50
Human Kingship 51
3 The Persian Empire 52
3.1 The Nature of Achaemenid Imperialism 52
Local Cults and Imperial Propaganda 53
Persian Imperial Ideology: Universalism, Dualism, and Soteriological Mission 55
3.2 Achaemenid Imperialism in the Bible and in Second Temple-Period Jewish Sources 59
Further Monotheistic Developments: The Rejection of Dualism 61
The Creator God 62
Human Kingship 65
The Rise of the Torah 65
The Development of an Apocalyptic World View and Literature 68
Eschatology and Ethics 69
4 The Hellenistic Kingdoms 70
4.1 Seleucid Rule and Royal Ideology 72
4.2 The Legacy of Seleucid Imperialism in Ancient Jewish Sources 75
Human Kingship 76
Territory: Defining Israel's Relationship to the Promised Land in Legal-Historical Terms 80
Time, History, and Power: Foretelling the End of Empire 81
Empires, Theology, and Angelology 84
Chapter 2 The Unique Challenge of the Roman Empire: A Rivalry between Two Peoples 88
1 The Imperialism of a People 90
1.1 A Jewish Testimony from the Second Century BCE 91
1.2 The Imperium of the Populus Romanus 93
1.3 Roma: City, Personification, and Goddess 102
2 The "Election" of the Romans 107
2.1 A Divine Scheme 107
2.2 Roman Virtues 113
2.3 Roman Pietas 116
3 The "Vocation" of the Romans 126
3.1 A Universal and Eternal Rule? 127
Universal Rule 127
Eternal Rule 132
3.2 A "Messianic" Vocation to Bring Peace, Prosperity, and Legal Order to the World 140
4 The Roman Victories Over the Jews: Obliteration and Substitution 150
4.1 A "Game of Temples": From Jerusalem to Rome and Vice-Versa 155
4.2 Aelia Capitolina: A Miniature Rome 161
5 Rome as Israel's Twin Brother and Rival 163
5.1 Rome, an Empire among Others? 164
5.2 Rome as Esau/Edom 167
Chapter 3 The Challenge of Roman Power 177
1 Roman Military Power and Roman Manliness 181
1.1 The Children of Mars 181
1.2 Jewish Perceptions of Roman Military Might 191
2 A Rivalry for Military Valor? 201
2.1 Jews and the Military 201
2.2 Jews, War, and Manliness: Roman Perspectives 205
2.3 Jews, War, and Manliness: Jewish Rivalry with Rome? 209
2.4 Jewish Mimesis and Mimicry of Roman Power 218
3 Jewish Criticism and Redefinitions of Bravery, Manliness, and Power 227
3.1 Redefining Courage as Self-Control and the Ability to Face Suffering and Death 229
3.2 Redefining Power in Relation to the Virtuous Mind 233
3.3 Redefining Strength as Torah and Torah Study 236
3.4 "The Lord is a man of war": Redefining God's Power? 246
Chapter 4 The Challenge of Roman Law and Jurisdiction 257
1 The Nature of the Challenge 259
1.1 The Ideological Dimension of the Challenge 259
1.2 The Concrete Dimension of the Challenge 266
2 Rabbinic and Roman Law: A Partly Shared Legal Culture? 276
3 A Rivalry of Legal Systems: The Torah versus Roman Jurisdiction 286
3.1 The Torah as the Most Perfect and the Most Ancient Law 290
3.2 Roman Admiration for Jewish Law? 298
3.3 The Laws of Israel versus the Laws of the Nations 304
4 The Torah as Nonuniversal Law 316
4.1 From a Law Accessible to All to Israel's Exclusive Law 316
4.2 A Universal Promulgation of the Torah in Rabbinic Sources? 326
4.3 The Significance of the Noahide Laws 332
Chapter 5 The Challenge of Roman Citizenship 340
1 The Nature of the Challenge 343
1.1 The Roman "Melting Pot" 343
1.2 Civis Romanus sum: The Characteristics of Roman Citizenship 347
1.3 Roman Grants of Citizenship: Ideological Aspects 355
2 Judaism as "Citizenship": The Hellenistic Context and the impact of Rome 362
2.1 Genealogy versus Adherence to the Law: Biblical and Second Temple Foundations 362
2.2 Judaism as "Citizenship" in the Hellenistic Period 368
2.3 Judaism as "Citizenship" in Nonrabbinic Jewish Sources of the Roman Period 373
2.4 Judaism as "Citizenship" in Rabbinic Literature 384
The Manumission of Slaves 386
Captives 390
Converts 393
3 Beyond Citizenship: The Enduring Significance of Lineage and the Legal Fiction of Adoption 398
3.1 Converts as Children of Abraham in Y. Bikkurim: A Legal Fiction Related to the Roman Notion and Practice of Adoption 398
3.2 Adoption in Pre-Rabbinic Jewish Texts 416
Conclusion 429
Bibliography 433
Digital Resources 433
Editions of Rabbinic Texts 439
Secondary Sources 439
Index of Ancient Sources 493
What People are Saying About This
"A brilliant work of meticulous scholarship. Marshaling an exhaustive array of evidence, Berthelot explores central features of late antique Jewish culture as a response to the unique challenge that pagan Rome posed to the self-conception and ideology of Israel. This book is an absolute pleasure to read."—Christine Hayes, author of What's Divine about Divine Law?"Drawing on a wealth of recent scholarship, this book will be of interest to historians of both Judaism and ancient Rome."—Martin Goodman, author of A History of Judaism