A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Группа авторов

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СКАЧАТЬ Genesis–1 Samuel. Much additional, non-biblical information is incorporated into a text which is evidently keen to discuss various forms of leadership, and their appropriateness for the Jewish people at times of crisis, while offering insights into the ultimate significance of Israel’s history along with veiled predictions for the future. Scholars are divided over the book’s date, some preferring to place its final form in the years leading up to the First Revolt against Rome, others arguing that it is best understood as a reaction to the Fall of Jerusalem. Few students, however, would dispute its value as a source for Jewish thought and aspiration in the later part of the first century CE. It survives only in a Latin version, which was probably made from a Greek translation of a Hebrew (or Aramaic) original (Jacobson 1996): this is of some interest, given that the other major Jewish source approximately contemporary with it also survives only in a Latin version. This is the apocalyptic text IV Ezra, also known as II Esdras, a remarkable composition which offers a sustained reflection upon, and response to, the political and religious problems consequent upon the destruction of the Jewish Temple and state (Harnisch 1969; Stone 1990). It offers a carefully and deliberately structured theological and philosophical discourse, built around a series of visions experienced by the eponymous author, and his dialogues with the archangel Uriel. The text proceeds by gradually analysing the situation of the Jews before and after the revolt against Rome: in the course of this analysis, there emerges the enduring power of what Israel still possesses as a people, most especially the Torah of Moses and its commandments. These present possessions offer a future for Israel; and the guidance of “the wise among the people,” to whom Ezra is told to commit certain writings not made public (14:46–47), is mentioned at the end of the book as something on which future generations might rely.

      Some literary relationship (its precise nature is debated) is apparent between IV Ezra and a later text known as II Baruch, or the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, composed most likely around 135 CE at the end of the Second Revolt against Rome. Predictions of a glorious future for Israel in a Messianic age following her humiliation at the hands of the Gentiles are here set forth as part of a programme determined by God, who will judge the wicked and Israel’s oppressors, and create for His people prosperity and peace (Harnisch 1969; Nir 2003). It is noteworthy that we possess no Jewish source in our period later than II Baruch which deals with future hopes and Messianic expectations in such detail. There is little doubt that hopes for the future fuelled the Second Revolt against Rome, which broke out on 132 CE under the leadership of Simeon ben Kosiba, whose followers called him Bar Kokhba (the Son of the Star) with reference to the messianic prophecy recorded in Numb 24:17. Between 1950 and 1965, documents in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek relating to this revolt came to light: they were discovered in caves located in Nahal Hever (or in the case of some documents possibly in Nahal Se’elim) in the Judaean desert. Whilst these documents, sometimes referred to as the Bar Kokhba Letters, tell us little about the causes and overall progress of the revolt (these still remain matters of considerable debate), they indicate that Bar Kokhba was known to his supporters as “Prince of Israel”; that some non-Jews had joined the revolt (thus supporting some classical accounts of the revolt, indicating that it was no minor affair); and that the Jews were remarkably well-organized militarily, a fact corroborated by archaeological evidence from the same geographical area as the literary discoveries and from other sites (Eck 1999; Yadin e.a. 2002; Zissu e.a. 2011). Also at Nehal Hever were found documents belonging to a Jewish lady, Babatha (“the Babatha archive”), which date from the period c. 93–132 CE and are remarkably informative about the legal systems, both Jewish and Roman in use during this period (Oudshoorn 2007; see also Chapter 11).

      “Rabbinic Literature”

By far the most impressive and significant of all Jewish sources surveyed here saw the light of day after the end of the Second Revolt in 135 CE. This is that vast corpus of texts commonly called “Rabbinic Literature,” many of whose foundational, classical texts were produced and redacted in the years following the revolts against Rome and preceding the outbreak of Islam in the early seventh century CE (for all sources mentioned hereafter, consult individual entries in Stemberger 2011). The roots of the Rabbinic movement lie deep in Jewish history and culture; but its distinctive teaching of the dual Torah – the written Torah enshrined in Scripture, and the autonomous Oral Torah transmitted and preserved by the Sages of Judaism (Jaffee 2001) – is explicitly articulated only after 70 CE. Indeed, it was the fall of the Temple which encouraged the growth of Rabbinic ideas, with their agenda of sustained and rigorous study of Torah both Written and Oral as a primary religious duty; statutory prayer; faithful adherence to and performance of the commandments of the Torah; and the master–disciple relationship in the building up of scholarly tradition. Some recent research suggests that Rabbinic Judaism’s journey toward the commanding position it eventually came to hold may have been less straightforward, and more prolonged, than was once held to be the case (Lightstone 2002; Lapin 2006; but see also Rosenfeld 2010); but this view of things must still take into account the fact that the historical evidence available allows us only partial glimpses of non-Rabbinic forms of Judaism which are often difficult to assess. Here we should mention the Synagogue, an institution which seems only gradually to have come under direct Rabbinic supervision: mosaics and inscriptions from sites such as Hammat Tiberias (late third to early fourth century CE); Sepphoris (fifth–sixth century CE), and Beth-Alpha (sixth century CE), to say nothing of Dura-Europos (before mid-third century CE) (Figure 12.2), reveal a rich cultural interaction between Jews and non-Jews, of which several explanations may be offered (Levine 2005). Crucial as these sites are for the investigation of Jewish social and religious conditions, they offer the researcher comparatively little in the way of direct evidence for political history, although they can provide valuable enrichment of the historical sources available in the writings of Greek and Latin authors.

      That the Rabbis themselves formed a somewhat enclosed, rather exclusive group, small in numbers and accessible only to those with the necessary expertise to enable them to appreciate and take part in Rabbinic discourse, may nonetheless be granted; and the promulgation of their first written document, the Mishnah (English translation Danby 1933), underscores this point. It consists of a collection of Oral Torah (individual legal norms in conditional and unconditional formulations; disputes; some mini-narratives about named authorities, often illustrating legal points; rules for good conduct; and some parables and wisdom-utterances) deriving from the Tanna’im, the “repeaters” of the Oral Law. It is organized under six main headings or “orders.” These are Zera’im, “seeds” (the laws of agriculture); Mo’ed (the laws of festivals); Nashim (the laws relating to women); Neziqin (literally “damages,” the laws of contract, tort, civil and criminal law); Qedoshim, “holy things” (the laws of sacrifice); and Tohorot (the laws of purity). The orders are subdivided into 63 tractates (massekhtot) whose titles alone offer a fair representation of the Rabbinic legal agenda as a whole: this is set out in compressed formulations and often terse language which evidently assumes a fair degree of prior knowledge on the student’s part. Apparent digressions from what may be taken to be the main topics of the tractates are by no means unknown; but concern to establish correct legal norms to be put into practice (halakhah) is foregrounded, even though recorded disputes between legal authorities do not always conclude with clear, unambiguous decisions on particular points. The Mishnah’s digressions and mini-narratives appear from time to time to illustrate and discuss an event or series of events in the life of a Rabbi, or to pass comment on some practice or institution; and such information, taken along with the technical legal discussions, suggests that the Mishnah has a broad vision of Jewish life and culture as a whole (Neusner 1981; Avery-Peck and Neusner 2006).

Closely associated with the Mishnah is the Tosefta (English translation Neusner 2002), which it closely resembles in outward form: its six orders are those of the Mishnah, and of the Mishnah’s 63 tractates it lacks only four. The texts of the Mishnah and Tosefta overlap in many places; but the Tosefta presents much extra information not present in the Mishnah, and has traditionally been understood as a supplement (Tosefta, indeed, means “addition”) to the latter. On this view, the Tosefta would have been completed a little later than the Mishnah, СКАЧАТЬ