Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian

الغلاف الأمامي
Princeton University Press, 1993 - 679 من الصفحات

Relations between Jews and non-Jews in the Hellenistic-Roman period were marked by suspicion and hate, maintain most studies of that topic. But if such conjectures are true, asks Louis Feldman, how did Jews succeed in winning so many adherents, whether full-fledged proselytes or "sympathizers" who adopted one or more Jewish practices? Systematically evaluating attitudes toward Jews from the time of Alexander the Great to the fifth century A.D., Feldman finds that Judaism elicited strongly positive and not merely unfavorable responses from the non-Jewish population. Jews were a vigorous presence in the ancient world, and Judaism was strengthened substantially by the development of the Talmud. Although Jews in the Diaspora were deeply Hellenized, those who remained in Israel were able to resist the cultural inroads of Hellenism and even to initiate intellectual counterattacks.


Feldman draws on a wide variety of material, from Philo, Josephus, and other Graeco-Jewish writers through the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Church Councils, Church Fathers, and imperial decrees to Talmudic and Midrashic writings and inscriptions and papyri. What emerges is a rich description of a long era to which conceptions of Jewish history as uninterrupted weakness and suffering do not apply.

 

المحتوى

Contacts between Jews and NonJews in the Land of Israel
3
2 Literary Contacts between the Time of Alexander and the Maccabean Revolt
6
3 Military Political and Economic Contacts between Greeks and Jews from the Time of Alexander to the Maccabean Revolt
11
4 Linguistic Contacts between Greeks and Jews before the Maccabean Revolt
14
5 Influence of Greek Ideas before the Maccabees
16
6 Political Contacts between Greeks and Jews during the Hasmonean and Roman Periods
18
The Alleged Influence of the Greek Language
19
8 Hellenization in Lower vs Upper Galilee during the Hasmonean and Roman Periods
24
7 Praise by Pagans of the Courage of the Jews
220
8 Josephus on the Courage of Jewish Heroes
222
9 Praise by Pagans of the Temperance of the Jews
223
10 Josephus on the Temperance of Jewish Heroes
225
11 Praise by NonJews of the Justice of the Jews
226
12 Josephus on the Justice of Jewish Heroes
227
13 Praise by Pagans of the Piety of the Jews
230
14 Josephus on the Piety of Jewish Heroes
231

Education and Literature
25
10 Alleged Greek Influence on the Talmudic Rabbis in the First Five Centuries ce
31
11Greek Influence on Jewish Art
39
12 Summary
42
The Strength of Judaism in the Diaspora
45
2 Assimilation of the Jews to Greek Language and Thought
51
3 Secular Education of Jews in the Diaspora
57
4 Jews and Athletics
59
5 Jews and the Theater
61
6 The Organization of the Jewish Community
63
7 Syncretism among the Jews
65
8 The Strength of Judaism in Asia Minor
69
Literalists and Allegorists
74
10 Deviations from Jewish Law
76
11 Intermarriage
77
12 Apostasy
79
Official AntiJewish Bigotry The Responses of Governments to the Jews
84
2 Jews under Egyptian Ptolemies and Syrian Seleucids
86
3 The Attitudes of the Roman Government toward the Jews
92
4 The Reactions of the Jews to the Roman Government
102
Popular Prejudice against Jews
107
2 The Attack on the Jews in Alexandria in the Year 38
113
3 Attacks on the Jews in the Year 66
117
4 The Aftermath of the War of 6674
120
Prejudice against Jews among Ancient Intellectuals
123
2 The Alleged Jewish Misanthropy
125
3 Answers to Charges of Misanthropy in GraecoJewish Writers before Josephus
131
4 Answers to Charges of Misanthropy in Josephuss Antiquities
133
5 Answers to Charges of Misanthropy in Josephuss Against Apion
142
6 Attacks on Jewish Theology
149
7 The Attack on Jewish Circumcision
153
8 The Attack on the Jewish Observance of the Sabbath
158
9 The Attack on the Jewish Dietary Laws
167
10 Contempt for the Jews Credulity
170
11 Contempt for the Jews as Beggars
171
12 Alleged Jewish Influence
172
The Attractions of the Jews Their Antiquity
177
2 Writers Mentioned by Josephus
178
3 Other Classical References to the Antiquity of the Jews
182
4 Tacituss Account of the Origin of the Britons and the Germans as Compared with the Origin on the Jews
183
5 Tacituss Theories of the Origin of the Jews
184
6 The Importance for Christianity of the Ancient Jewish Connection
196
7 The Importance of the Antiquity of the Jews as Seen by Origen
198
The Attractions of the Jew The Cardinal Virtues
201
2 Later Greek and Roman writers on the Wisdom of the Jews
204
3 Alleged GraecoJewish Historians before Josephus on the Wisdom of the Jews
207
4 Philo on the Wisom of the Jews
209
5 Josephus on the Wisdom of the Jews
210
6 Second Third and FourthCentury Writers on the Wisdom of the Jews
214
The Attractions of the Jews The Ideal Leader Moses
233
2 The Virtues of Moses according to GraecoJewish Historians
242
3 The Virtues of Moses according to Josephus
243
4 Moses the Magician
285
The Success of Proselytism by Jews in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods
288
2 The Case for NonMissionary Activity
290
3 The Demographic Evidence for Missionary Activity
293
5 Evidence from Resentment against Proselytism
298
6 Expulsions of Jews as Evidence of Missionary Activity
300
7 The Means of Conversion
305
8 Converts in the Land of Israel and in the Various Lands of the Diaspora
324
9 Motives of Jews in Seeking Converts
332
10 Reasons for the Success of the Proselyting Movement in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods
334
11 Motives of Proselytes in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods
335
12 The Status of Proselytes and the Attitude of Born Jews toward Them in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods
338
The Success of Jews in Winning Sympathizers
342
2 Circumstantial Evidence
343
3 Pagan References
344
4 Jewish References
348
5 Christian References
356
6 Epigraphical and Papyrological Evidence
358
The Dramatic New Inscriptions and Their Implications
362
8 Factors That Attracted NonJews to Judaism in the Third Century
369
Proselytism by Jews in the Third Fourth and Fifth Centuries
383
Roman Imperial Legislation
385
Church Canons
397
Church Fathers before John Chrysostom
400
John Chrysostom and Subsequent Church Fathers
405
Rabbinic Literature
408
Inscriptions and Papyri
411
8 Reasons for Jewish Success in Winning Converts
412
9 The Decline of the Outreach Movement and Its Renewal
413
Conclusion
416
Abbreviations
447
Notes
461
Bibliography
587
Indexes
621
Passages from Ancient Writers
623
2 Apocrypha Pseudepigraphs
624
3New Testament
625
5 Rabbinic and Allied Literature
631
6 Christian Writings Greek Latin Syriac and Arabic and Canons of Church Councils
634
7 Inscriptions and Papyri
636
9 Classical Latin Authors
643
Names and Subjects
646
Geographical PlaceNames
662
Greek Latin and Hebrew and Aramaic Words
664
Modern Scholars
672
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نبذة عن المؤلف (1993)

Louis H. Feldman is Professor of Classics at Yeshiva University. Among his works is Josephus and Modern Scholarship (1937-1980).

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