Ari Z Bryen

Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire: The Poetics of Power in Late Antiquity - Jewish Culture and Contexts Ari Z Bryen

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Review Quotes:"An extremely important study that will fundamentally change how we think about violence in Egypt and elsewhere in the Roman Empire--in fact, the way we conceive Roman rule in the provinces altogether."--Noel Lenski, University of ColoradoReview Quotes:"A substantial contribution to the field of papyrology, "Violence in Roman Egypt" contributes an interesting analysis of the only extant documentation of this kind in antiquity, which has never before been studied from this perspective." --Sofia Torallas Tovar, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientificasBiographical Note: Natalie B. Dohrmann is Associate Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the coeditor of Jewish Biblical Interpretation and Cultural Exchange: Comparative Exegesis in Context, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Annette Yoshiko Reed is M. Mark and Esther K. Watkins Assistant Professor of Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity, and coeditor of The Ways That Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity. Review Quotes:"Beginning with the editors' fundamental historiographical and programmatic essay, "Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire" is the most important collection of studies on Jews in late antiquity I have ever seen. In fact, it is essential reading for all students of late antiquity. Especially admirable is the book's implicit argument that late antiquity was constituted not by a single seismic shift but by the slow accretion of small changes over time."--Seth Schwartz, Columbia UniversityReview Quotes:"This volume opens up important new intellectual avenues for students of ancient religion and empire and will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact on multiple arenas of scholarly research. There is, simply, no work that tackles the intellectual question 'How do we integrate Judaism into the Roman Empire, and vice versa?' with such depth and breadth."--Andrew S. Jacobs, Scripps CollegeTable of Contents: List of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Rethinking Romanness, Provincializing Christendom--Annette Yoshiko Reed and Natalie B. DohrmannPART I. RABBIS AND OTHER ROMAN SUBELITESChapter 1. The Afterlives of the Torah's Ethnic Language: The Sifra and Clement on Lev 18.1-5--Beth A. BerkowitzChapter 2. The Kingdom of Edessa and the Creation of a Christian Aristocracy--William AdlerChapter 3. Law and Imperial Idioms: Rabbinic Legalism in a Roman World--Natalie B. DohrmannChapter 4. The Law of Moses and the Jews: Rabbis, Ethnic Marking, and Romanization--Hayim LapinPART II. CHRISTIANIZATION AND OTHER MODALITIES OF ROMANIZATIONChapter 5. There Is No Place Like Home: Rabbinic Responses to the Christianization of Palestine--Joshua LevinsonChapter 6. Between Gaza and Minorca: The (Un) Making of Minorities in Late Antiquity--Hagith SivanChapter 7. Christian Historiographers' Reflections on Jewish-Christian Violence in Fifth-Century Alexandria--Oded IrshaiChapter 8. Narrating Salvation: Verbal Sacrifices in Late Antique Liturgical Poetry--Ophir Munz-ManorChapter 9. Israelite Kingship, Christian Rome, and the Jewish Imperial Imagination: Midrashic Precursors to the Medieval "Throne of Solomon"--Ra'anan BoustanPART III. CONTINUITY AND RUPTUREChapter 10. Chains of Tradition from Avot to the Avodah Piyutim--Michael D. SwartzChapter 11. Change in Continuity in Late Legal Papyri from Palaestina Tertia: Nomos Hellenikos and Ethos Romaikon--Hannah M. CottonChapter 12. The Representation of the Temple and Jerusalem in Jewish and Christian Houses of Prayer in the Holy Land in Late Antiquity--Rina TalgamChapter 13. Roman Christianity and the Post-Roman West: The Social Correlates of the Contra Iudaeos Tradition--Paula FredriksenNotesSelect Bibliography of Secondary SourcesList of ContributorsIndexAcknowledgmentsReview Quotes:""Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire", beginning with the editors' fundamental historiographical and programmatic essay, is the most important collection of studies on Jews in late antiquity I have ever seen. In fact, it is essential reading for all students of late antiquity. Especially admirable is the book's implicit argument that late antiquity was constituted not by a single seismic shift, but by the slow accretion of small changes over time."--Seth Schwartz, Columbia UniversityPublisher Marketing: In histories of ancient Jews and Judaism, the Roman Empire looms large. For all the attention to the Jewish Revolt and other conflicts, however, there has been less concern for situating Jews within Roman imperial contexts; just as Jews are frequently dismissed as atypical by scholars of Roman history, so Rome remains invisible in many studies of rabbinic and other Jewish sources written under Roman rule."Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire" brings Jewish perspectives to bear on long-standing debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity. Focusing on the third to sixth centuries, it draws together specialists in Jewish and Christian history, law, literature, poetry, and art. Perspectives from rabbinic and patristic sources are juxtaposed with evidence from piyyutim, documentary papyri, and synagogue and church mosaics. Through these case studies, contributors highlight paradoxes, subtleties, and ironies of Romanness and imperial power. Contributors: William Adler, Beth A. Berkowitz, Ra'anan Boustan, Hannah M. Cotton, Natalie B. Dohrmann, Paula Fredriksen, Oded Irshai, Hayim Lapin, Joshua Levinson, Ophir Munz-Manor, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Hagith Sivan, Michael D. Swartz, Rina Talgam.

Contributor Bio:  Reed, Annette Yoshiko Annette Yoshiko Reed is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University, where she teaches courses on the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Her publications span the fields of Biblical Studies, Jewish Studies, and Patristics, and include articles in Journal of Biblical Literature, Jewish Studies Quarterly, Journal for the Study of Judaism, Vigiliae Christianae, and Journal of Early Christian Studies. She has co-edited two volumes, The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (with Adam H. Becker, Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003) and Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions (with Ra'anan S. Boustan; Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004). She is presently working on a book about 'Jewish-Christianity' and the diversity of late antique Judaism.