Language:
English
Year of publication:
2024
Titel der Quelle:
Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period
Angaben zur Quelle:
55,1 (2024) 1-43
Keywords:
Pharisees History
;
Post-biblical literature History and criticism
;
Rabbinical literature History and criticism
;
Judaism History
;
Jewish law History
;
Roman law History
;
Civil law
Abstract:
In this article I argue that the rabbinic movement reinvented itself during the second century by expanding the boundaries of Jewish law to include all spheres of private law, and thereby claiming juristic expertise in these matters. A variety of sources from the Second Temple period indicate that Jewish law at this stage included primarily ritual laws, while private law was not considered unique to the Jewish way of life and was not treated by scholars of Torah until the second century CE. This far-reaching change resonates with other concurrent developments in provincial legal culture, primarily the emergence of the local nomikoi (legal experts) and legal profession during this period and the dissemination of legal knowledge in the Roman East. The provincial situation served to reshape the rabbinic movement in the guise of the local jurists, and ultimately to establish their political and social standing.
Abstract:
In recent years, a new generation of Talmud scholars rediscovered Roman law as a valuable comparative tool. In addition to localized comparisons, several broad syntheses have been offered by scholars regarding Roman law and rabbinic halakhic thinking. In his article in this issue, “The Rabbinic Movement from Pharisees to Provincial Jurists” (doi: 10.1163/15700631-bja10070), Yair Furstenberg offers to explain the rise of the field of civil law in later Tannaitic literature as part of the rise of the local jurist in the eastern provinces. I seize the opportunity of Furstenberg’s novel thesis to rethink recent trends of comparing Tannaitic halakhah and Roman law and their limitations.
Abstract:
Yair Furstenberg’s article in this issue, “The Rabbinic Movement from Pharisees to Provincial Jurists” (DOI: 10.1163/15700631-bja10070), ties what he sees as the changing boundaries of torah law at the hands of the Tannaim to changes in the legal landscape of the eastern provinces of the Roman empire in the second century. This brief essay is a response to the article, musing on its implications and raising questions for future research.
Description / Table of Contents:
Rosen-Zvi, Ishay. Rabbis as "nomikoi"?: Questioning a new paradigm: a response to Yair Furstenberg. Ibid. 44-56.
Description / Table of Contents:
Dohrmann, Natalie B. Roman civil jurisdiction, "Nezikin", and rabbinic professionalization in the second century: a response to Yair Furstenberg. Ibid. 57-64.
Description / Table of Contents:
Czajkowski, Kimberley . The need for rabbinic 'nomikoi": a response to Yair Furstenberg. Ibid. 65-75.
DOI:
10.1163/15700631-bja10070
DOI:
10.1163/15700631-bja10075
DOI:
10.1163/15700631-bja10076
DOI:
10.1163/15700631-bja10079
URL:
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