Josephus, the Rabbis, and Responses to Catastrophes Ancient and Modern

Abstract

In order to explain the impact the destruction of the second temple had on Jewish history, a number of scholars maintain that a helpful analogy can be drawn between the catastrophic defeat in 70 CE and calamities that befell the Jewish people in 1933-1945. Following from this, it is suggested that the Jewish responses to these catastrophes can also be helpfully compared: the Jews were at first shocked into silence, and only gradually able to come to terms with catastrophe. A comparison of the two historical events, alongside a careful reconsideration of the responses to 70 CE in Josephus and Rabbinic literature, will provide the basis for a critical reexamination of this approach. It will be argued here that analogies between the Jewish responses to 70 CE and 1945 do not find adequate support in either the ancient or modern evidence. When looking at the ancient evidence, which is the focus of this article, what is striking is the degree to which Josephus's response in the first decade after the destruction is in many important respects quite similar to the responses of the rabbis centuries later. Scholarly understanding of Josephus, the Rabbis, and ancient Judaism in general will be advanced if we set aside once and fo

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