Rabbis as Romans

Abstract

The Rabbinic Movement emerged in Palestine by the late second century. Although frequently studied for its significance to the history of Judaism, it is more rarely studied as an example of a provincial social movement in a Roman province. Rabbis as Romans addresses this latter aspect of the Rabbis’ history, studying their origins in the late first or early second century to the end of the fourth century. After a detailed treatment of the process of provincialization in Palestine—political annexation, revolt, and the political, administrative, and economic reorganization that followed—the book turns to the history of the Rabbinic movement itself, arguing that Rabbis are best understood as a movement of literate urban men of some means. This is a social stratum deeply touched by Romanization, with the material means to make choices about legal practices, education for themselves and sons, language, and culture. This observation requires a revised understanding of the development of the rabbinic movement, but also recognizes rabbinic texts and the history of the movement as important resources for the history of provincialization in the Roman Near East. In addition to a history of the origins and formation of the rabbinic movement, the book studies Rabbis’ role as judges, a role they seem to have had especially for adherents, and a series of legal and non-legal texts that locate Rabbis’ cultural self-fashioning within wider cultural debates in the Roman empire.

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