Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. - Seth Schwartz

166 CHAPTER FIVE the Jewish God demanded to be worshiped, according to the book of Leviti- cus, or because they are elements in ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 167 how to treat images of the gods in general, and how to cope with aspects of city life objection ...

168 CHAPTER FIVE ProklosandHisQuestion By the time of the compilation of the Mishnah and associated documents, therewererealpaga ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 169 publicbaths,anduseinexpensiveitemsdecoratedwithunambiguouslypagan symbols (3:3), but it is also ...

170 CHAPTER FIVE The phrasing of R. Gamaliel’s response—you pagans say, “Aphrodite is madeasanornamentforthebath,”youpaganswould ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 171 of the divine, even if only because they turned men’s minds to piety.^18 And evenessentiallydec ...

172 CHAPTER FIVE of thesignificance of theircommonplace material representation, asall mod- ern scholarship has done, is not onl ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 173 neverlookedatanimageinhislife,notevenifitwasonlystampedonacoin.^22 The Palestinian Talmud also ...

174 CHAPTER FIVE laws of idolatry may have as their primary context the rabbinic study house, and so they may have been motivate ...

THE RABBIS AND URBAN CULTURE 175 Conclusion Despite the evidence for their integrationist ambitions, and for some flexibil- ity, ...

176 CHAPTER FIVE refrainedfromeatingporkandcircumcisedtheirsonsbutparticipatedwithout hesitation in public festivals). We should ...

PART III SYNAGOGUEANDCOMMUNITYFROM350TO640 ...

This page intentionally left blank ...

SIX CHRISTIANIZATION I N THIS PART of the book I attempt to describe some aspects of the novel and distinctive Jewish culture th ...

180 CHAPTER SIX gogues, which, we may infer, were found in all but the very smallest settle- ments. The rise of the synagogue wi ...

CHRISTIANIZATION 181 here. Since the days of Heinrich Graetz it has been common to view the history of the Jews in late antiquit ...

182 CHAPTER SIX cally iconoclastic argument of Yitzhak (Fritz) Baer that there was no golden age of Roman-Jewish relations in th ...

CHRISTIANIZATION 183 the medievalist Jeremy Cohen’s account of “imperial policy” toward the Jews from Constantine to Theodosius ...

184 CHAPTER SIX We should also consider the likelihood that the failure of many Jewish con- verts to Christianity to sever their ...

CHRISTIANIZATION 185 once believed, this decline was probably neither steep nor terminal in the third century. The curial classe ...