112 CHAPTER THREEsecond through fourth centuries, it was mainly the city councils and other
urban and rural magnates who controlled the legal affairs of the Jews through
a mixture of local (partly Torah-based) custom, Greco-Oriental common law,
and equity.^23 In fact, the Babatha papyri may now suggest that even this view
requires revision, for one of the striking facts about Babatha and company is
that they apparently made almost no use of local judges but brought even
trivial cases to the Roman governor.^24 If we could extrapolate from Arabia to
Galilee (which is far from certain), then we should conclude that local judges
and legal experts, whether rabbis, town councillors, or ruralpadroni, were less
important as legal authorities than even the most skeptical reader of rabbinic
literature would have guessed.
Nevertheless, even if they enjoyed little substantial authority, some might
argue that the rabbis were influential in extensive circles as embodiments of
Torah. By contrast, I would argue that such circles were very limited, though
not wholly nonexistent. One reason for this was the partial collapse of Judaism
described above. However, in order to make this argument more cogently, I
need to confront head-on the common narrative of the rise of the rabbis and
patriarchs, which is based on the extensive evidence of rabbinic literature. In
sum, I do not disagree wit ht he common narrative, at least in my minimalist
version, while stressing that this minimalist version is a history of the rabbis
and not, as is often claimed, a history of Jewish society in Roman Palestine in
general.
The common narrative in its minimalist version runs roughly as follows: a
rabbinic or protorabbinic movement consisting largely of former Pharisaic
and/or priestly scribes, judges, and teachers began to take shape after the De-
struction, perhaps mainly around Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and/or Rabban
Gamaliel II, the latter a descendant of a prominent Pharisaic family of Jerusa-
lem, ancestor of the patriarchal dynasty influential among the Jews until the
early fift hcentury, and remembered by rabbinic tradition as a dynamic and
powerful figure.^25 A recent study by Shaye Cohen suggests that these earliest
rabbis enjoyed substantial judicial prestige, at least wit hrespect to suc hinter-
(^23) A remarkable admission that did nothing to alter the essential rabbinocentricity of his ac-
count; see “Those Appointed for Money,” 382–86; though Goodman,State and Society in Roman
Galilee, A.D. 132–212(Totowa: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983), pp. 122–26, understands the func-
tioning of Jewish society in Roman Palestine very differently, this is basically his view, too. But
note now Z. Safrai,Haqehillah Hayehudit Be’eretz Yisrael Bitequfat Hamishnah Vehatalmud
(Jerusalem: Merkaz Shazar, 1995), pp. 77–78, who imagines that Alonunderestimatedthe impor-
tance of the rabbinic courts, that, indeed, nonrabbinic courts were of no significance in Jewish
Palestine—an approach characteristic of thediadocheof Alon.
(^24) See previous chapter, note 58.
(^25) This is the view I expressed inJosephus, pp. 170–208. In broad outline it follows Neusner;
and S. Cohen, “Significance of Yavneh.”