Early Rabbinical Judaism

The myth of Romulus and Remus is secondary toa different myth of Roman origins, in late antique rabbinic texts, and yet, it sporadically occurs there. This article also considers how the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus occurs in Central Asia's ancient coinage (thus, as a motif in numismatics), and that this may well have been linked to the Turkic myth of origin from a baby raised by a she-wolf.

“Ezra the Scribe and the (Purported) Origins of Targum.” Pages 343–50 in A Sage in New Haven: Essays on the Prophets, the Writings, and the Ancient World in Honor of Robert R. Wilson. Edited by Alison Acker Gruseke and Carolyn J. Sharp. Ägypten und Altes Testament 117. Münster: Zaphon, 2023

This volume aims to broaden our understanding of the related genres of parables, fables, and similes in the Graeco-Roman world. These genres, which make use of narrative analogy, appear in early Christian and ancient
Jewish literatures and in various Graeco-Roman sources. However, despite the fact that these texts were part of the wider cultural context of Graeco-Roman antiquity, they have not yet been thoroughly studied in
relation to each other. The present volume brings together contributions on a range of Graeco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian sources, so as to contribute to the study of parables, fables, and similes across disciplinary boundaries. The contributions highlight the fluid boundaries between these different genres, but also demonstrate how their adoption and adaption in different literary works give expression to the distinct identities of the composers.

Reviewed by Ephraim Nissan.  In this excellent volume about an appealing subject (late antique Hebrew parables that deserve to be known and savoured), the author's foreword is followed on pp. 1-64 with an "Introduction to the Series" (a series of which this is the first volume, within the broader series Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism), concerning the purpose and approach of the annotated editions that are going to be included in the series itself: Teugels hopes to next publish the meshalim (parables) "contained in Sifre Deuteronomy and the Mekhilta to Deuteronomy; Sifre Numbers and Sifre Zuta; the Sifra, and Mishnah and Tosefta. A specific introduction to this first volume, focusing on the text critical situation of the Mekhiltot, follows after this general introduction" (3). The general introduction to the series comprises two chapters that are much subdivided into sections and subsections, for good reason. Chapter 2 surveys previous research into the rabbinic mashal. The introduction to this first volume (65-88) comprises ten chapters, and is followed by the annotated edition. The annotation edition includes fifty chapters, usually one per parable, but on occasion, e.g., in Chs. 24 and 26, six or ten parables, in that order, convey a shared message. I find the approach, structure, and treatment of the material quite praiseworthy. This is a most welcome initiative. Sometimes, a parable is surprising (Ch. 48: "Shabbat Compared to a Wolf"). How that? Concerning Exodus 20:8, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, whereas at Deuteronomy 5:12 "remember" zakhor) is replaced with shamor "observe", "keep", "guard", the parable states that (as a precautionary measure) one should rather make that Sabbath day a bit longer, making it begin before it is high time, and making it come to an end later than it is strictly permissible to do so; as per Teugels' translation on p.

Introduction: What Is (and Is Not) Jewish Law? The simplest response to the question posed by the title of this essay is that Jewish law is the set of statutes enjoined upon Israel by God. Its authorization is divine and traces itself primarily back to a revelation in history at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah (Exodus 19-24 and passim). This is a skeletal definition, however, and a fuller exploration is warranted. During the period stretching from late Persian imperial control of Judaea (sixth century bce) through the rise of Islam in the seventh century of the Common Era, Jews 1 lived predominately under foreign control-in both the Greco-Roman west and the Parthian/ Sasanian east. If law is defined as the "aggregate of rules and principles of conduct which the governing power … recognizes as those it will enforce or sanction" (Cohen 1966, 1: 123) then in fact there is nearly no Jewish law in Antiquity. During this era Jews enjoyed self-rule and the unimpeded power of governmental enforcement only under the Hasmoneans (142-67 bce), and unfortunately we have nearly nothing of actual Hasmonean law or court records with which to work outside of allusions and mentions in historical materials. Jewish self-rule outside of Hasmonean autonomy would have been fragile, partial, and at the whim of the non-Jewish state. Law, however, in a range of conceptual and terminological garbs-Torah, covenant, halakhah, mitzvot, nomos, et al.-has long been central to Jewish theology, practice, and the entire ancient Jewish imaginary. Legal thinking is manifest in a wide range of texts, doctrines, and practices. Despite common threads and concepts, Jewish law was understood

Le Karaïsme est un grand mouvement réformateur au sein du Judaïsme, à la fois eschatologique et rationaliste, piétiste et modéré (Wieder ch. 2 et 3). Le Karaïsme devint une secte à l'heure de sa naissance, à cause du rejet formel de sa raison d'être par les pouvoirs rabbiniques: néanmoins, l'influence de ses aspirations se montre dans le développement du Rabbinisme jusqu'à nos jours. L'oeuvre des savants karaïtes eut une influence énorme sur la floraison des sciences religieuses juives au moyen âge. Remarquons que les adversaires des Karaïtes utilisent et vénèrent actuellement la-forme du texte vocalisé des écritures sacrées hébraïques qu'établirent les savants karaïtes du haut moyen âge. Mais ce qui est plus important dans le contexte des buts de notre revue, c'est que le Karaïsme, tout en ayant pris son essor en Babylonie au huitième siècle de l'ère chrétienne, présente à la vue de l'historien les traits de l'ambiance juive en Palestine aux premiers siècles de note ère.En effet, il a tout l'air d'être l'héritier plus ou moins direct d'une tradition de cette époque-là, inconnue ou non pas reconnue jusqu'ici. Je vais proposer une vue d'ensemble des devanciers du Karaisme avant le huitième siècle. Pour en prouver la justesse, je démontrerai que les traits du Karaisme se trouvaient déja en germe dans le Rabbinisme, et que ce fut la canonisation du Talmoud babylonien qui le fit surgir au huitième siècle. Evidemment, il faudra démontrer que le Rabbinisme n'était pas homogène avant la rédaction et la canonisation du Talmoud babylonien, et que le Talmoud lui-même peut nous surprendre.

Key-words: Karaites. Oral Torah. Sadducees. Pharisees. Anan.

The command to love God in Deuteronomy 6:5 poses a puzzle. The verse demands love, but does not explain how to achieve it. Comparing Deuteronomy's covenant structure to other ancient Near Eastern covenant treaties, modern scholars conclude that Deuteronomy 6:5 charges Israel to perform acts of love. And yet, scholars also suggest that God's passionate love for Israel demands a reciprocal emotional response from them. In attempts to elucidate Deuteronomy's command, both the rabbis of the first few centuries of the Common Era and the Gospels single out specific actions that constitute loving God. However, the sources diverge with regard to which actions they highlight. Significantly, Deuteronomy, the early rabbis, and the Gospels all hint that God's own love for His people is the model of love toward which devotees should aspire.

Every year during Passover Jews commemorate the liberation of their ancestors from Egypt. It was God who ‘broke the bars of their yoke’ and who ‘made them walk erect’ (Lev 26:13). Elsewhere, however, the Torah seems to suggest that the redemption from Egypt’s service was not so much a release from slavery, as it was a change of master (cf. Ex 4:23 and Lev 25:42). This paradoxical way of thinking about slavery is perpetuated by the early rabbis in the midrashic and halakhic literature of the first centuries C.E. By means of a close reading of a parable from Sifre Numbers (chapter 115) I will clarify the early rabbinic perspective on slavery: becoming a slave of God was the ultimate purpose of the people of Israel, while being a slave of Egypt’s ruler formed its ultimate degradation. We will also see that in Sifre Numbers, as in other early rabbinic and early Christian writings, the metaphor of slavery competes with the metaphor of sonship. In Sifre Numbers the metaphor of slavery is preferred over that of sonship, due to the absolute obedience that God expects from his people, an aspect that cannot be sufficiently expressed by the relation between a father and his son. Finally, this paper will also contribute to the way we understand slavery metaphors in the New Testament, especially in Romans 6.