Conclusion

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN GOODMAN
Keyword(s):  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Roman Provinces ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the application of rabbinic literature in studying the history of late-Roman Palestine. It has been demonstrated that a great deal of evidence preserved within the rabbinic tradition in medieval manuscripts originated in the Roman provinces of Palestine between c.200 and c.700 CE. It was also shown that rabbinic texts, even at their most reliable, can only provide a very partial glimpse of late-Roman Palestine. This chapter also highlights the inherent problems using rabbinic texts as historical source and suggests ways to overcome them.

Rabbinic Literature and the History of Judaism in Late Antiquity: Challenges, Methodologies and New Approaches

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
MOSHE LAVEE
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter examines the methodologies, new approaches, and challenges in the use of rabbinic literature to study the history of Judaism in late antiquity. It provides some examples that demonstrate some of the issues concerning the applicability of rabbinic literature to the study of Judaism in late-Roman Palestine. It concludes that rabbinic literature can serve as a historical source, especially when read indirectly and through the lens of well-defined theoretical frameworks, and when perceived as a rabbinic cultural product that reflects delicate, sophisticated and hardly recoverable relationships between text and reality.

Using Rabbinic Literature as a Source for the History of Late-Roman Palestine: Problems and Issues1

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHILIP ALEXANDER
Keyword(s):  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Preliminary Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter examines problems concerning the use of rabbinic literature as a resource for studying the history of late-Roman Palestine. It discusses the rabbinic corpus, the composition and transmission of the texts, the language and the genres of rabbinic literature. It concludes that rabbinic literature requires very heavy processing before its potential as a historical source can be realised and it states that the extent to which scholars engaged with this literature have done the preliminary work remains patchy.

Rabbinic Texts and the History of Late-Roman Palestine

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Introductory Section ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This volume brings together studies in the rabbinic literature of late antiquity by specialists in the history of the Jews in that period in order to reveal the value of rabbinic material as historical evidence and to show the problems and issues which arise in its exploitation. An introductory section discusses the current state of knowledge about Palestine in this period and debates the difficulties involved in editing and dating rabbinic texts. Specific core texts and text categories are then introduced to the reader in a series of ten discrete studies. The volume concludes with six thematic analyses which illustrate the use and limitations of rabbinic evidence for cultural, religious, political, economic and social history.

Introduction

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN GOODMAN
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Present Form ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about rabbinic texts of late antiquity and their application in the study of the history of late-Roman Palestine. It investigates whether these rabbinic texts existed in anything like their present form in late antiquity and examines the differing status as historical evidence for late antiquity of different sorts of rabbinic literature. It provides a series of thematic studies of historical topics for which rabbinic evidence has been considered as useful evidence and denied such a role by others.

Rabbinic Perceptions of Christianity and the History of Roman Palestine

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM HORBURY
Keyword(s):  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Western World ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine

This chapter evaluates the use of rabbinic literature in the study of the history of Christianity in Roman Palestine. It explains that this issue goes back to medieval Jewish-Christian controversy and intertwines with the whole history of the reception of the Talmud in Europe and the western world. It suggests that the view that Christians are most often envisaged in the rabbinic references to minim is consistent with the likelihood that Christianity is envisaged in a number of rabbinic and targumic passages which do not mention minim.

Rabbinic Texts and History of Late-roman Palestine (review)

2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 448-450
Author(s):  
Joel Gereboff
Keyword(s):  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

Problems in the Use of the Babylonian Talmud for the History of Late-Roman Palestine: The Example of Astrology

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD KALMIN
Keyword(s):  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter evaluates the use of the Babylonian Talmud for the study of the history of late-Roman Palestine using astrology as a case example. It explains that the Babylonian Talmud contains much material which derives from Palestine and may sometimes preserve Palestinian rabbinic material in a form closer to the original than is found in Palestinian compilations. Palestinian sources often do not contain trustworthy evidence about Palestinian Sages and institutions.

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