Epilogue

“The Deuteronomic entity called ‘Israel’ is not coterminous with Judah or its population,” writes Carly Crouch.1 The problem was not that some Judahites lived outside of Judah, but that some of the native population did not conform to Deuteronomic ideals. From the beginning, the Torah of Moses was an attempt to mold Judean identity in a particular way. There had been Judahites before Deuteronomy was composed, identified as such by their place of residence and political loyalty, and also by shared cultural traits including the (not necessarily exclusive) veneration of the God of the land, YHWH. There would still be Judeans well into the Second Temple period who did not define themselves by reference to the Torah (as seen in the earlier wisdom literature), and some even (in the case of Elephantine) who may not have been aware of its existence. Eventually, however, the composite Torah, which combined Deuteronomic and Priestly traditions, would come to be the dominant expression of Judean identity....

Introduction

During the Maccabean crisis, residents of Jerusalem were forbidden even to admit that they were Ioudaioi. This chapter reviews the debate about the meaning of Ioudaioi in antiquity (Judeans or Jews?) and discusses the nature of ethnicity, and the ways in which it was formulated.

Paul, Torah, and Jewish Identity

Paul’s attitude to the Law has been endlessly debated. Several scholars have argued in recent years that Paul’s critique of the Law only applied to Gentiles, and that he assumed its continued validity for Jews. But in fact Paul claimed to have a new revelation, which superseded the Law for Jews as well as for Gentiles. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision ultimately mattered. Paul may not have objected to continued Jewish observance of the Torah, but he undermined its significance to a great degree. He arguably posed a greater threat to Jewish identity than had Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean era.

The Law in the Diaspora

Much of the literature of the Greek-speaking Diaspora summarizes the Law in terms of its ethical teaching, emphasizing monotheism and sexual matters and passing over ritual requirements or interpreting them allegorically. Such practices as Sabbath observance and circumcision were widely observed, but the Law was not reducible to a code of rules. The Law of Moses does not appear to have served as the legal basis for Jewish communities. Both the possibility and the difficulty of conversion to Judaism are illustrated in the story of Joseph and Aseneth

Deuteronomy and the Invention of the Torah

Torah is first used in the sense of Law in Deuteronomy. The core of Deuteronomy dates from the late monarchy, but it was probably not promulgated by Josiah. It only became authoritative after the collapse of the monarchy.

Torah as Narrative and Wisdom

The Torah in the Second Temple period included narratives as well as laws. Several compositions Aramaic compositions of the early Hellenistic period retell the stories to convey ethical messages. Some psalms, and also Ben Sira, treat the Torah as a source of wisdom

The Persistence of Non-Mosaic Judaism

Despite some attempts to argue the contrary, the Torah does not play a central role in the wisdom tradition before Ben Sira, in the early Enoch tradition or in Diaspora tales such as Esther and Daniel 1-6.

Torah and Apocalypticism

The earliest apocalypses, in the books of Enoch and Daniel, appeal to a source of revelation that is independent of the Mosaic Torah. The sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls, however, combine a fundamental emphasis on the Torah with a claim of higher revelation, which guides the proper interpretation of the Torah. Similarly the apocalypses of the late first century CE, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, revere the Torah, but supplement it with apocalyptic visions.

Torah as Law

In the wake of the Maccabean revolt, the literature from the land of Israel takes a halakic turn, which is evident in Jubilees, the Temple Scroll, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. While the Law was the basis of common Judaism, it was also the basis of sectarian division.

Torah in the Persian Period

The Torah played little part in the restoration after the Exile or in the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. It is absent from the Elephantine papyri, except for the so-called Passover Papyrus, which attempts to introduce the Priestly dates for the festival. It gained authority in Judah under Ezra, who used it selectively to enforce a separatist ideology.