Judaism and Imperial Ideology in Late Antiquity

256 Pages·2011·1.57 MB·English

by  Alexei M. Sivertsev

judaismandimperialideology
inlateantiquity
ThisbookexplorestheinfluenceofRomanimperialismonthedevelopment
ofmessianicthemesinJudaisminthefifththroughtheeighthcenturiesa.d.
It pays special attention to the ways in which Roman imperial ideology
andimperialeschatologyinfluencedJewishrepresentationsoftheMessiah
andmessianicage.Topicsaddressedinthebookinclude:representationsof
the Messianic kingdom of Israel as a successor to the Roman Empire, the
theme of imperial renewal in Jewish eschatology and its Roman parallels,
representations of the emperor in late antique literature and art and their
influenceontherepresentationsoftheMessiah,themotheroftheMessiah
in late antique and Byzantine cultural contexts, and the figure of the last
RomanemperorinChristianandJewishtradition.
Alexei M. Sivertsev is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious
StudiesatDePaulUniversity.HeistheauthorofHouseholds,Sects,andthe
OriginsofRabbinicJudaism(2005)andPrivateHouseholdsandPublicPolitics
in 3rd–5th Century Jewish Palestine (2002). His articles have appeared in
CatholicBiblicalQuarterlyandtheJournalofEarlyChristianStudies.

Judaism and Imperial Ideology
in Late Antiquity
alexei m. sivertsev
DePaulUniversity,Chicago
cambridgeuniversitypress
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Firstpublished2011
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Sivertsev,Alexei,1973–
JudaismandImperialIdeologyinLateAntiquity/AlexeiM.Sivertsev.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-00908-0
1.Messiah–Judaism. 2.Messianicera(Judaism) 3.Judaism–History–To1500.
4.Jews–Civilization–Romaninfluences. I.Title.
bm615.s58 2011
296.3(cid:3)3609–dc22 2011009189
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Contents
Preface pagevii
Introduction 1
1 Esau,Jacob’sBrother 9
2 CoronationintheTemple 45
3 MotheroftheMessiah 87
4 RenovatioImperii 125
5 KingMessiah 172
Conclusion 213
Abbreviations 219
Bibliography 223
Index 245
v

Preface
Iamprofoundlygratefultopeoplewhosesupportoverthepastseveral
years made this book possible. The project was both started and com-
pletedduringmytenureyearsintheDepartmentofReligiousStudiesat
DePaulUniversity.Iwanttothankmembersofthedepartmentfortheir
collegiality, which allowed me to succeed in the daunting task of com-
pletingabookproject.MyspecialthanksgotoChristopherMount,for
his advice on matters relevant to my research, as well as his constant
readinesstoproofreadsectionsofthisworkandoffervaluableremarks
onmattersofbothcontentandstyle.
SupportandadvicereceivedfromRobertChazan,JeffreyRubenstein,
LawrenceSchiffman,andotherfacultymembersofmyalmamater,the
SkirballDepartmentofHebrewandJudaicStudies,NewYorkUniversity,
playedacrucialroleinthesuccessfulcompletionofthisproject.Without
theenthusiasticsupportofBeatriceRehlofCambridgeUniversityPress
andtheendorsementbytwoanonymousreaders,thisbookwouldnever
havebeenpublished.IamalsothankfultoKenKarpinsky,EmilySpangler,
andananonymouseditorfromCambridgeUniversityPressforquickand
professionalhandlingofthemanuscript.
AllisonGraydidagreatjobwiththeinitialproofreadingofthemanu-
script. I deeply appreciate her help and take full responsibility for any
mistakesoromissionsfoundinthetext.
My friends and colleagues from Moscow, Alexei Lyavdansky of the
Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexandra Polyan of
Moscow State University, and Oleg Rodionov of the Russian Academy
ofSciences,generouslyofferedtheirexpertiseinthefieldsofJudaicand
vii
viii PREFACE
Byzantine studies by discussing with me sections from this work and
makingmosthelpfulcomments.
Thecompletionofmyworkwouldhavebeenimpossiblewithoutcon-
tinuousfinancialsupportfromtheCollegeofLiberalArtsandSciences
andtheUniversityResearchCouncilatDePaulUniversity.
Finally, my special thanks go to my parents, Tamara and Michael
Sivertsev,whoseconstantpresenceinmylifeencouragesmetoundertake
evermoreambitiousprojects.
Introduction
T
his book takes its cue from the concept of “byzantine
Commonwealth”originallyformulatedbyDimitriObolenskyand
Garth Fowden to describe the Byzantine political and cultural system
inLateAntiquityandtheMiddleAges.Thetermwasfirstproposedby
Obolenskyinarelatively narrowsensetodescribetheuniquemodeof
“Byzantium’s relations with the peoples of Eastern Europe” during the
Middle Ages. According to Obolensky, the Byzantine Commonwealth
wasbasedonasenseofculturalcommonalitybetweentheempireanda
numberofneighboringEastEuropeancountries,whose“rulingandedu-
cated classes were led to adopt many features of Byzantine civilization,
withtheresultthattheywereabletosharein,andeventuallytocontribute
to,acommonculturaltradition.”InObolensky’sopinion,thiscultural
commonalityransufficientlydeep“tojustifytheviewthat,insomeres-
1
pects, [these countries] formed a single international community.”
Although politically independent, the members of the commonwealth
sharedacommonculturalidentitywhichprovidedthemwithasenseof
unityaboveandbeyondpoliticalborders.
Fowden has significantly broadened Obolensky’s definition by pro-
jecting it back into the period between the late fifth and the seventh
centuries, and suggesting that during that time an “empire,” a geopo-
litical entity that dominated earlier Near Eastern history, evolved into
a “commonwealth.” The commonwealth represented a new “politico-
culturalentity,”inwhichgroupsthatweremoreorlesspoliticallyinde-
pendentformedacommonidentityonthebasisofsharedculturaland
1 Obolensky,ByzantineCommonwealth,13.
1