Rewriting Ancient Jewish History: The History of the Jews in Roman Times and the New Historical Method

229 Pages·2016·1.26 MB·English

by  Amram Tropper

Rewriting Ancient Jewish History
The History of the Jews in Roman Times
and the New Historical Method
Half a century ago, the primary contours of the history of the Jews in Roman
times were not subject to much debate. This standard account collapsed,
however, when a handful of insights undermined the traditional historical
method, the method long enlisted by historians for eliciting facts from sources.
In response to these insights, a new historical method gradually emerged.
Rewriting Ancient Jewish History critiques the traditional historical method
and makes a case for the new one, illustrating how to write anew ancient
Jewish history.
The painted folio on the book cover − Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague,
MMW 10 B 21 fol 152v – is a depiction of the Roman siege of Jerusalem
by Michiel van der Borch for Jacob van Maerlant’s Rijmbijbel/Wrake van
Jerusalem. In this dazzling miniature dated to the year 1332, the siege of
Jerusalem is recast as a battle scene from the Middle Ages. The combatants’
garb and gear are typical of fourteenth century Europe and Jerusalem is
rendered as a medieval castle surrounded by a moat. In dressing the Roman
siege of Jerusalem in medieval attire, the miniature embodies the formative
role of the present in the rewriting of ancient Jewish history.
Amram Tropper is Senior Lecturer in Jewish History at Ben-Gurion
University. His previous publications include Wisdom, Politics, and
Historiography (2004), Like Clay in the Hands of the Potter (2011) and
Simeon the Righteous in Rabbinic Literature (2013).
Routledge Studies in Ancient History
1 Cicero and the Catilinarian 6 Immigrant Women in Athens
Conspiracy Gender, Ethnicity, and
Charles Matson Odahl Citizenship in the Classical City
Rebecca Futo Kennedy
2 Ancient Graffiti in Context
Edited by Jennifer Baird and 7 The Tombs of Pompeii
Claire Taylor Organization, Space, and Society
Virginia L. Campbell
3 Roman Elections in the Age of
Cicero 8 Popes and the Church of Rome
Society, Government, and Voting in Late Antiquity
Rachel Feig Vishnia John Moorhead
4 Time in Roman Religion 9 Imagining Ancient Cities in Film
One Thousand Years of From Babylon to Cinecittà
Religious History Edited by Marta García
Gary Forsythe Morcillo, Pauline Hanesworth
and Óscar Lapeña Marchena
5 Banishment in the Later Roman
Empire, 284–476 ce
Daniel A. Washburn
Rewriting Ancient Jewish
History
The History of the Jews in
Roman Times and the New
Historical Method
Amram Tropper
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Amram Tropper
The right of Amram Tropper to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tropper, Amram D., author.
Title: Rewriting ancient Jewish history : the history of the Jews in Roman
times and the new historical method / Amram Tropper.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, [2016] | “2016 |
Series: Routledge studies in ancient history | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039172| ISBN 9781138641488 (hardback : alk. paper)
| ISBN 9781315630458 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Jews—History—70-638—Historiography.
Classification: LCC DS123.5.T76 2016 | DDC 305.892/4037072—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039172
ISBN: 978-1-138-64148-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-63045-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK

This Page is Intentionally Left Blank
Contents
Introduction 1
PART I
Authenticity 11
1 Can multiple versions of a text be equally authentic? 13
PART II
Hermeneutics 31
2 The rabbis as unusual Romans 33
PART III
Credibility 51
3 An introduction to credibility: on sources, credibility,
and corroboration 53
4 Recovering Josephus’s sources 63
5 Josephus and history 84
6 The traditional historical method on the credibility
of rabbinic literature 106
7 The collapse of the traditional presumptions about
rabbinic literature 118
8 The new historical method on the credibility of rabbinic
literature: three case studies 134
viii Contents
PART IV
Conclusion 161
9 On Hillel the Elder’s rise to greatness 163
Epilogue 182
Bibliography 186
Subject Index 215
Index of Sources 217
Introduction
The history of the Jews in Roman times is not what it used to be just a few
decades ago. The past, of course, remains unchanged. Since time incessantly
moves forward towards the future, subsequent events cannot alter the past or
impinge upon it. Reconstructions and interpretations of the past, however,
are another matter entirely. Past and present entwine in the histories we pen.
As the lens through which we view the past, the contemporary setting ani-
mates the historical record, generating facts and infusing them with meaning.
The contemporary setting itself, however, changes over time and some recent
advances in the historical method have thoroughly transformed the history
of the Jews in Roman times.
A half century ago, the primary contours of the history of the Jews in
Roman times were not subject to much debate. Generations of scholarship dat-
ing back to the early nineteenth century had crystallized in a standard account
of the period that was widely (though not unanimously) embraced. Greatly
simplified, this mainstream account featured a distinctive narrative arc of
decline, destruction, and immediate renewal—the decline of Jewish–Roman
relations in the late Second Temple period; the destruction of Jerusalem and
its temple in 70 ce along with the shattering of Jewish life in Judaea during
the Bar Kokhba revolt almost seventy years later; and the immediate renewal
of Jewish life and leadership in the early rabbinic period. In respect to social
history, the standard account promoted an analysis of the structure of Jewish
society in Roman Palestine which viewed the Pharisees and their rabbinic heirs
as mainstays throughout. In the realm of cultural history, it offered a portrait
of Jewish culture and thought culled from an assemblage of statements and
ideas scattered across rabbinic literature.1 Many viewed the standard account
as a testament to the modern historical method and its careful analysis of
ancient sources. Yet despite its purportedly secure foundations, this account
collapsed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
What tripped up the standard historical account? Over the past century
archaeologists and talmudists discovered new material artifacts and manu-
scripts, but these finds did not undermine the standard account. Instead the
development which changed the face of ancient Jewish history was a shift
in the historical method. A handful of recent insights gradually transformed
our assessment of the historical value and reliability of the written remnants