The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity PDF
Preview The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi OXFORD STUDIES IN THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS GeneralEditors Adam Silverstein Guy G. Stroumsa OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi OXFORD STUDIES IN THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS Thisseriesconsistsofscholarlymonographsandothervolumesatthecutting edgeofthestudyofAbrahamicreligions.Theincreaseinintellectualinterest in the comparative approach to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam reflects the strikingsurgeintheimportanceofreligioustraditionsandpatternsofthought and behavior in the twenty-first century, at the global level. While this importance is easy to detect, it remains to be identified clearly and analyzed, fromacomparativeperspective.Ourexistingscholarlyapparatusisnotalways adequate in attempting to understand preciselythe nature of similarities and differences between the monotheistic religions, and the transformations of their“familyresemblances”indifferentculturalandhistoricalcontexts. The works in the series are devoted to the study of how “Abrahamic” traditions mix, blend, disintegrate, rebuild, clash, and impact upon one another, usually in polemical contexts, but also, often, in odd, yet persistent waysofinteraction,reflectingthesymbiosisbetweenthem. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity GUY G. STROUMSA 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries #GuyG.Stroumsa2015 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2015 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014957582 ISBN 978–0–19–873886–2 Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi For Sarah Forty years later OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi Acknowledgments TheideaofthisbooktookformduringmytenureasProfessoroftheStudyof theAbrahamicReligionsatOxford(2009–14).Asthefirstholderofthechair, Isoughttorepresentinanewlightaspectsoflateantiquereligioushistory,on whichIhadbeenworkingforafewdecades.Itstruckmethatsomepatterns later to be identified as ‘Abrahamic’ were already present during the first centuries ce, as Jews and Christians were vying for the title of the true inheritors of Abraham. The book’s main argument, then, is that it is in the religioushistoryoflateantiquitythatweshouldlook,ifwewishtounderstand thegenesisofIslambetter. The book’s ten chapters (most of them published previously in a different version)tackledifferentissuesofthiscentralproblem.Althoughmuchhasalready beenwrittenonaspectsoftheproblem,itisfairtosaymoreworkisneededbefore a synthetic study can be attempted. At this stage, it is important to realize that the birth of Islam must be seen as an integral part of late antiquity.1 Without developing a teleological approach, it is possible to analyze the trajectories of conceptsandthoughtpatternsthatrenderedconversiontoIslam,onalargescale, possibleintheseventhcenturyandafterwards,throughouttheNearEast. During the long period of gestation of this book a great number of colleagues have helped me formulate my views, in a number of ways. I am mostgratefultothemall,althoughImightnotbeabletomentionthemall.At Oxford, Moshe Blidstein, Markus Bockmuehl, Dame Averil Cameron, Beate Dignas, Mark Edwards, Martin Goodman, Neil McLynn, Sir Fergus Millar, Robert Parker, Nicolai Sinai, were my main interlocutors. Other colleagues andfriendsfromvariousplaces,NicoleBelayche,CorrineBonnet,JanBrem- mer, Patricia Crone, Ronnie Goldstein, Yonatan Moss, John Scheid, Shaul Shaked, and Sarah Stroumsa have discussed various aspects of the problems tackled in chapters of this book. So had the late Sabine MacCormack and Evelyne Patlagean. Thanks to their remarks, this book is probably less inad- equatethanitwouldhavebeen. MygratitudealsogoestoRamiSchwartz,whohasbeenextremelyhelpfulin preparing the final manuscript for the press and compiling the index, and to DonaldWatt,forhisprecioushelpinreadingtheproofs. 1 Inthisregard,Ishouldliketomentionheretwoimportantbooks,whichappearedtoolate formetodiscusstheirfindingsinthepresentwork:AzizAl-Azmeh,TheEmergenceofIslamin LateAntiquity:AllāhandhisPeople(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2014),andGarth Fowden, Before and After Muhammad: The First Millenium Refocused (Princeton, N.J. and Oxford:PrincetonUniversityPress,2014). OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi viii Acknowledgments Finally, I should like to honor the memory of the Saudi benefactor who endowed the Chair for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at Oxford (and wishedtoremainanonymous).Forhim,scholarshiphasaroletoplayinthe fightagainstreligiousbigotryamongthechildrenofAbraham.Hisvisionhas sustainedmeduringdarkhoursofviolenceandhatred. GuyG.Stroumsa Jerusalem August5,2014(9Ab5775) OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi Contents Sources xi Introduction:FromQumrantoQur’an:TheReligious WorldsofLateAntiquity 1 PartI: TransformationsofReligioninLateAntiquity 1. TheEndofSacrifice 23 2. PatternsofRationalization 43 PartII: TheTrueProphet 3. FalseProphetsofEarlyChristianity 59 4. FalseProphetandFalseMessiah 73 5. SealoftheProphets 87 PartIII: ReligiousCommunitiesandGod’sLaw 6. ReligiousDynamicsbetweenJewsandChristians 103 7. God’sRuleinLateAntiquity 123 PartIV: TheWaytoMecca 8. Jewish-ChristiansandIslamicOrigins 139 9. ChristianMemoriesandDreamsofJerusalem 159 10. BarbariansorHeretics? 175 Envoi: Athens,Jerusalem,Mecca:praeparatiocoranica 189 Bibliography 199 Index 223 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,18/6/2015,SPi
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