Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History? On Jews and Judaism Before and After the Destruction of the Second Temple

565 Pages·2011·11.17 MB·English

by  Daniel R. Schwartz

Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History?
Ancient Judaism and
Early Christianity
Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken
Judentums und des Urchristentums
Founding Editor
Martin Hengel† (Tübingen)
Executive Editors
Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin)
Martin Goodman (Oxford)
Editorial Board
Friedrich Avemarie (Marburg), John Barclay (Durham),
Pieter W. van der Horst (Utrecht), Tal Ilan (Berlin),
Tessa Rajak (Reading and Oxford),
Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem),
Seth Schwartz (New York)
VOLUME 78
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ajec
Was 70 CE a Watershed in
Jewish History?
On Jews and Judaism before and after the
Destruction of the Second Temple
Edited by
Daniel R. Schwartz and Zeev Weiss
in collaboration with Ruth A. Clements
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Was 70 CE a watershed in Jewish history? : on Jews and Judaism before and after the
destruction of the Second Temple / edited by Daniel R. Schwartz and Zeev Weiss in
collaboration with Ruth A. Clements.
p. cm. — (Ancient Judaism and early Christianity, ISSN 1871-6636 ; v. 78)
Includes index.
“This volume presents revised versions of lectures given in January 2009 at a Jerusalem
symposium sponsored by Hebrew University’s Scholion Center for Interdisciplinary Research
in Jewish Studies”—Preface.
ISBN 978-90-04-21534-4 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Temple of Jerusalem (Jerusalem)—Congresses. 2. Judaism—History—To
70 A.D.—Congresses. 3. Jews—History—To 70 A.D.—Congresses. I. Schwartz,
Daniel R. II. Weiss, Zeev, 1959–.
BM655.W37 2012
296.09’014—dc23
2011038377
In Cooperation with Scholion Library
The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
ISSN 1871-6636
ISBN 978 90 04 21534 4
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV
provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
Preface ................................................................................................. ix
Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xi
List of Contributors ........................................................................... xv
Introduction: Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History?
Three Stages of Modern Scholarship, and a Renewed Effort .... 1
Daniel R. Schwartz
PART I
SONS OF AARON AND DISCIPLES OF AARON:
PRIESTS AND RABBIS BEFORE AND AFTER 70
“Found Written in the Book of Moses”: Priests in the
Era of Torah ................................................................................... 23
Martha Himmelfarb
The Other Side of Israelite Priesthood: A Sociological-
Anthropological Perspective ........................................................ 43
Gideon Aran
“A Kingdom of Priests”: Did the Pharisees Try to Live Like
Priests? ............................................................................................. 59
Hanan Birenboim
Sectarianism Before and After 70 CE ............................................ 69
Jodi Magness
Were Priests Communal Leaders in Late Antique Palestine?
The Archaeological Evidence ...................................................... 91
Zeev Weiss
vi contents
PART II
“THE PLACE” AND OTHER PLACES
Place beyond Place: On Artifacts, Religious Technologies,
and the Mediation of Sacred Place ............................................. 115
Ori Schwarz
Priests and Priesthood in Philo: Could He Have Done without
Them? ............................................................................................... 127
Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer
Sanctity and the Attitude towards the Temple in Hellenistic
Judaism ............................................................................................ 155
Noah Hacham
Doing without the Temple: Paradigms in Judaic Literature
of the Diaspora .............................................................................. 181
Michael Tuval
PART III
ART AND MAGIC
The Rising Power of the Image: On Jewish Magic Art from
the Second Temple Period to Late Antiquity ........................... 243
Naama Vilozny
Jewish Exorcism Before and After the Destruction of the
Second Temple .............................................................................. 277
Gideon Bohak
The Emergence of a New Jewish Art in Late Antiquity ............. 301
Lee I. Levine
contents vii
PART IV
SACRED TEXTS: EXEGESIS AND LITURGY
Legal Midrash between Hillel and Rabbi Akiva: Did 70 CE
Make a Difference? ........................................................................ 343
Paul Mandel
Liturgy Before and After the Temple’s Destruction: Change
or Continuity? ................................................................................ 371
Esther G. Chazon
Liturgy, Poetry, and the Persistence of Sacrifice .......................... 393
Michael D. Swartz
PART V
COMMUNAL DEFINITION—POMPEY, JESUS, OR TITUS:
WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE?
Setting the Stage: The Effects of the Roman Conquest and the
Loss of Sovereignty ....................................................................... 415
Nadav Sharon
Temple and Identity in Early Christianity and in the
Johannine Community: Reflections on the “Parting of
the Ways” ........................................................................................ 447
Jörg Frey
Religious Reactions to 70: The Limitations of the Evidence ...... 509
Martin Goodman
Epilogue: 70 CE After 135 CE—The Making of a Watershed? 517
Ruth A. Clements
Index of Ancient Names and Toponyms ...................................... 537
Index of Modern Authors ................................................................ 541

PREFACE
This volume presents revised versions of lectures given in January
2009 at a Jerusalem symposium sponsored by Hebrew University’s
Scholion Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Jewish Studies. The
symposium was organized by the 2006–9 Scholion research group on
“Religions of Place and Religions of Community” (Dat HaMaqom
veDat haQahal). During the three years of its tenure at Scholion,
the eight members of that group—Gideon Aran, Esther Chazon, Ori
Schwarz, Nadav Sharon, Michael Tuval, Naama Vilozny, and the
two undersigned—devoted weekly seminars to various aspects of the
transformation of Judaism in antiquity from a religion with a central
Temple to one without; this symposium was an opportunity for us to
share our views with colleagues from Israel and a small number of
scholars we were able to invite from abroad. The introductory essay
to this volume, which schematically surveys the history of scholarship
of the basic issue addressed by our group, and by this symposium,
explains the approach we adopted in planning the conference and,
consequently, this volume.
On behalf of the members of our research group, we would like to
thank all of the participants in the symposium, who devoted much
time and effort both to the symposium itself and to the preparation
of their papers for publication. Along with them, we would also thank
most sincerely the wonderful staff of Scholion, beginning with its aca-
demic head, Prof. Israel Jacob Yuval, and its quondam administra-
tive director, Ms. Zohar Marcovich, for their unfailing support and
counsel. They made this symposium—as indeed all three years of our
tenure in Scholion—an exceptionally positive and fruitful experience
and, we hope, a fitting confirmation of the vision of the Mandel Foun-
dation, which so generously funds Scholion. The other members of the
Scholion team likewise contributed to the success of our project, each
in his or her particular domain, and we thank them all as well, as also
Dr. Ruth Clements, who saw to the final preparation of the manu-
script for publication, and also consented to enrich this volume with
a contribution of her own. We are likewise grateful to the editorial
staff at Brill Academic Publishers, in particular Ms. Mattie Kuiper and
Dr. Tessel Jonquière, for their pleasant and efficient assistance in seeing