How well integrated were Jews in the Mediterranean society
controlled by ancient Rome? The Torah's laws seem to constitute a
rejection of the reciprocity-based social dependency and emphasis
on honor that were customary in the ancient Mediterranean world.
But were Jews really a people apart, and outside of this broadly
shared culture? "Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society?" argues
that Jewish social relations in antiquity were animated by a core
tension between biblical solidarity and exchange-based social
values such as patronage, vassalage, formal friendship, and debt
slavery.
Seth Schwartz's examinations of the Wisdom of Ben Sira, the
writings of Josephus, and the Palestinian Talmud reveal that Jews
were more deeply implicated in Roman and Mediterranean bonds of
reciprocity and honor than is commonly assumed. Schwartz
demonstrates how Ben Sira juxtaposes exhortations to biblical piety
with hard-headed and seemingly contradictory advice about coping
with the dangers of social relations with non-Jews; how Josephus
describes Jews as essentially countercultural; yet how the Talmudic
rabbis assume Jews have completely internalized Roman norms at the
same time as the rabbis seek to arouse resistance to those norms,
even if it is only symbolic.
"Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society?" is the first
comprehensive exploration of Jewish social integration in the Roman
world, one that poses challenging new questions about the very
nature of Mediterranean culture.
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