A Vision of the Days: Studies in Early Jewish History and Historiography - (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This collection of essays by leading scholars treats a wide array of aspects of ancient Jewish history and modern historiography, with an emphasis on the history of the Second Temple period and the writings of Josephus. They thus reflect the research interests of Daniel Schwartz, to whom the volume is dedicated.

Book Synopsis

This collection of essays treats many aspects of ancient Jewish history and modern historiography in this area, with an emphasis on the history and literature of the Second Temple period and especially on the writings of Josephus. It is dedicated to Daniel R. Schwarz, and reflects his central academic interests. Additional essays deal with historical and ideological aspects of classical rabbinic literature, with archeological finds and with perceptions of the Jews and Judaism on the part of non-Jews in the Second Temple period and later.

Review Quotes

List of Figures
Contributors

English Section
Introduction. Daniel Schwartz and Second Temple Studies: A Polarized History
Robert Brody, Noah Hacham, Meron M. Piotrkowski and Jan Willem van Henten

Chapter Summaries

List of Daniel R. Schwartz's Publications

Part 1: Second Temple Literature
1 Traces of the Story of Judith in Early Jewish Literature
Deborah Levine Gera

2 Razis's Suicide (2 Maccabees 14:37-46): Ritual and Jewish Perspectives
Jan Willem van Henten

3 The Jewish Legacy of 2 Maccabees
Tessa Rajak

4 "Hebrew Words Actually Experience a Loss When They Are Translated into Another Language"
Hermann Lichtenberger

5 The Hypothetica: A Jewish Rationalist in the Land of Israel
Albert I. Baumgarten

6 Same-Sex Activities in Judeo-Greek Literature and in Paul
Michael Tuval

Part 2: Flavius Josephus
7 Who's a Zealot? Composition Criticism and the History of Roman Judea
Steve Mason

8 Josephus's Rewriting of the Book of Daniel in Antiquities 10.186-281
Michael Segal

9 The Depiction of Judaism in Josephus's Contra Apionem: Continuity, Development, or Innovation?
Nadav Sharon

10 The Account of the Jewish Constitution in Josephus's Contra Apionem: Afterthought or Addition?
Gregory E. Sterling

11 Doris and Mariamme: The Remarkable Lives of Two of Herod's Many Wives
Etka Liebowitz

12 Josephus's Account of the Martyrdom of James: A Source for the Position of The Jerusalem Community of Jesus Followers within Their Environment?
Jörg Frey

13 Josephus's Judean Tyrants: Traitors to a Transnational Aristocratic Order
Steven Ben-Yishai

14 Josephus in the Ninth-Century World Chronicles of George Synkellos and George the Monk
Rivkah Fishman-Duker

Part 3: Jews and Others
15 Hecataeus as a Witness to Judaism
John J. Collins

16 The Blood Libel and the Leper Libel: Ancient Antisemitism?
Erich S. Gruen

17 A New Perspective on the Kinship between Jews and Spartans: The Issue of Ancestral Territory
Katell Berthelot

18 The Ancestral Laws, the Laws of God, and the Samaritans in the Second Book of Maccabees
Dov Gera

19 "Parting of the Ways" in Antioch in 386/7 CE as Seen by John Chrysostom
Shaye J. D. Cohen

Part 4: The Modern Reception of Ancient Jewish History
20 Testa Incognita: The History of the Pseudo-Josephus Bust in Copenhagen
René Bloch

21 "Herodes unterm Hakenkreuz und Josephus der Fälscher" Hugo Willrich and the Study of the Jews in Antiquity
Meron M. Piotrkowski

22 Isaac D'Israeli's History of the Jews
Martin Goodman

Part 5: Archeology
23 What Happened to All the Writing on the Temple Mount?
Jonathan Price

24 The Invisible Synagogues of the Second Temple Period
Benjamin Arubas and Uzi Leibner

Hebrew Section
חלק עברי
מבוא. דניאל שוורץ וחקר תולדות ישראל בימי הבית השני היסטוריה של קטבים
ירחמיאל (רוברט) ברודי, יאן וילם ון־הנטן, נח חכם ומרון פיוטרקובסקי Robert Brody, Noah Hacham, Meron M. Piotrkowski and Jan Willem van Henten
סקירת המאמרים

Part 6: Rabbinic Literature and the Rabbinic World
עולמם של חז״ל וספרותם
25 ׳ישראל ערבים זה לזה׳ על שיתוף הפעולה הבין־ארצי בקרב יהודים בעת העתיקה
ישעיהו גפני Isaiah Gafni

26 בשולי ׳יוספוס וחז״ל׳ עוד משהו על יונים הורדוסיות
טל אילן Tal Ilan

27 על מעמד הכוהנים וייחוסם לאחר החורבן בעיני חז״ל
ירחמיאל (רוברט) ברודי Robert (Yerachmiel) Brody

28 הבעלות על הקרקע בארץ ישראל בתקופה הרומית
אהרן אופנהיימר ז״ל Aharon Oppenheimer z"l

29 הסתרה, הגחכה ופולמוס הצגתן של מחלוקות בין חכמים למתנגדיהם בספרות חז״ל, מחלוקת הקטורת של יום הכיפורים כמקרה מבחן
עדיאל שרמר Adiel Schremer

30 מאנטיוכיה לירושלים מה האיץ את תוכנית הקיסר יוליינוס ׳הכופר׳ לקומם את מקדש היהודים בירושלים?
עודד עיר־שי Oded Irshai

31 צדק חברתי ברומי ותורת הגמול האלוהי עיון משווה במדרשי אגדה
פינחס מנדל Paul Mandel

32 יבנה ורומא על דת ומדינה לאחר החורבן
נח חכם Noah Hacham

33 ׳תפיסת העולם׳ של היהודים בעת העתיקה
אייל בן־אליהו Eyal Ben-Eliyahu

Part 7: Archeology
ארכאולוגיה
34 שולחן האבן ממגדלה ומקומו בגיבוש הריהוט הליטורגי של בית הכנסת העתיק
זאב וייס Zeev Weiss

35 אַשְׁרֵי הַמְחַכֶּה, וְיַגִּיעַ. או מה לדניאל בגוב האריות במערת קבורה בגליל המערבי ובבית הכנסת בנערן?
גלית נגה־בנאי Galit Noga-Banai

Index

About the Author

Robert Brody, Ph.D., Harvard University (1975) and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1982), is Professor Emeritus of Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of many books and articles on Talmudic and rabbinic literature.
Noah Hacham, Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2003), is Herbst Family Professor of Jewish History at that university. He is co-author of The New Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (De Gruyter, 2020, 2022) and many articles on second Temple Judaism.
Meron Piotrkowski, Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2015), is Associate Professor of Jewish History at the University of Oxford. He is a historian of the Second Temple period, focusing on the Egyptian-Jewish Diaspora, the author of Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2019) and part of the team of commentators and contributors to the New Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (vols. 4-6).
Jan Willem van Henten, Ph.D., Leiden University (1986), is Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Amsterdam, and Extra-Ordinary Professor of Biblical Studies at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His publications mainly concern the Maccabean Books, the works of Flavius Josephus and aspects of the reception of the Bible.