Judeans and Jews: Four Faces of Dichotomy in Ancient Jewish History

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University of Toronto Press, Jan 1, 2014 - History - 173 pages

In writing in English about the classical era, is it more appropriate to refer to Jews or to Judeans ? What difference does it make? Today, many scholars consider Judeans the more authentic term, and Jews and Judaism merely anachronisms.

In Judeans and Jews, Daniel R. Schwartz argues that we need both terms in order to reflect the dichotomy between the tendencies of those, whether in Judea or in the Disapora, whose identity was based on the state and the land (Judeans), and those whose identity was based on a religion and culture (Jews).

Presenting the Second Temple era as an age of transition between a territorial past and an exilic and religious future, Judeans and Jews not only sharpens our understanding of this important era but also sheds important light on the revolution in Jewish identity caused by the creation of the modern state of Israel.

 

Contents

Introduction
3
The First and Second Books of Maccabees
11
On Natural Religion and Religion of Choice
21
3 From Joseph b Mattathias a Priest of Judea to Flavius Josephus a Jew of Rome
48
On Heinrich Graetzs Evolving Treatment of the Second Temple Period
62
Conclusion
83
May We Speak of Religion and Judaism in the Second Temple Period?
91
Notes
113
Index of Modern Authors Cited
167
Index of Names Terms and Topics
171
Copyright

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About the author (2014)

Daniel R. Schwartz is a professor in the Department of the History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Jewry and the academic director of the Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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