Judeans and Jews: Four Faces of Dichotomy in Ancient Jewish HistoryIn 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 |
167 | |
171 | |
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Judeans and Jews: Four Faces of Dichotomy in Ancient Jewish History Daniel R. Schwartz Limited preview - 2014 |