College 6 Flashcards
Wat weet je van the Patriarchs?
- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam regard the same figure as their (spiritual) ancestor: Abra(ha)m / Ibrahim
- Abra(ha)m comes to the land of Canaan from Mesopotamia (≈Iraq)
- Convenant God and Abraham –> land gegeven en jongens moeten besneden worden
Biblical chronology: 18th cent. BCE
Are the stories about the patriarchs historically reliable?
Authentic details
No external confirmation (archaeology, extra-biblical sources, etc.)
Current version of the story much later (18th vs. 6th cent. BCE)
“Import brides” from Mesopotamia
Isaac m. Rebecca
Jacob/Israel m. Rachel & Leah
-> 12 sons/tribes → Israel
Wat weet je van the Exodus?
- Uittocht uit Egypte
- Wordt gevierd tijdens Pesach
- Historically accurate?
Ca. 1250 BCE
Authentic details?
No external confirmation
600K men unlikely, but perhaps historical kernel
Wat weet je van de Torah?
Mosaic Law (“Torah”)
Part of God’s covenant with Israel
First five books of TeNaKh (Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Most important document in Judaism, less important in Christianity (OT) and Islam.
Emphasis on conduct (“orthopraxis” instead of “orthodoxy”) still centrally important to Judaism
Many regulations focus on central place of worship: Temple in Jerusalem
Wat weet je van Kingdom & Exile?
Unified kingdom under David and Solomon (ca. 1005-928 BCE)
David conquers Jerusalem
Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem
Disintegrates into separate kingdoms in the North (Israel; 10 tribes) and South (Judah; 2 tribes)
External confirmation broad outlines of biblical narrative from 9th century BCE onward
722/721 BCE: North defeated, Assyrian exile
Fate of the ten tribes?
587/586 BCE: Southern Kingdom defeated
by the Babylonians
Destruction of Jerusalem & the Temple
End of the Davidic dynasty -> Messianism
Babylonian exile → Diaspora -> dispersion of Jews throughout world. Never again completely united in
Israel/Palestine.
Judeans remain in contact: crucial importance trade routes.
Most of the Hebrew Bible is shaped by Babylonian exile -> influence Babylonian and Persian cultures.
Return & Hellenism
Persian period: Return and rebuilding [second]
temple (515 BCE), end biblical narrative
Hellenistic Period: Alexander the Great (born in 356 BCE in Macedon, defeats Darius III in 331 BCE, dies in 323 BCE)
Hellenism: blending of Greek language & culture with local cultures
Maccabean period (167-63 BCE): revolt of some Jews against Seleucid empire & Hasmonean kingdom
Hanukkah
Yehud, Youdaios and Youdaismos as terms for
Judea/Jews/Judaism
Queen Helena of Adiabene, conversion ca. 30 CE
Diversity of Judaisms: Pharisees, Sadducees,
Essenen
Roman Period
Roman rule starting in 63 BCE:
37 BCE-70 CE: Herodian House
Three Jewish Revolts
66-73/4 CE: First Jewish War (Judea/Galilee)
(destruction of Second Temple in 70 CE)
115-117 CE: Quietus Revolt (Cyprus, Egypt, Cyrenaica)
132-136 CE: Bar Kokhba Revolt (Judea)
Roman Empire becomes Christian (4th cent.)
> Byzantine period
Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism: networks of teachers (rabbis) and students of Torah
Galilee and Babylonia
Rabbinic Judaism after 70 CE
Emerges in context of failed anti-Roman revolts & no temple!
Transformation of Judaism
Judaism without a temple
Study & praxis of Torah
Judaism with less emphasis on Messianic expectation
Judaism without martyrdom
Rabbinic Literature: The Mishnah
(ca. 200 CE):
A compilation of discussions about the Jewish law (Torah)
Six “orders”: Seeds, Holidays, Women, Damages, Holy Things, Purity
Halacha and (H)aggada
Rabbinic Literature: The Talmud
Commentary on the Mishnah
Two versions:
Palestinian Talmud / Talmud Yerushalmi (ca. 400)
Babylonian Talmud / Talmud Bavli (= the Talmud) (ca. 500-600)
Babylonian Talmud
Authority approximates that of the Torah
2.5 million(!) words / 36 volumes in the edition of
Isidore Epstein
Halacha and (H)aggada
Debate for the sake of debate
Babylonia most important community after ca. 3rd cent.
The Jews in the Muslim World: Baghdad
637:Muslim conquest of Palestine by Caliph Omar I
633 to 654: Muslim conquest of Persia by the Rashidun Caliphate
After 762: Political center Islam shifts from Damascus (Umayyad) to Baghdad (Abbasid)
▪ Spread of Judaism of the Babylonian Talmud via merchants
▪ Diaspora communities send contributions & queries to rabbinic scholars in Babylonia (Geonim)
▪ Most Jews speak and look Arabic
▪ Dhimmi status
The Jews in the Muslim World: Al-Andalus
711: Muslim conquest of Spain
929: Ummayad Caliphate in Cordoba
Al-Andalus / Sefarad (counterpart: Ashkenaz)
▪ Flourishing Jewish life & government service
▪ Chasdai (Hisdai) ibn-Shaprut (919-970)
▪ Physician and counsel to the caliphs
▪ Secular head of the Andalusian Jewry
▪ Patron to poets and men of letters
▪ Correspondence with the Jewish king of the Turkish Khazars
The Jewish Khazars
▪ Background emergence Jewish state unclear:
▪ Conversion? (ca. 800/838 CE)
Jewish refugees from the Byzantine empire?
▪ Influence of traveling Jewish merchants?
▪ Lost tribe of Israel?
Correspondence between Chasdai ibn-Shaprut and Khazars (950-60)
Merchants from Khorasan first inform Chasdai about Jews in C-Asia
Later on, Byzantine envoys confirm the merchants’ story about the Jewish Khazars
NB: There had been no independent Jewish kingdom since 63 BCE!
Chasdai’s Letter to the Khazar King Joseph:
“We live in the Diaspora and there is no power in our hands. They say to us everyday,
“Every nation has a kingdom, but you have no memory of such in all the land.”
Khazars and Contemporary Antisemitism
Southern Poverty Law Center: “Christian Identity is a
unique anti-Semitic and racist theology that rose to a
position of commanding influence on the racist right
in the 1980s.” – combines Khazar theory with British
Israelism
