Heresy and the Formation of the Rabbinic Community (eBook)

David M. Grossberg (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1. Auflage
287 Seiten
Mohr Siebeck (Verlag)
9783161553349 (ISBN)

Infos

Between the first and sixth centuries C.E., a group of sages that scholars refer to as the rabbinic community systematized their ideas about Judaism in works such as the Mishnah and the Talmud. David M. Grossberg offers a new approach to thinking about this community's formation. Rather than seeking an occasion of origin, he examines the gradual development of the idea of an authorized rabbinic collective. The classical rabbinic texts imagine a diverse setting of Sadducees, Pharisees, sinners, and sectarians interacting in complex and changing ways with pious sages, teachers, and judges. Yet this representation aligns only vaguely with the social reality in which these ancient sages actually lived and operated. The author contends that these texts' primary aim was not to describe real rabbinic opponents but to create and enforce boundaries between piety and impiety and between legitimate and illegitimate teachings. In this way, the emerging rabbinic movement set standards of inclusion and exclusion in the community of righteous Israel and established the bounds of the community aspiring to lead them, the rabbinic community itself.

Born 1965; PhD from Princeton University; currently Visiting Scholar, Cornell University, Ithaca.

Inhalt

Cover 1
Contents 8
Acknowledgements 10
Introduction: The Formation of the Rabbinic Community 12
I. Yavneh and the Myth of Origins 15
II. The Sage Idea and the Development of a Collective 19
III. Heresy and the Formation of Community 25
IV. A Note on Style and Method 30
Chapter 1: The Meaning and End of Heresy in Rabbinic Literature 38
I. Heresy in Rabbinic Literature? 39
II. Heresy as a Category 43
III. Heresy as hairesis 48
IV. Heresy as Heresiological Discourse 52
V. Heresy and Boundary Rhetoric in the Ancient World 59
Chapter 2: Varieties of Minim in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Period 61
I. Heresy and Minut 62
II. Minim as Insiders in the Late Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Periods 68
III. Minim as Hybrids in the Early Christian Period 83
IV. Minim as Outsiders in the Late Rabbinic Period 99
Chapter 3: Co-opting the Sinners of Israel 103
I. The Sinners of Israel and the Sinners of the Nations of the World 103
II. Sinners, Pomegranates, and Good Deeds 109
III. An Israelite Who Sins 117
IV. All Israel Have a Portion in the World to Come 121
Chapter 4: Meshummadim Who Provoke the Rabbis 127
I. Meshummadim, Apostates, and “The Time of Persecutions” 128
II. Flagrant Meshummadim 138
III. Meshummadim From Appetite and To Provoke 143
IV. Provoking the Torah and the Rabbis 150
Chapter 5: Apiqorsim Who Disrespect the Rabbis 155
I. Epicureans, Sadducees, and Divine Providence 156
II. Disrespecting the Rabbis 163
III. Apiqorsim and Irreverence 167
IV. Apiqorsim, minim, and Dangerous Verses 169
V. Know How to Avoid an Apiqoros 173
Chapter 6: Two Powers and the Ascent of Rabbi Elisha 178
I. Elisha ben Abuyah as an Absolute Other 179
II. Elisha ben Abuyah as a Failed Rabbi 182
III. Elisha’s Ascent and Divine Multiplicity 187
IV. Metatron’s Transgression and Heavenly Proscriptions 196
V. Elisha’s Transgression and the Heavenly Voice 198
Chapter 7: The Failed Rabbi and Those Who Cause the Public to Sin 204
I. The Mechanics of Atonement in Rabbinic Tradition 205
II. Gehazi as a Failed Rabbi 211
III. The Failed Rabbi in the Babylonian Talmud 217
Conclusion: Boundary Rhetoric, Community Formation, and Rabbinic Judaism 228
Appendix: Synoptic Presentation of b. Hagigah 15a and 3 Enoch for Chapter Six 236
Bibliography 238
Index of Primary Sources 260
I. Hebrew Bible 260
II. Second Temple Period Jewish Literature 261
III. New Testament 262
IV. Rabbinic Literature 262
Mishnah 263
Tannaitic Midrash 264
Palestinian Talmud 265
Classical Palestinian Midrash 266
Later Midrash 269
V. Greco-Roman and Early Christian Literature 270
VI. Hekhalot and Medieval Jewish Literature 270
Index of Modern Authors 272
Index of Subjects 277

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.7.2017
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• ISBN-13: 9783161553349 / 9783161553349