Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian [Hardcover]

Louis H. Feldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1993 | ISBN-10: 069107416X | ISBN-13: 978-0691074160

Relations between Jews and non-Jews in the Hellenistic-Roman period were marked by suspicion and hate, maintain most studies of that topic. But if such conjectures are true, asks Louis Feldman, how did Jews succeed in winning so many adherents, whether full-fledged proselytes or "sympathizers" who adopted one or more Jewish practices? Systematically evaluating attitudes toward Jews from the time of Alexander the Great to the 5th century AD, Feldman finds that Judaism elicited strongly positive and not merely unfavourable responses from the non-Jewish population. Jews were a vigorous presence in the ancient world, and Judaism was strengthened substantially by the development of the Talmud. Although Jews in the Diaspora were deeply Hellenized, those who remained in Israel were able to resist the cultural inroads of Hellenism and even to initiate intellectual counterattacks. Feldman draws on a wide variety of material, from Philo, Josephus, and other Graeco-Jewish writers through the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Church Councils, Church Fathers and imperial decrees to Talmudic and Midrashic writings and inscriptions and papyri. What emerges is a description of a long era to which conceptions of Jewish history as uninterrupted weakness and suffering do not apply.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

Feldman is a worldclass expert in the difficult but vitally important area of the intersection of Jewish and Gentile cultures in the Greco Roman world. His encyclopedic knowledge of pagan, Jewish, and Christian writings of the period is nothing less than breathtaking. Scholars are deeply indebted to his writings, which are unfailingly accurate and unfailingly fair. Our ... debt to him is only increased by this latest exciting work. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

The most comprehensive recent study of relations between Jew and Gentile in the ancient world. It will take its place with the classic works . . . as an indispensable resource for the study of Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman world. -- John J. Collins, Journal of Biblical Literature --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 696 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069107416X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691074160
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,182,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Thoroush, February 26, 2003

By 

"scholar-in-training" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World (Paperback)

Dr. Feldman accomplished many things with this book. For one, he gathered together an enormous amount of material that only someone as knowledgeable and as thorough as he could do. The sources cited in the text and the footnotes represent an overwhelming amount of material. His encyclopedic knowledge of ancient texts makes him the right man for this monumental task, one that he accomplished gloriously.

Additionally, he added some wisdom and restraint to some overly interpretive colleagues. How much can really be deduced from a particular text? Does this text represent the mainstream of its time or an aberration? Would the author know enough to state anything authoritative on this subject? These are some of the questions Dr. Feldman asks when not only citing ancient sources but analyzing them to extract what can be known about the ancient world.

This book is a difficult read but is well worth the effort.

11 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly, thorough and readable., September 18, 1998

By 

N. Paulovic (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World (Paperback)

I purchased this book originally to get insight into what scholarly material was available for this formative and terribly important period in Jewish and Western history. As it appears from the book, much is available, and much that is unexpected. Anyone believing first century jewish/gentile relationships to be nothing more than isolation and conflict are to be suprised. An aside is that much of the book validates Rabbinic Judaism as "a" source of history, but it only stands out if you have some background in the issues (attempts at cooberation are few). I highly recommend it. 4 stars because the authors religious "affiliation" is dangerously obvious from the hyphenation of G-d's name in the text; in narrow minds, this could cast doubt on his ability as an objective scholar.