Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.