From Israelite to Jew

The traditional legal definition of a Jew is well-known: the child of a Jewish mother or a convert. Sure, there is a little fuzziness around the edges as Orthodox Jews in Israel in particular debate what makes a kosher conversion, and whether conversions can be retroactively revoked. But both Orthodox and Conservative Jewish institutions share their commitment to this legal definition. Jewish identity is for all intents and purposes black and white, verified or falsified with objective markers. Yet as both the U.S. census and Susan Fendrick in a recent article remind us, life is not lived in black and white with objective markers. These legal definitions matter greatly to bean counters and lawyers (or rabbis or others in the role of lawyers), and to people only when they run up against bean counters and lawyers. As Fendrick sensitively suggests, it is not that legal definitions of Jewishness are wrong, only that they don't adequately reflect lived experience. As for the U.S. census, they can't figure out what to do with "Race" when many people, flummoxed by the check-off boxes, liberally select multiple identities. Jews in antiquity had, if anything, even more fluid identities as Jews. Prior to the Rabbis, there were few necessary objective markers of Jewishness (circumcision for men was one, but even it was not sufficient). For most of the people most of the time this would never have been a problem; they had few if any encounters regarding their Jewishness with bean counters or lawyers. There were, of course, some exceptions: when the Romans leveled a tax on all Jews throughout the Empire following the disasterous revolt that led to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, Jews had to be counted. We have little idea how they did this (although Martin Goodman has a provocative articleon its ramifications). Jewish communities locally handled their own "conversions", and it is intriguing to consider how converts, their families, and different Jewish communities might have had very different understandings of who they actually "were". In this vein it is interesting to consider the famous CCAR's statement on patrilineal descent, which requires at least one Jewish parent and an affirmative act of identity. This is legally a nightmare: it would allow for cases in which Jewish identity was stripped and in which the children of two Jewish parents would not be considered Jewish. I doubt that there have ever been more than a few cases of either of these scenarios, if only because there is a tacit acknowledgement that although this is meant as a legal definition it is a poor one. It is, in fact, more descriptive than prescriptive, a comment on the way that Jewish identity is actually enacted today, with or without legal definitions, in living color rather than black and white.

The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, a moment that typically is said to mark in Jewish historiography the end of the "second temple period" and beginning of the "rabbinic period." But to what extent did things really change?

In this episode, the last of this series, I also reflect more broadly on the series.

The episode can be heard here, or on the player below. More download options are available here. It is also available on iTunes and iTunesU.

The Jewish revolt in Judea that began in 66 CE ended with the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70. Why, though, did the Jews in Judea and the Galilee revolt? And why did the Romans destroy the Temple?

The episode can be heard here or on the player below. More download options can be found here. It can also be heard through iTunes and iTunesU.

This episode focuses on the years 6 CE - 66 CE, and the events leading up to the Jewish revolt. This episode includes discussions of Roman administration and the Sanhedrin.

The episode can be heard here or on the player below. More download options are here. It can also be found on iTunes and iTunesU.

Without the works of the historian Josephus (36/37 CE - ca. 95) we would know little about the history of the Jews in antiquity. Yet Josephus, as a historian and a man, was a complex figure: was he a Jewish patriot or a Roman toady?

The episode can be heard here or on the player below. More download options are here. The episode can also be heard on iTunes or iTunesU.

In the first century CE the area around Jerusalem teemed with small Jewish religious groups, or sects. This episode focuses on three of the most well-known of these groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, and the early followers of Jesus.

The episode is available here, or in the player below. Other download options are here. It is also available on iTunes (and now on iTunesU).

What are the Dead Sea scrolls? This episode discusses their discovery, contents, and meaning.

The episode can be heard here or on the player below. More download options are here. The podcast can also be heard on iTunes.

Philo Judaeus is the most well-known Jewish philosopher from antiquity. Living in Alexandria from ca. 20 BCE - 50 CE, Philo produced an astonishing corpus that has often been held up as a signal example of "Hellenistic Judaism." Who was Philo, and what was he up to?

The episode can be heard here, or on the player below. More download options are here. It is also available on iTunes.

Was Herod the Great a brilliant ruler or a savage brute? This episode traces Herod's rise to power and his reign, 40 - 4 BCE.

The episode can be heard here, or on the player below. More download options are here. It can also be heard on iTunes.

The religion of the Jews who lived in the Greek speaking areas of the Mediterranean is commonly called "Hellenistic Judaism". This episode explains why scholars use this term; why it is less useful than it might seem; and how it is that most of these Jews would have worshiped the God of Israel.

The episode can be heard here, or in the player below. Other download options are here. It can also be accessed on iTunes.