|
Please note the change of schedule below, beginning on May 19! Classes have been pushed back one day!
Correction to readings for May 14 and May 26 (in red)!
Questions included in the schedule below are provided to give you a sense of what ideas you should try to derive from the readings and class lectures and discussions. They are usually suggestive, rather than specific, and do not have one right answer. It is helpful to consider them both before and after you do the readings, and before coming to class.
Blue links take you to PDFs on this course's Blackboard site; if you are already logged into Blackboard, the file will open immediately. Otherwise, you will be prompted to log into Blackboard. [note: These links have been removed in the archived version of this webpage.]
Why study this period of religious history? What are our sources, and what are some of the difficulties that surround them (texts, archaeology, traditions)? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 1-16; Texts and Traditions, 1-5
Where does the biblical story of Judaism begin and end? What can this beginning and ending tell us about the historical and ideological roots of ancient Judaism(s)? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 17-32; Texts and Traditions, 7-33; 50-56
What political, social, and cultural patterns emerged in the colonial borderlands of Judah after the return from exile, and how did differing imperial strategies (including hellenism) engender different understandings of Judean (or Jewish) identity? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 33-72; Texts and Traditions, 65-76; 80-92; 109-116; 121-125; 130-138; 142-156
How did the small province of Judaea go from colony, to independent kingdom, back to colony in under a century? What measure of religious, cultural, and political independence did Herod the Great manage to secure from the new, Roman Empire? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 72-103; 139-149; Texts and Traditions, 156-169; 231-266; 360-407
Why did diverse ideas of religious rightness (piety) proliferate in the first centuries BCE and CE? What is a sect? What is orthodoxy? Heresy? Whats a Sadducee? A Pharisee? A Zealot? An Essene? How do we know what we think we know about them? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 103-119; Texts and Traditions, 266-299; *Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, pp. 124-137 Analysis Paper #1 due in class
What function did writing, reading, and circulation of sacred texts play in the definition of sectarian boundaries? Why are scholars so obsessed with the literary remains of Jewish sects? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 120-138; Texts and Traditions, 301-307; 336-367
Why did messianic movements sweep through Palestine in the first century CE? Who was Jesus, and what exactly did he think he was doing? Reading: From Text to Tradition, 149-156; Texts and Traditions, 407-414
Who was Paul, and what was his relation to Jesus movement? What kind of Judaism did he preach to non-Jews, and why was it such a success? Reading: Romans; Texts and Traditions, 565-568; *Paula Fredriksen, The Apostle to the Gentiles, in From Jesus to Christ, 2nd ed., pp. 156-176
Overview of the First Jewish War: its causes, how it played out, and the immediate aftermath. Readings: From Text to Tradition, 157-176; Texts and Traditions, 429-469
How did the Mishnah come together, both theoretically and practically? For whom was this an authoritative document? What is the Oral Torah? Reading: From Text to Tradition, 177-200; Texts and Traditions, 517-559
How did the rise and triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire affect the communal identity of Jews? Why were Christians so obsessed with the existence of Jews? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 201-213; Texts and Traditions, 561-596 Analysis paper #2 due in class
What were the roots of the Babylonian community of Sages, and how did the religious and political climate in Persia differ from that in the Roman Empire? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 214-219; Texts and Traditions, 596-617
Why was the Oral Torah written down, and by whom? Why are there two Talmuds? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 220-234; Texts and Traditions, 619-638
How was the written Torah understood to conform to the oral Torah? How did translation and interpretation shape the formation and reception of the Tanak? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 235-239; Texts and Traditions, 306-307; 638-656 Analysis Paper #3 Due in Class
What was the religious life of Jews like after the destruction of the Second Temple? How did they reshape their sacred and communal time and space? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 240-265; Texts and Traditions, 671-734
Is the history of Jewish women part of the broader history of ancient Judaism? Were ancient Jewish women really Jews? In the Diaspora? According to the Sages? Readings: *Judith Romney Wegner, The Image and Status of Women in Classical Rabbinic Judaism in Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, 2nd ed., pp. 46-100
How did the small elites of Galilee produce a form of Judaism that became normative throughout the world? When did the Talmud of the Babylonian Sages become authoritative, and why? Readings: From Text to Tradition, 266-269; Texts and Traditions, 749-761 Analytic book report of As a Driven Leaf due in class
|
