State And Society In Roman Galilee (Parkes-Wiener Series On Jewish Studies)

“”The book examines Jewish society and administration in Galilee in the period between the Bar Kokhba war and the proclamation of universal Roman citizenship in A.D. 212. Along with epigraphic and archaeological evidence, the author utilizes the extensive, heterogeneous rabbinic texts from that period – a body of writings largely ignored by historians of the Roman world because they were composed in Hebrew – to provide an overview of the customs and structure of a village society that is not possible for any other Roman province except Egypt. The author also uses the evidence to challenge common assumptions about the extent of rabbinic authority in Galilean society and its ability to change in response to social pressures. This second edition is updated with a new preface.””–BOOK JACKET.

Editorial Reviews

Drawing on the large corpus of extant rabbinic writings, Goodman (Jewish studies, Oxford U.) describes the formation of rabbinic Judaism in the second century that has shaped Judaism ever since. He argues that the development of the independent and unique Jewish culture of Late Roman Palestine was encouraged by the Roman methods of administration. Only a few copies of the 1983 first edition, developed from his dissertation, were printed; in a new preface, he summarizes developments in the scholarship since then. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)