Review of the
Michael L. Satlow , Jewish marriage during the antiquity. Princeton: Princeton College Drive, 2001. xii, 431 users ; 25 cm. ISBN 069100255X $.
Tawny Holm , Indiana College or university off Pennsylvania.
This lighting-up and you may full book by the Satlow goes far to display that discussion on the subject of ong Jews, and you can among their Christian, Roman, and Greek locals, since it is now in progressive Western and you will progressive Jewish society. Satlow, which sees relationship given that an effective socially built, culturally depending facilities, gets a great refreshingly historic direction toward alarmist commentary of today. “The very fact the discourse off social relationship ‘crisis’ can be so dated at minimum is always to aware me to the fresh possibility that individuals was speaking about a question of rhetoric way more than simply reality. xvi-xvii). When it comes to evaluating optimistic trust one progressive wedding was alternatively an update to your bad days of the past of your own patriarchal early in the day, Satlow means that old Judaism is far more difficult than of several guess, and contains “one rabbinic articulation regarding marital ideals . . . to rival our own egalitarian notions” (p. xvii).
Whether the “that rabbinic articulation” off close-egalitarianism impresses all the reader, Satlow’s circumstances for higher variety between your different Jewish teams try well-produced (the latest Palestinian rabbis consistently can be found in a far greater light versus Babylonian), and his publication tend to hence feel appealing not just to students out-of Close East antiquity and you will Judaism, but on the learned social. The study requires a vinyl method to Jewish relationship about Mediterranean Levant (particularly Palestine) and you will Babylonia regarding Persian period to your rabbinic several months (ca. 500 B.C.Elizabeth. so you can 500 C.Elizabeth.). Discover around three very first objections: (1) personal Jewish groups of antiquity differed out of one another inside their understanding of relationship, usually not usually conceiving wedding when it comes to their historic and geographical perspective; (2) there’s nothing generally Jewish about Jewish wedding until Jews modified way of life and traditions distributed to their servers communities to their individual idiom in order to erican marriages today, ancient Jewish beliefs on the wedding most likely diverged significantly out of facts, and differing old courtroom medications from the rabbis should not be taken as detailed.
Satlow appropriately cautions an individual concerning the characteristics of your own top sources; certain attacks have little or skewed research, especially the Persian period (wherein we have only Ezra-Nehemiah regarding Bible and you can Aramaic legal records away from Egypt) plus the Babylonian Amoraic several months two hundred-500 C.Elizabeth. (wherein we do have the Babylonian Talmud, a large supply but one which shows a shut rabbinic community and not Babylonian Jews at-large). Or even the new offer plus include the newest Palestinian Talmud and you may midrashim, Jewish blog from inside the Greek (like the Septuagint interpretation of your Hebrew Bible and also the This new Testament), the newest Dry Sea Scrolls, strewn archaeological stays and you will inscriptions, and several recommendations so you can Jews of the non-Jewish Greek and you can Latin writers.
Adopting the addition, where Satlow outlines their arguments, benefits, approach, supply, and you will strategy, the book is divided in to three pieces. Region I, “Contemplating marriage,” considers the fresh ideology, theology, and you may court underpinnings from relationships. Area II, “Marrying,” movements on the beliefs of old relationships for the reality, around that is you can easily: dating, just who y), betrothal, the wedding, as well as irregular marriage ceremonies (e.grams. second marriage ceremonies, polygynous marriage ceremonies, concubinage, and levirate marriages). DateNiceUkrainian aplikacija Area III, “Becoming Married,” discusses this new economics away from matrimony while the articulation out-of Jewish beliefs within the ancient literary works and inscriptions. Immediately after a final chapter of findings, where Satlow reorganizes his results diachronically by months and you can region, the publication closes having detailed stop cards, a thorough bibliography, and you may around three spiders: subject, premodern supply, and you will progressive people.