The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (Hellenistic Culture and Society) (Paperback)
$34.62 - Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for The Beginnings of Jewishness Beginning with the intriguing case of Herod the Great's Jewishness, this title discusses what made or did not make Jewish identity during the period, the question of conversion, the prohibition of intermarriage, matrilineal descent, and the place of the convert in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds.
Full description- Publisher: University of California Press
- Published: 17 January 2001
- Format: Paperback 441 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Literary Studies: Classical, Early & Medieval | Jewish Studies | General & World History | Ancient History: To C 500 CE | Judaism
- ISBN 13: 9780520226937 ISBN 10: 0520226933
- Sales rank: 599,548
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Full description for The Beginnings of Jewishness
In modern times, various Jewish groups have argued whether Jewishness is a function of ethnicity, of nationality, of religion, or of all three. These fundamental conceptions were already in place in antiquity. The peculiar combination of ethnicity, nationality, and religion that would characterize Jewishness through the centuries first took shape in the second century B.C.E. This brilliantly argued, accessible book unravels one of the most complex issues of late antiquity by showing how these elements were understood and applied in the construction of Jewish identity - by Jews, by gentiles, and by the state. Beginning with the intriguing case of Herod the Great's Jewishness, Cohen moves on to discuss what made or did not make Jewish identity during the period, the question of conversion, the prohibition of intermarriage, matrilineal descent, and the place of the convert in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds. His superb study is unique in that it draws on a wide range of sources: Jewish literature written in Greek, classical sources, and rabbinic texts, both ancient and medieval. It also features a detailed discussion of many of the central rabbinic texts dealing with conversion to Judaism.
