The Use of Archaeology in Understanding Rabbinic Materials: A Talmudic Perspective

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Preface v
3. Contents xi
4. Mishnah Baba Metsia 7:7 and the Relationship of Mishnaic Hebrew to Northern Biblical Hebrew 1
5. Mishnah Baba Batra 8:5 – The Transformation of the Firstborn Son from Family Leader to Family Member 19
6. Mishnah Avodah Zarah 4:5 – The Faces of Effacement: Between Textual and Artistic Evidence 29
7. Tosefta Ma‘aser Sheni 1:4 – The Rabbis and Roman Civic Coinage in Late Antique Palestine 53
8. Tosefta Shabbat 1:14 – “Come and See the Extent to Which Purity Had Spread” An Archaeological Perspective on the Historical Background to a Late Tannaitic Passage 63
9. An Illustrated Midrash of Mekilta de R. Ishmael, Vayeḥi Beshalaḥ, 1 – Rabbis and the Jewish Community Revisited 83
10. Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1 (71b–72a) – “Of the Making of Books”: Rabbinic Scribal Arts in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls 97
11. Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2,6 (20c) – The Demise of King Solomon and Roman Imperial Propaganda in Late Antiquity 111
12. Genesis Rabbah 1, 1 – Mosaic Torah as the Blueprint of the Universe – Insights from the Roman World 127
13. Genesis Rabbah 98, 17 – “And Why Is It Called Gennosar?” Recent Discoveries at Magdala and Jewish Life on the Plain of Gennosar in the Early Roman Period 141
14. Leviticus Rabbah 16, 1 – “Odysseus and the Sirens” in the Beit Leontis Mosaic from Beit She’an 159
15. Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 51b – Coloring the Temple: Polychromy and the Jerusalem Temple in Late Antiquity 191
16. Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 16a – Jews and Pagan Cults in Third-Century Sepphoris 205
17. The Rehov Inscriptions and Rabbinic Literature – Matters of Language 225
18. “This Is the Beit Midrash of Rabbi Eliezer ha-Qappar” (Dabbura Inscription) – Were Epigraphical Rabbis Real Sages, or Nothing More Than Donors and Honored Deceased? 239
19. The Piyyutim le-Hatan of Qallir and Amittai – Jewish Marriage Customs in Early Byzantium 275
20. Afterwords
21. The Use of Archaeology in Understanding Rabbinic Materials: An Archaeological Perspective 303
22. The Use of Archaeology in Understanding Rabbinic Materials: A Talmudic Perspective 321
23. Index 347