Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine
By (author) Catherine Hezser
Hardback (Published)
(January 2001)
ISBN: 9783161475269
6.57 x 9.61 inches
Price: $261.00
On back order
Catherine Hezser presents a comprehensive study of Jewish literacy in antiquity. She elucidates similarities and differences between the ancient Jewish and Graeco-Roman use of writing and follows recent social-anthropological approaches to literacy, focusing on the social contexts and purposes of writing.
Since Judaism has always been seen as the quintessential ‘religion of the book’, a high literacy rate amongst ancient Jews has usually been taken for granted. Catherine Hezser presents the first critical analysis of the various aspects of ancient Jewish literacy on the basis of all of the literary, epigraphic, and papyrological material published so far. Thereby she takes into consideration the analogies in Graeco-Roman culture and models and theories developed in the social sciences. Rather than trying to determine the exact literacy rate amongst ancient Jews, she examines the various types, social contexts, and functions of writing and the relationship between writing and oral forms of discourse. Following recent social-anthropological approaches to literacy, the guiding question is: who used what type of writing for which purpose? First Catherine Hezser examines the conditions which would enable or prevent the spread of literacy, such as education and schools, the availability and costs of writing materials, religious interest in writing and books, the existence of archives and libraries, and the question of multilingualism. Afterwards she looks at the different types of writing, such as letters, documents, miscellaneous notes, inscriptions and graffiti, and literary and magical texts until she finally draws conclusions about the ways in which the various sectors of the populace were able to participate in a literate society.
- By (author) Catherine Hezser
Other Titles in this Series
Between Temple and Torah
Essays on Priests, Scribes, and Visionaries in the Second Temple Period and Beyond
Jews and Hellenistic Cities in Eretz-Israel
Relations of the Jews in Eretz-Israel with the Hellenistic Cities during the Second Temple Period (332 BCE-70 CE)
Sages and Commoners in Late Antique ‘Erez Israel
A Philological Inquiry into Local Traditions in Talmud Yerushalmi
Above, Below, Before, and After
Studies in Judaism and Christianity in Conversation with Martha Himmelfarb
Building on the Ruins of the Temple
Apologetics and Polemics in Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism
Die ptolemäische Organisationsform politeuma
Ein Herrschaftsinstrument zugunsten jüdischer und anderer hellenischer Gemeinschaften
Abduktives Denken und talmudische Argumentation
Eine rechtstheoretische Annäherung an eine zentrale Interpretationsfigur im babylonischen Talmud
Tod und Sterben im Krieg bei Josephus
Die Intentionen von Bellum und Antiquitates im Kontext griechisch-römischer Historiographie
Similar Books
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Lobbying for Equality
Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Equality during the French Revolution
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
Tradition, Interpretation, and Change
Developments in the Liturgy of Medieval and Early Modern Ashkenaz
Judaïsme ancien – Ancient Judaism, 13, 2025
Daniel Boyarin et la notion de judaïsme dans l’histoire / Daniel Boyarin and the Notion of Judaism in History (Judaism: The Genealogy of the Modern Notion)
Christlich-jüdische Beziehungen in Aschkenas während des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts
Neue Einsichten in die vielfältige Quellenüberlieferung
Das Weisheitsbuch Ben Sira / Jesus Sirach
Synopse der hebräischen, griechischen, lateinischen und syrischen Texttraditionen mit deutscher Übersetzung
Der anwesende Abwesende
Das Verhältnis Judentum-Christentum in Schulbuch und Unterricht der Fächer Religion und Ethik
Essen
Ethische Perspektiven zum Speisen in Antike und Gegenwart. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik XV
