Heresy and the Formation of the Rabbinic Community

By (author) David M. Grossberg

Book cover: Heresy and the Formation of the Rabbinic Community

Extent: 287 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Jewish Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(June 2017)

ISBN: 9783161551475

6.38 x 9.45 inches

Price: $224.00

In stock

Between the first and sixth centuries C.E., a group of sages that scholars refer to as the rabbinic community systematized their ideas about Judaism in works such as the Mishnah and the Talmud. David M. Grossberg offers a new approach to thinking about this community’s formation. Rather than seeking an occasion of origin, he examines the gradual development of the idea of an authorized rabbinic collective.


Between the first and sixth centuries C.E., a group of sages that scholars refer to as the rabbinic community systematized their ideas about Judaism in works such as the Mishnah and the Talmud. David M. Grossberg offers a new approach to thinking about this community’s formation. Rather than seeking an occasion of origin, he examines the gradual development of the idea of an authorized rabbinic collective. The classical rabbinic texts imagine a diverse setting of Sadducees, Pharisees, sinners, and sectarians interacting in complex and changing ways with pious sages, teachers, and judges. Yet this representation aligns only vaguely with the social reality in which these ancient sages actually lived and operated. The author contends that these texts’ primary aim was not to describe real rabbinic opponents but to create and enforce boundaries between rabbis and others and within the emerging rabbinic movement.

  • By (author) David M. Grossberg