Bibliography
| Title: "The Rise and Fall of the Judaean State. A Political, Social and Religious History of the Second Commonwealth. Volume Three: 66 C.E.-120 C.E." Type: Generic Year: 1978 Abstract: "Cont.: Foreword by Sidney B. Hoenig (p.ix-xxix). Rome and Judaea at war, 66-70 C.E. Jabneh; the spiritual aftermath. Political and economic life after the war. Religious life and related concepts. Judaism and Christianity. Appendix: Josephus Flaivus; a biographical essay. Cumulative index: vols. I-III (p. 483-527). // This third volume in Zeitlin's history of Judaism during the Second Commonwealth [see NTA 12, p. 150] was completed shortly before his death at the age of ninety in 1976. Its five major parts treat Rome and Judea at war from A.D. 66 to 70, the spiritual aftermath at Yavneh, political and economic life after the war, religious life and related concepts, and Judaism and Christianity. The volume also contains Zeitlin's biographical essay on Josephus, a foreword by S.B. Hoenig, and a cumulative index (prepared by G. Hirschler) covering all three volumes in the project. The four volumes of Zeitlin' s collected essays, entitled Studies in the Early History of Judaism, were described in NTA 18, pp. 130-131; 19, pp. 127-128; 20 p.138; and 23. P. 259. // The foreword by S.B. Hoenig assesses the contribution of Zeitlin, who dies in 1976, to the study of the second Jewish commonwealth. This volume covers the period A.D. 70-120 and discusses the war with Rome, the spiritual aftermath at Jabneh, political and economic life after 70, religious life, and Judaism and Christianity, and there is an appendix on Josephus. There are a table of abbreviations, notes, and an index (prepared by G. Hirschler) to all three volumes. This work reveals Zeitlin's extensive learning and will be read with profit, notwithstanding the controversial character of some of his opinions. The rise of Christianity is discussed fairly, though some statements will be challenged by many N.T. scholars (e.g. the reference on p. 359 to ""Paul's appeals to the Judaeans to forsake the laws of the Torah, give up the Sabbath, abandon circumcision...""). // Solomin Zeitlin, who taught at Dropsie University in Philadelphia for over half a century and dies in 1976 aged ninety, was a Judaica scholar with more learning than judgement, an imbalance that involved him in many notorious controversies, chief among them his relentless crusade against the genuineness and antiquity of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masada discoveries. The present posthumous volume, the last of his history of the Second Temple to appear, covers the first Judaen revolution and its aftermath, but stops before the Bar Kokhba war. A fourth volume was to deal with this (and with the inauthenticity of the letters and documents found in the Judaean caves). The work, a curious medley of hyper-criticism and fundamentalism, is individual and idiosyncratic, and can be said with only a light exaggeration to rely on one modern authority alone: S. Zeiltin. Sidney Hoenig, a devout pupil, writes a warm appreciation of his master in which he notes that Zeitlin intended to discuss the Qumran scrolls in this volume bit 'alas , it was not given him to carry out his plan'. It is unlikely, however, that he would have had anything very different to say than what appeared in 'The Hebrew Scrolls: One More and Finally' in JQR in 1950! - G.Vermes" Keywords: Jewish History: Roman Era |