Bibliography
| Title: The Jewish Sabbath in the Roman World up to the Time of Constantine the Great Secondary Title: ANRW 2.19.1: Religion (Judentum: Allgemeines; Palästinisches Judentum) Volume: 2.19.1 Pages: 414-447 Type: Book Section Year: 1979 Abstract: "Pagan writers generally knew that Sabbath-observance was a principal trait of the Jewish religion. Such familiarity should not be surprising: the Sabbath came frequently and its observance had a great effect on the Jewish role in economy. In pagan writing, there is almost no reference to any of the great annual Jewish feasts and the knowledge even of Sabbath observance is limited and superficial. August thinks Jews fast on the Sabbath (Suetonius, D. Aug. 76), while Persius (Satir. 5,179-184) says they eat fish, and Plutarch (Quast. Conviv. 4,6.2) describes how they get drunk. The Sabbath was thus ridiculed as silly and as leading to indolence. Josephus, however, offers a series of decrees in which Roman authorities affirmed and protected the right of Jews to observe the Sabbath". Keywords: Cultural and Religious History of Ancient Judaism |