Jews, Judaeans, Judaizing, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History

Full title
Jews, Judaeans, Judaizing, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History
Research notes

reader checked|23/02/2012 AL

Reference type
Author(s)
Mason, Steve
Year
2007
Journal / Book Title || Series Title
Journal for the Study of Judaism
Volume
38
Number of volumes
0
Issue / Series Volume
4-5
Pages
457-512
Alternative title
JSJ
Reprint edition
Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories , Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 141-184.
Label
17/12/2007
Abstract

The very title of this journal reflects a commonplace in scholarly discourse. We want to understand "Judaism" in the Persian and Graeco-Roman periods: the lives and religion of ancient Jews. Some scholars in recent years have asked whether Ioudaioi and its counterparts in other ancient languages are better rendered "Jews" or "Judaeans" in English. This essay puts that question in a larger frame, by considering first Ioudaismos and then the larger problem of ancient religion. It argues that there was no category of "Judaism" in the Graeco-Roman world, no "religion" too, and that the Ioudaioi were understood until late antiquity as an ethnic group comparable to other ethnic groups, with their distinctive laws, traditions, customs, and God. They were indeed Judaeans.

Primary Texts: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Composition / Author
Passage
2
Composition / Author
Passage
4