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Roots of Rabbinic Judaism: An Intellectual History, from Ezekiel to Daniel (2002) is a book by Gabriele Boccaccini.

Abstract

<In a bold challenge to the long-held scholarly notion that Rabbinic Judaism was already an established presence during the Second Temple period, Gabriele Boccaccini here argues that Rabbinic Judaism was actually a daring reform movement that developed following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and that only took shape in the first centuries of the common era.Through careful analysis of Second Temple sources, Boccaccini explores the earliest roots of the Rabbinic system of thought in the period from the Babylonian exile to the Maccabean revolt, or from Ezekiel to Daniel. He argues convincingly that a line of thought links Rabbinic Judaism back to Zadokite Judaism through the mediation of the Pharisaic movement.Sure to be widely debated, Roots of Rabbinic Judaism will be of interest to anyone studying the origins and development of modern Judaism.>--Publisher description.

<This is Boccaccini’s intellectual history of Rabbinic Judaism beginning with the Babylonian exile and ending with the Maccabean revolt, or “from Ezekiel to Daniel” as the subtitle suggests. It is a bold and fresh analysis of competing Judaisms during the second temple period. Boccaccini detects in this era the “earliest roots” of rabbinic thought, a crucial period during which the covenant concept evolved to include the idea of individual retribution and the Torah concept attached to the idea of heavenly wisdom. Much of this intellectual history, the history of ideas embedded in social reality, revolves around the Zadokites, a priestly group that predominated up to the Maccabean era. The Zadokite worldview was firmly grounded in the Mosaic Torah, revolving around ideas of heirarchy, purity, and control. Boccaccini finds the competing ideas within Judaism fascinating – the priestly outlook of the Zadokites grounded in Torah, the chaotic and apocalyptic worldview of the Enochians manifested in 1 Enoch, the sapiential worldview of Job and Ecclesiastes that marginalized the covenant and priesthood, and finally the “Danielic Revolution,” a rapprochement between Zadokite and Enochic Judiasm that produced the book of Daniel in the Maccabean era, a text that wedded Enochic innovations (the degeneration of history and afterlife retribution) to a traditional Mosaic outlook. Boccaccini relates the various Jewish texts produced in this era to their respective worldviews, oftentimes using Josephus as a guide, producing an interesting history of competing Judaisms in the sixth through second centuries BCE.>-- Ronald Ruark, University of Michigan.

Editions

Published in Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.

Translations

• I giudaismi del Secondo Tempio (2008 Boccaccini, Bardi) = Roots of Rabbinic Judaism (2002 Boccaccini), book (Italian ed.)

• Wurzeln des rabbinischen Judentums (2014 Boccaccini / Bedenbender), book (German ed.)

Online Reviews

• Review of Biblical Literature (2002) / Matthew Goff

• Review of Biblical Literature (2003) / C. Jason Borders

Table of contents

• Preface. From Formative Judaism to Rabbinic Origins and Roots
• Introduction. The Intellectual Quest of Rabbinic Origins and Roots
• 1. The Rise of Zadokite Judaism
• 2. Zadokite Judaism and Its Opponents
• 3. The Rapprochement between Zadokite and Sapiential Judaism
• 4. Daniel: A Third Way between Zadokite and Enochic Judaism
• Summary and Conclusion

External links

• Google Books