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Katell Berthelot, Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome's Challenge to Israel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021).

Abstract

"How encounters with the Roman Empire compelled the Jews of antiquity to rethink their conceptions of Israel and the Torah ... Throughout their history, Jews have lived under a succession of imperial powers, from Assyria and Babylonia to Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. Jews and Their Roman Rivals shows how the Roman Empire posed a unique challenge to Jewish thinkers such as Philo, Josephus, and the Palestinian rabbis, who both resisted and internalized Roman standards and imperial ideology ... Katell Berthelot traces how, long before the empire became Christian, Jews came to perceive Israel and Rome as rivals competing for supremacy. Both considered their laws to be the most perfect ever written, and both believed they were a most pious people who had been entrusted with a divine mission to bring order and peace to the world. Berthelot argues that the rabbinic identification of Rome with Esau, Israel's twin brother, reflected this sense of rivalry. She discusses how this challenge transformed ancient Jewish ideas about military power and the use of force, law and jurisdiction, and membership in the people of Israel. Berthelot argues that Jewish thinkers imitated the Romans in some cases and proposed competing models in others ... Shedding new light on Jewish thought in antiquity, Jews and Their Roman Rivals reveals how Jewish encounters with pagan Rome gave rise to crucial evolutions in the ways Jews conceptualized the Torah and conversion to Judaism."--Publisher description.

Contents

Introduction -- 1. Recontextualizing Israel's Encounter with the Roman Empire in the Longue Durée -- 2. A Survey of Scholarship on "Rome and Jerusalem" -- 3. Responses to Empire: Theory, Terminology, and Method -- Empire, Imperialism, and Imperial Ideology -- Analyzing Responses to Empire: Coping with Diversity -- Jewish Responses to the Roman Empire -- Chapter 1 Coping with Empires before Rome: From Assyria to the Hellenistic Kingdoms -- 1. The Neo-Assyrian Empire; 1.1 The Nature of Neo-Assyrian Imperialism -- 1.2 The Legacy of Neo-Assyrian Imperialism in the Bible -- The Notion of a Universal God -- God's Kingdom and Divine Kingship -- The Covenant between God and Israel -- Specific Laws of the Covenant -- Human Kingship -- 2. The Neo-Babylonian Empire -- 2.1 The Nature of Neo-Babylonian Imperialism -- 2.2 The Legacy of Neo-Babylonian Imperialism in the Bible -- The Emergence of Monotheism: Foreign Gods as Idols -- The Election and Salvific Role of the People of Israel -- Human Kingship -- 3. The Persian Empire -- 3.1 The Nature of Achaemenid Imperialism; Local Cults and Imperial Propaganda -- Persian Imperial Ideology: Universalism, Dualism, and Soterio logical Mission -- 3.2 Achaemenid Imperialism in the Bible and in Second Temple-Period Jewish Sources -- Further Monotheistic Developments: The Rejection of Dualism -- The Creator God -- Human Kingship -- The Rise of the Torah -- The Development of an Apocalyptic Worldview and Literature -- Eschatology and Ethics -- 4. The Hellenistic Kingdoms -- 4.1 Seleucid Rule and Royal Ideology -- 4.2 The Legacy of Seleucid Imperialism in Ancient Jewish Sources -- Human Kingship; Territory: Defining Israel's Relationship to the Promised Land in Legal-Historical Terms -- Time, History, and Power: Foretelling the End of Empire -- Empires, Theology, and Angelology -- Chapter 2 The Unique Challenge of the Roman Empire: A Rivalry between Two Peoples -- 1. The Imperialism of a People -- 1.1 A Jewish Testimony from the Second Century BCE -- 1.2 The Imperium of the Populus Romanus -- 1.3 Roma: City, Personification, and Goddess -- 2. The "Election" of the Romans -- 2.1 A Divine Scheme -- 2.2 Roman Virtues -- 2.3 Roman Pietas -- 3. The "Vocation" of the Romans; 3.1 A Universal and Eternal Rule? -- Universal Rule -- Eternal Rule -- 3.2 A "Messianic" Vocation to Bring Peace, Prosperity, and LegalOrder to the World -- 4. The Roman Victories Over the Jews: Obliteration and Substitution -- 4.1 A "Game of Temples": From Jerusalem to Rome and Vice-Versa -- 4.2 Aelia Capitolina: A Miniature Rome -- 5. Rome as Israel's Twin Brother and Rival -- 5.1 Rome, an Empire among Others? -- 5.2 Rome as Esau/Edom -- Chapter 3 The Challenge of Roman Power -- 1. Roman Military Power and Roman Manliness -- 1.1 The Childrenof Mars

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