From Politics to Piety: The Emergence of Pharisaic Judaism (1973 Neusner), book
From Politics to Piety: The Emergence of Pharisaic Judaism (1973) is a book by Jacob Neusner.
Abstract
From Politics to Piety (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) traces the transformation of the Pharisees from political activism in the first century BCE to a less political, more quietistic religious group after the Great Revolt and into the rabbinic era. Neusner pioneered a critical approach to rabbinic literature, demonstrating a staunch refusal to blindly accept their stories as historical fact. His perspective on Josephus and the gospels was equally skeptical. He questions how much Josephus really knew about the Pharisees, and he argues that the gospels’ presentation of the Pharisees reveals more about their lives and influence after the Great Revolt than before. In this approach he is adopting the position of his own teacher, Morton Smith. A provocative work reflecting a critical approach to the sources, this is one of Neusner's better publications. Not only a valuable basic introduction to the Pharisees, but a worthy example of how to analyze religious literature. - Ronald Ruark, University of Michigan
Editions
Published at Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973 / 2nd ed. New York, NY: Ktav Publishing House, 1979.
Translations
Table of contents
- 1. The Problem of the Historical Pharisees
- 2. Hillel
- 3. Josephus' Pharisees: "The Real Administrators of the State"
- 4. The Gospels' Pharisees: "Brood of Vipers"
- 5. The Rabbinical Traditions about the Pharisees
- 6. Traditions of Yavneh (70-125 A.D.)
- 7. Traditions of Usha (140-170 A.D.)
- 8. The Pharisees in History
- Appendix I. The Pharisees in the Gospels by Morton Smith
- Appendix II. Luke and the Pharisees by J. A. Ziesler