The Beginnings of Jewishness (1999 Cohen), book

The Beginnings of Jewishness: boundaries, varieties, uncertainties (1999) is a book by Shaye J.D. Cohen.

Editions and translations

Published in Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.

Table of contents

• A Note on God and Parentheses
• Prologue: Jews and Others
• Part I: Who Was a Jew?
  • 1. Was Herod Jewish?
  • 2. "Those Who Say They Are Jews and Are Not": How Do You Know a Jew in Antiquity When You See One?
  • 3. Ioudaious, Iudaeus, Judaean, Jew
• Part II: The Boundary Crossed: Becoming a Jew
  • 4. From Ethnos to Ethno-Religion
  • 5. Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew
  • 6. Ioudaizein, "to Judaize"
  • 7. The Rabbinic Conversion Ceremony
• Part III: The Boundary Violated: The Union of Diverse Kinds
  • 8. The Prohibition of Intermarriage
  • 9. The Matrilineal Principle
  • 10. Israelite Mothers, Israelite Fathers: Matrilineal Descent and the Inequality of the Covenant
• Epilogue: Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness: Us and Them
• Appendix A: Was Martial's Slave Jewish?
• Appendix B: Was Menophilus Jewish?
• Appendix C: Was Trophimus Jewish?
• Appendix D: Was Timothy Jewish?

External links

• Google Books (partial text)