Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T07:04:39.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple: its meaning and its consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Robert Goldenberg
Affiliation:
Department of History and Judaic Studies, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Steven T. Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTORY COMMENT

Any investigation of ancient Judaism is bound to rely heavily on the vast corpus of early rabbinic literature. No other body of ancient Jewish writing matches those materials with respect to their scope, their volume, or their subsequent influence on Jewish life. However, this reliance, compounded by the early Rabbis’ own insistence that they were merely handing down an ancient tradition unchanged, creates a pair of dangers.

For one thing, it is tempting to assume that the situations and arrangements reflected in rabbinic documents must already have existed in earlier periods. More particularly, it is tempting to assume that descriptions of the Jerusalem Temple and Jewish attitudes toward its cult that are found in rabbinic documents must shed light on the reality that prevailed when the Temple once stood. This assumption is unwarranted, however, and has been avoided in the preparation of this chapter. When rabbinic materials are cited, they will be used with due consideration of the likely time and place of their origin (when these two can be determined).

Second, it must be kept in mind that non-rabbinic forms of Judaism survived throughout antiquity: no reliable evidence exists of rabbinic leadership in Europe or North Africa before the Middle Ages, yet these areas contained substantial Jewish communities that antedated the Common Era. Rabbinic materials, despite their volume and their importance, present only a partial image of ancient Jewish responses to the loss of the Jerusalem Temple. Unfortunately, non-rabbinic Jewish writings from later antiquity (if any existed) have disappeared: the rest of the picture must remain a blank.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alon, G., Jews, Judaism and the Classical World (Jerusalem, 1977).
Alon, G., The Jews in Their Land in the Talmudic Age, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 19801984).
Avi-Yonah, M., The Jews of Palestine (Oxford, 1976).
Avi-Yonah, M., The Jews Under Roman and Byzantine Rule (New York, 1976).
Baron, S. W., Social and Religious History of the Jews, II, 2nd ed. (New York, 1952).
Bokser, B., “Rabbinic Responses to Catastrophe,” in Proceedings of the American Academy of Jewish Research 50 (1983).Google Scholar
Cohen, S. J. D., “The Temple and the Synagogue,” in The Cambridge History of Judaism (Cambridge, 1984–) III Google Scholar
Fine, S., “Did the Synagogue Replace the Temple?,” Bible Review 12 (Washington, DC, 1996).Google Scholar
Ginzberg, L., Legends of the Jews, 6 vols. (Philadelphia, 19091939).
Ginzberg, L. (ed.), Yerushalmi Fragments from the Genizah (New York, 1909).
Goldenberg, R., “Early Rabbinic Explanations of the Destruction of Jerusalem,” Journal of Jewish Studies 33 (1982).Google Scholar
Goldenberg, R., “The Broken Axis: Rabbinic Judaism and the Fall of Jerusalem,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Supplement) 45/3 (1977), F.Google Scholar
Goodman, M., “Diaspora Reactions to the Destruction of the Temple,” in Dunn, J. D. G. (ed.), Jews and Christians (Tübingen, 1992).Google Scholar
Goodman, M., “Nerva, the Fiscus Judaicus and Jewish Identity,” Journal of Roman Studies 79 (1989).Google Scholar
Kirschner, R., “Apocalyptic and Rabbinic Responses to the Destruction of 70,” Harvard Theological Review 70 (1985).Google Scholar
Kolenkow, A.B., “The Fall of the Temple and the Coming of the End: The Spectrum and Process of Apocalyptic Argument in 2 Baruch,” Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 21 (1982).Google Scholar
Lichtenberger, H., “Zion and the Destruction of the Temple in 4 Ezra 9–10,” in Gemeinde ohne Tempel (Tübingen, 1999).Google Scholar
Mueller, J. R., “The Apocalypse of Abraham and the Destruction of the Second Jewish Temple,” Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 21 (1982).Google Scholar
Neusner, J., “Judaism in a Time of Crisis,” Judaism 21 (1972).Google Scholar
Neusner, J., “The Religious Uses of History,” History and Theory 5 (1966).Google Scholar
Neusner, J., Judaism: The Evidence of the Mishnah (Chicago, 1981).
Neusner, J., The Development of a Legend (Leiden, 1970).
Oppenheimer, A., “Judaism: From Temple to Text,” Sino-Judaica (1999).Google Scholar
Saldarini, A., “Varieties of Rabbinic Response to the Destruction of the Temple,” Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 21 (1982).Google Scholar
Smallwood, E. M., The Jews Under Roman Rule (Leiden, 1975).

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×