648 - Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 BCE-66 CE

Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 BCE-66 CE
By E. P. Sanders
Philadelphia, Trinity Press International, 1992. 580 pp. $29.95.

This detailed study of everyday Jewish life in the land of Israel in the one hundred and twenty-nine years between 63 BCE and 66 CE is the book E. P. Sanders, Professor of Arts and Sciences in Religion at Duke University, has always wanted to write. Its uniqueness lies in its author's emphasis on the "common Judaism" of ordinary priests and ordinary people and their forms of daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual Jewish practice in the early period of Roman rule in the land of Israel.

Sanders begins his study with an overview of the complex historical events that profoundly affected Jewish life in the period under consideration. Although he provides appropriate background information on the Hasmonean era (167-63 BCE), which was initiated by the successful Jewish revolt against the Hellenizing Seleucid dynasty of Syria, his main focus begins with the conquest of Jerusalem by the Roman general Pompey in 63 BCE and ends with the outbreak of Jewish rebellion against Rome in 66 CE; the work concentrates particularly on the years between 4 BCE and 66 CE. The principal sources he utilizes are the contemporaneous Jewish writers Flavius Josephus and Philo of Alexandria and, to a lesser extent, such apocryphal and pseudepigraphic books as Jubilees and 1 Enoch. As the author notes, rabbinic writings such as the Mishnah, which might at first glance appear to be obvious sources for ordinary first century practice, are far more problematic as historical documents. Although they appear to reflect a reality in which the Temple was still standing and functioning, they were written down well over a hundred years after the period in question. Similarly, they reflect the distinctive traditions and concerns of the Pharisee party, which had no particular authority over first-century Jewish norms.

Indeed, Sanders makes us aware from the start that first century Judaism, even within the land of Israel, was characterized by its diversity, and he devotes detailed attention in the second part of his book to the points of view and norms of practice of the representative parties of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, as well as to an analysis of how first-century Jewish society worked. But Sanders is careful to relegate these constituencies to their proper place. As he notes, these parties were quite small; none was able to convince or to coerce the general population into adopting its distinctive ideology. Although these parties certainly reflected real issues of dispute within the Jewish community of the land of Israel, Sanders prefers to concentrate in the first and larger section of his volume on what the entire Jewish population held in common.

650 - Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 BCE-66 CE

Sanders defines the "normal" or "common" Judaism of this era as what the priests and the people agreed on, and he reminds us of the absolute centrality of the Jerusalem Temple and its rituals within the land of Israel. Diaspora Jews, too, sent taxes to the Temple and might make an occasional pilgrimage, but their participation in ordinary Temple worship, an important aspect of first century Judaism, was of necessity restricted. Still, he notes that there was a world-wide feeling of solidarity among Jews based on shared religious practices and common theological beliefs. Sanders devotes the larger part of his book to detailed descriptions of these shared practices and beliefs, delineating for us the roles of the ordinary priests and Levites, both inside and outside the Temple; the functioning of the sacrificial cult; and the process of assessing and collecting the various Temple tithes and taxes. Detailed plans of the Temple itself are also included. He describes, as well, the importance of the three annual pilgrimage festivals, which were times of serious national remembrance as well as opportunities for holiday indulgence. In the Roman period, Sanders argues, these events also took on political implications and became prime occasions for social, national, and economic protest. In this section of his volume, Sanders also attempts to describe the everyday practice and concerns of ordinary Judaism, separate from Temple worship, and to outline elements of both a commonly held Jewish theology and an agenda of future hopes.

Sanders has written an exhaustive, yet accessible, study of what can be known about a Jewish community on the verge of irreversible calamity and profound transformations, consisting mostly of ordinary people living as best they could, as they always had, according to their understanding of divine imperatives. As he notes, "the history of the time shows how firmly they believed in God, who gave them the law and promised them deliverance."

Judith R. Baskin

State University of New York
Albany, NY