Migrating Tales: The Talmud's Narratives and Their Historical ContextMigrating Tales situates the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, in its cultural context by reading several rich rabbinic stories against the background of Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, much of it Christian in origin. In this nuanced work, Richard Kalmin argues that non-Jewish literature deriving from the eastern Roman provinces is a crucially important key to interpreting Babylonian rabbinic literature, to a degree unimagined by earlier scholars. Kalmin demonstrates the extent to which rabbinic Babylonia was part of the Mediterranean world of late antiquity and part of the emerging but never fully realized cultural unity forming during this period in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Persia. Kalmin recognizes that the Bavli contains remarkable diversity, incorporating motifs derived from the cultures of contemporaneous religious and social groups. Looking closely at the intimate relationship between narratives of the Bavli and of the Christian Roman Empire, Migrating Tales brings the history of Judaism and Jewish culture into the ambit of the ancient world as a whole. |
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Migrating Tales: The Talmud's Narratives and Their Historical Context Richard Kalmin Limited preview - 2021 |
Migrating Tales: The Talmud's Narratives and Their Historical Context Richard Kalmin Limited preview - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
according addition Alexander Romance Alexander's ancient anonymous editors Ashmedai astrology Babylonian rabbis Babylonian Talmud Baraita Bartholomew Bavli Bavli Gittin Bavli Tamid Benaiah Bereshit Rabbah biblical BUBBLING BLOOD Cambridge century C.E. CHAPTER claim commentary context cultural demons depicts deriving discussion eastern Roman provinces edited Elazar bar Elders Ethiopian example fact father fourth century Greek Hebrew Holy idem Israel Israelites Jerusalem Jesus Jewish Babylonia Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Jews Josephus Judaism Kalmin killed king late antique later Legend Manasseh manuscript mazal mazla Mesopotamia Midrash Mohr/Siebeck Moses motifs Munich 95 murder narrative Nebuzaradan nonrabbinic Oxford Palestine Palestinian Palestinian rabbinic parallel Parush Persian Pharisees prophet rabbinic compilations rabbinic literature rabbinic traditions reads Roman East Sanhedrin scholars Septuagint Shabbat Shimon bar Yohai significant Sokoloff sources statement Stoneman story Studies Syriac Tabarī Tannaitic Temple Testament of Solomon Thalamion tion Torah trans translation TSol Tübingen University Press Veltri Wasserstein Yerushalmi Yosi Zechariah