The newest dominating story from relationship ‘decline,’ and this takes on a past golden period of relationships, is largely wrong” (pp

Remark by the

Michael L. Satlow , Jewish marriage into the antiquity. Princeton: Princeton College or university Press, 2001. xii, 431 profiles ; 25 cm. ISBN 069100255X $.

Tawny Holm , Indiana College or university away from Pennsylvania.

This lighting up and you may total book from the Satlow goes much showing you to definitely talk dedicated to ong Jews, and you will among their Religious, Roman, and you can Greek residents, since it is now inside the progressive American and progressive Jewish hot and sexy american girl society. Satlow, exactly who notices relationship due to the fact an excellent socially built, culturally oriented facilities, provides an excellent refreshingly historical angle towards the alarmist commentary nowadays. “The fact your commentary off societal marital ‘crisis’ can be so dated at least is always to alert us to the latest opportunity we is actually dealing with a question of rhetoric a great deal more than just facts. xvi-xvii). As for the evaluating hopeful faith you to modern marriage are alternatively an upgrade into crappy past of your patriarchal past, Satlow shows that ancient Judaism is much more complicated than just of a lot imagine, and it has “a minumum of one rabbinic articulation of marital beliefs . . . to help you competitor our own egalitarian impression” (p. xvii).

If the “that rabbinic articulation” regarding near-egalitarianism impresses all reader, Satlow’s situation to possess higher range between your various other Jewish organizations is actually well-made (the new Palestinian rabbis constantly appear in a much better light as compared to Babylonian), and his book often thus be appealing not just to students out of Near Eastern antiquity and you can Judaism, but on the discovered public. The study takes a plastic method to Jewish matrimony about Mediterranean Levant (particularly Palestine) and you can Babylonia in the Persian period towards the rabbinic months (california. five-hundred B.C.E. so you’re able to 500 C.Elizabeth.). You will find three earliest arguments: (1) individual Jewish groups of antiquity differed out-of one another inside their comprehension of relationship, usually however always conceiving relationship when it comes to the historical and geographical perspective; (2) there is nothing essentially Jewish about Jewish marriage up until Jews adapted life and you may rituals distributed to the host communities in their individual idiom to erican marriages today, ancient Jewish beliefs regarding wedding most likely diverged significantly off truth, and differing old legal medications by the rabbis really should not be removed once the descriptive.

Satlow rightly cautions your reader concerning the nature of the no. 1 sources; specific attacks don’t have a lot of or skewed research, especially the Persian period (in which i have only Ezra-Nehemiah about Bible and Aramaic court documents out of Egypt) and Babylonian Amoraic several months two hundred-five hundred C.Age. (which we possess the Babylonian Talmud, a big provider but the one that shows a sealed rabbinic neighborhood and not Babylonian Jews at-large). If not the fresh new present in addition to add the latest Palestinian Talmud and you may midrashim, Jewish web log in Greek (for instance the Septuagint interpretation of one’s Hebrew Bible additionally the The new Testament), brand new Dry Water Scrolls, thrown archaeological stays and inscriptions, and several records in order to Jews of the low-Jewish Greek and Latin writers.

After the introduction, in which Satlow contours his objections, benefits, means, source, and you will methodology, the publication was split into three pieces. Area I, “Thinking about relationship,” considers new ideology, theology, and you can legal underpinnings out-of relationship. Part II, “Marrying,” movements from the beliefs off old matrimony towards truth, as much as which is you can: dating, who y), betrothal, the marriage, and even abnormal marriage ceremonies (elizabeth.g. second marriages, polygynous marriage ceremonies, concubinage, and you can levirate marriages). Area III, “Becoming Married,” discusses this new business economics out-of relationships additionally the articulation regarding Jewish ideals for the old literary works and you will inscriptions. Once a last part off conclusions, in which Satlow reorganizes his findings diachronically by several months and you can area, the book shuts with thorough stop cards, an extensive bibliography, and around three indexes: topic, premodern offer, and you will modern authors.