American Academy of Religion
A History of the Jews in Babylonia, II: The Early Sasanian Period by Jacob Neusner Review by: Morton Smith Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar., 1968), pp. 79-81 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1461491 . Accessed: 27/10/2011 14:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
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our efforts to understand the continuity of the Indian tradition. While Renou demonstrates the limits of the traditional Indian idea that continuity and orthodoxy were to be seen in the role of the Veda, he still leaves open the possibility of identifying reverence for the Veda as an takenfromthe Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, important element in post-Vedic history. If Gonda fails to deal with the dynamics "From the Unreal lead me to the Real! From Darkness lead me to Light! - From of a history in which ideas change and Death lead me to Immortality!" The develop, he nevertheless gives us overIndian search is followed from the crea- whelming evidence of the continuity of tion stories of the Rig Veda, through the the underlying ritual structures. And theistic and monistic possibilities, to the while Brown's basis for continuity would Bhagavad Gita. The description of the probably not be recognized by an Indian, search admirably ties together these oth- he has directly confronted the problem of erwise rather diverse theological move- a "historical" interpretationof the Indian ments. However, the reviewer finds it tradition. The task remains to describe very hard to be convinced that in this the manifold forces that together account essentially metaphysical quest, we are for the undeniable continuity of the given the equivalent of nineteenth- Indian tradition. PAUL YOUNGER century "liberalism" and "progress" (p. 22). In the second lecture the imporMcMasterUniversity tance of the cow to Rig Vedic peoples is identified as uniting with the non-Vedic idea of the mother goddess and the "primitive totemistic" idea of the "unity of life" to form the basis of the concept A Historyof the Jews in Babylonia,II: The Early SasanianPeriod.By JACOB of Here it would appear that the NEUSNER. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967. ahim.s5.emphasis on ahimsa and cow Gandhian xxii+341 pages. 52 guilders. worship has forced two rather minor themes to the fore, and in so doing made In this important study Professor the very basic idea of the "unity of life" Neusnercarrieson theworkso well begun appear apologetically on the scene when by his volumeon Babylonian Jewryin the in fact it is the basis for the whole under- Parthianperiod (Brill, 1965; reviewed standing of life in ancient India. The in JAAR, June, 1967, pp. 180-82). third and fourth lectures deal with the His objectiveis still the same- to see themes of time as a round of samsa-ra the development of Judaismin Babylonia, but ("the theoretical ground of Indian pes- not only as a religiousphenomenon, simism") and the "conquerors" such as also as a social and historicalone; to Krishna, Shiva, Mahavira,and Siddhartha, describeit, not only as it appearsin its who have brought hope by providing own records,but also as it was in relation ways of escaping the noose of time. In to other social groups and historical this, the "conquerors" release the Indian processesof the same area and period. tradition from the dead end into which In this respect his work is a pioneer its Vedic learning had led, but they do so enterpriseandof greatvaluefor students without breaking the strand of the of Judaismand of Near Easternhistory. tradition. The present volume deals with the Each of these books contributes much years 226-272 A.D. This means, in to our learning and at least something to Persian times, the reigns of Ardashir Kantian development in Western thought that would scarcely have been known to the people of ancient India. The four lectures in which Brown traces out the theme of continuity are masterpieces of scholarship and clear exposition. In the first lecture the text is
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and Shapur I, and in Jewish terms, the age of Rav and Samuel. The preface justly emphasizes the great importance of this half century of BabylonianJewish history for all subsequent history of Judaism. These years saw the formation of a typical rabbinicdiasporic community, the establishment of the main lines of its internal structure and relations to the external world, and the shaping of its prayer book and of its concerns for legal study and biblical exegesis. The decisions made and examples set at this time were to be basic for the Babylonian Talmud and thereby for the main tradition of Judaism. The preface also contains a brief but excellent account of the contributions made by earlier scholars to our knowledge of the period. Chapter two involves a short but clear and judicious summary of Sasanian military history and social policy, a too brief and obscure description of social structures, and a full treatment of religious policy and religious groups, especially in Babylonia. The conclusion-that neighboring groups influenced the Jews considerably in practice, especially in magic, but had little influence on rabbinic doctrine - seems in need of some revision to allow more Near Eastern influence on rabbinic speculation concerning such matters as Adam, the divine middot (Amesha Spentas?), and fire in eschatology. Chapter two describes the relationship between the Sasanian government and the rabbis, beginning with a period of hostility, probably reflecting Rav's connection with the Parthian government and Ardashir's backing of Zoroastrian regulations, but concluding with a period of much better understanding associated with Shapur's tolerance and Samuel's teaching that the law of the government must be obeyed. Neusner's reconstruction is extremely persuasive. It is followed by accounts of the probable relationship between the Jewish system and the
Sasanian government. The picture is completed by other details. It appears, for instance, that the Sasanians restricted criminal jurisdiction to their own courts, and that the increased importance of the rabbis as judges in this period was probably due to the disqualification of the local Jewish gentry who had previously held such offices, but had been too close to the Parthians to be acceptable to the Sasanians. Chapters four-six offer a detailed account of the persons and teachings of the principal rabbis above all, of Ray and Samuel. The fourth chapter deals with personalia. It includes a valuable section that shows how the rabbi as a religious figure differs from priest or prophet and resembles "the magus." The fifth chapter, on theology and liturgy, and the sixth, on biblical exegesis and history, cover material that will be most familiar to students of Judaism: the specific content of rabbinic teaching. The author follows Kohler, Heinemann, and Lieberman in the view that most of the prayers often credited to Ray are much older. He agrees with Abraham Heschel that Rav carries on the mystical tradition of Akiba, while Samuel preserves the down-to-earth exegesis of Ishmael. Neusner is able to support this opinion with good historical arguments: Samuel was trained by the pupils of Ishmael who emigrated to Babylonia, while Ray was nurtured by the pupils of Akiba who returned to Palestine. These chapters could profitably have given more attention to Iranian and Babylonian parallels, and should have been more cautious with respect to the invention of Jewish traditions (cf. p. 157). However, these objections are trivial in light of the overwhelming correctness of the account. The seventh chapter, on geography and population, attempts only to sketch the boundaries of the areas settled by Jews and to estimate the Jewish population. The estimate arrived at is a plausible
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860,000. A final chapter, entitled "The People and the Law," is a brilliant discussion of the extent to which the rabbis controlled and influenced the mass of the Jewish population, and the means they employed. Neusner had found important evidence for this control in the distribution within rabbinic material of reports of actual cases. He points out that there are many cases on transfer of property, torts, damages, personal status (marriage, divorce, etc.) and a considerable number of purity laws and of those for the Sabbath, but almost none on agricultural offerings, criminal law, and the like. He concludes that the rabbis were able to control the people on questions of civil law by their powers as judges, and to influence them on questions of religious law by their reputations as holy men. This section is a model of historical insight. MoRTONSMITH
ColumbiaUniversity The Cross in Canada:Vignettesof the AcrossFour Centuries. Churches Edited by JOHN S. MOIR. Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1966. 247 pages. $4.95.
Churchand Statein Canada,1627-1867: Basic Documents. Edited by JOHN S. MOIR. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967. 274 pages. $2.95. Ever since the publication of American Christianity,edited by Smith, Handy, and Loetscher, many Canadianhistorians and some Canadian churchmen have wished for the publication of a similar collection of documents in Canadian religious history. These two works of John S. Moir go some way toward the fulfillment of that wish, although it must be pointed out that the state of Canadian historiography in church history and in social and intellectual history has not permitted the achievement of comparable standards of scholarship.
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The Cross in Canada begins with an introduction by the Toronto church historian, John W. Grant. He emphasizes that although Canada was not founded as a religious venture, the activities of religious groups nevertheless displayed a prominent role in the shaping of the mores and the definition of a Canadian style of life. One could have wished for a closer scrutiny of the centrifugal role of religious affiliation in Canada. The linguistic duality, the regional differences, the robustness of ethnic communities within the country, the non-nationalistic nature of Canadian public schools - all these are linked with the function of religion in that land. Of course, one might expect from a United Church historian an emphasis upon the centripetal side of things. The book then gives a series of documents introducing us to the mores of Canadian Christians and to moments in the history of the churches. We are told of the first baptisms by immersion in Quebec, which took place in January and required cutting a hole in the ice. We hear Walter Hawkins, a Negro clergyman who traveled the underground railway and became in 1886 Bishop of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, declare his pride in the protection of the British lion and state his assurance that he will be admitted to heaven's parlor and not just its kitchen. The emphasis lies very strongly on ecclesiastical history and at times even on anecdotal aspects. Even with due allowance for the "vignettes" of the sub-title, greater attention to intellectual history would have been desirable. There are no indications of the content of sermons, and hardly any references to theological debates and movements (other than the ecumenical ones) or to the kind of religious thinking that succeeded in organizing nineteenth-century Canadianpublic schools and supplying their basic ethos. Thus, while it is interesting to read Egerton Ryerson's
