Roman Contexts in Jewish Texts: On Diatagma and Prostagma in Rabbinic Literature

Abstract

The importance of loanwords in rabbinic literature may often extend far beyond issues of etymology and semantic range. A loanword may have been employed in a text not merely for its meaning, but by means of a loanword from Greek or Latin, the author of a rabbinic text may have alluded to a specific setting or institution well known to his audience but unfamiliar to the modern reader. As a result, the historian may enhance our understanding of many rabbinic texts with loanwords by interpreting these texts in the light of their loanwords' original settings. In this article, I discuss rabbinic texts that borrow one of the following two Greek terms for "edict," diatagma and prostagma. In all but one case, diatagma and prostagma are found in Aggadot where they seem to access various associations from the Graeco-Roman world concerning the contents, publication, reception, and popular perception of Roman edicts. Yet not only do these Aggadot reflect the historical context of Roman edicts, they also exemplify the rabbinic use of the legal-political life of the times as a metaphor for religious ideas. In the single appearance of the term diatagma in a Halakhic context, I suggest that the edict under discussion is a specific form of a Roman legal summons and that the proper understanding of this Halakhic pericope is contingent upon a familiarity with the roman edictal summons. Moreover, I suggest that this pericope preserves a record of a legal discussion between a Palestinian amora and a gentile.