The Many Worlds of the Late Antique Diaspora: Supplements to the ‘Cambridge History of Judaism’ vol. IV

Abstract

The fourth and final volume of the Cambridge History of Judaism , edited by Steven Katz, is an impressive achievement, covering a wide range of topics at a high level. But it also fails to make sufficient use of documentary evidence, both from the Land of Israel and from the Diaspora, and in particular of evidence which is either new or has been re-dated or reinterpreted. This review article points to some areas, for instance Jewish Aramaic, where documents on perishable materials or inscribed on stone could have made a contribution. But its main aim is to supplement the volume’s presentation of our evidence for Jewish life in Late Antiquity by surveying the sharply contrasting evidence from Eastern Europe and the Black Sea, Asia Minor, the Near East and above all Arabia, where the documentary evidence gives real substance to literary evidence for Jewish presence and influence in the period leading up to the preaching of Islam.