This Holy Place: On the Sanctity of the Synagogue During the Greco-Roman Period

by Steven Fine

Overview

"Steven Fine's This Holy Place is a comprehensive treatment of the synagogue as a place of sanctity in Late Antiquity. This book is essential for an understanding of how the synagogue became the central Jewish communal institution and how it served as a substitute for the destroyed Jerusalem Temple during the long period of Jewish exile from the Land of Israel. Fine's mastery of both archaeological evidence and a wide variety of literary sources makes this a major contribution to the field." --Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University "Fine has mastered an unusually wide range of disciplines--rabbinical sources, archaeology, art and epigraphy. . . . His book is thoroughly researched, well written, and engagingly presented. It should be required reading for anyone interested in how this most central institution of Jewish life was perceived and presented." --Lee I. Levine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem "I read [This Holy Place] with the greatest profit and enjoyment. It is an important contribution to the entire nature of late antique civilization and not only to Jewish studies." --Peter Brown, Princeton University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725237551
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	10/17/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
File size:	111 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steven Fine is the Dean Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 "Sacred Places That They Call Synagogues" 25

The Roots of Synagogue Holiness during the Second Temple Period

Chapter 2 "They Are Sacred Even When Destroyed" 55

The Holiness of Synagogues in Tannaitic Literature

Chapter 3 "The Sanctity of the Synagogue" 61

The Holiness of Synagogues in Amomic and Post-Amoraic Literature from the Land of Israel

Chapter 4 "May Peace Be unto All Those Who Cave Charity in This Holy Place" 95

Archaeological Evidence for the Holmes of Late Antique Synagogues in the Lund of Israel

Chapter 5 "You Believe the Place Is Holy Because the Torah and Prophets Are There…" 127

Synagogue Holiness in the Diaspora during Late Antiquity

Conclusion 159

Postscript 163

Notes 173

Bibliography 241

Photo Credits 279

Index of Ancient Literary Sources 281

What People are Saying About This

Peter Brown

I read [This Holy Place] with the greatest profit and enjoyment. It is an important contribution to the entire nature of late antique civilization and not only to Jewish studies. - (Peter Brown, Department of History, Princeton University)

Editorial Reviews

There have been a plethora of studies on the ancient synagogue based on the new archaeological and literary sources that are coming to light, but this volume by Fine (Rabbinic studies, Baltimore Hebrew Univ.) is the most exhaustive study yet. The result of seven years of research, this revision of a doctoral dissertation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is a massive compendium of sources and scholarship. Both literary sources and archaeological remains dating back to the Greco-Roman period call the synagogue a holy place; Fine studies how and why it attained that designation. The twin testimonies to the sanctification process are traced from the Second Temple Period in Tannaitic, Amoraic, and Post-Amoraic literature from the land of Israel, archaeological remains from late Palestinian antiquity, and the references to synagogues throughout the Diaspora in late antiquity. A substantial, scholarly book that is still accessible to those who have sufficient interest in the subject but lack the specialist's understanding of archaeology and Jewish literature.Eugene O. Bowser, Univ. of Northern Colorado, Greeley

Library Journal

Demonstrates how the synagogue came to be seen as sacred, arguing that biblical scrolls within the synagogue were the most important source of sanctity in the minds of the ancients. Explores the ideological development of the synagogue as well as trends in the history of Judaism during the Greco-Roman period, and concludes that during late antiquity there existed a single but multifaceted Judaism rather than the separate Judaisms some have posited. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

Fine provides a plethora of drawings and photographs, impressive bibliographical coverage, and a wealth of detail, which almost amount to a full history of the synagogue in the first millennium of its existence.
— Biblical Archaeology Review

P. W. van der Horst