
The Mediterranean Diaspora In Late Antiquity Examines The Fate Of Jews Living In The Mediterranean Jewish Diaspora After The Roman Emperor Constantine Threw His Patronage To The Emerging Orthodox (nicene) Christian Churches. By The Fifth Century, Much Of The Rich Material Evidence For Greek And Latin-speaking Jews In The Diaspora Diminishes Sharply. Ross Shepard Kraemer Argues That This Increasing Absence Of Evidence Is Evidence Of Increasing Absence Of Jews Themselves. Literary Sources, Late Antique Roman Laws, And Archaeological Remains Illuminate How Christian Bishops And Emperors Used A Variety Of Tactics To Coerce Jews Into Conversion: Violence, Threats Of Violence, Deprivation Of Various Legal Rights, Exclusion From Imperial Employment, And Others. Unlike Other Non-orthodox Christians, Jews Who Resisted Conversion Were Reluctantly Tolerated, Perhaps Because Of Beliefs That Christ's Return Required Their Conversion. In Response To These Pressures, Jews Leveraged Political And Social Networks For Legal Protection, Retaliated With Their Own Acts Of Violence, And Sometimes Became Christians. Some May Have Emigrated To Regions Where Imperial Laws Were More Laxly Enforced, Or Which Were Under Control Of Non-orthodox (arian) Christians. Increasingly, They Embraced Forms Of Jewish Practice That Constructed Tighter Social Boundaries Around Them. The Mediterranean Diaspora In Late Antiquity Concludes That By The Beginning Of The Seventh Century, The Orthodox Christianization Of The Roman Empire Had Cost Diaspora Jews--and All Non-orthodox Persons, Including Christians--dearly.-- The Absence Of Evidence As The Evidence Of Absence -- Five Hundred And Forty Souls Were Added To The Church: The Letter Of Severus Of Minorca On The Conversion Of The Jews, Early Fifth Century? -- You Shall Have Freedom From Care...during My Reign.: Letter 51, The Emperor Julian To The Collectivity Of The Jews, (perhaps Spurious) (dated) March 1, 363: From Constantine To The Death Of Julian, 312
This work investigates the decline of Jewish populations in the Mediterranean diaspora during Late Antiquity as a direct consequence of the Roman Empire's transition to Nicene Christianity. Ross Shepard Kraemer, a scholar of religious history, utilizes a combination of archaeological findings, Roman legal codes, and literary texts to argue that the diminishing material evidence for Jewish communities reflects an actual demographic contraction. The author posits that imperial and ecclesiastical policies, ranging from legal disenfranchisement to direct coercion, fundamentally altered the viability of Jewish life within the empire.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars recognize this text as a significant contribution to the study of religious conflict and demographic shifts in the late Roman world. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's meticulous approach to interpreting the absence of archaeological evidence.
Page Count:
512
Publication Date:
2020-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
019022228X
ISBN-13:
9780190222284
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