Marriage today might be a highly contested topic, but certainly no more than it was in antiquity. Ancient Jews, like their non-Jewish neighbors, grappled with what have become perennial issues of marriage, from its idealistic definitions to its many practical forms to questions of who should or should not wed. In this book, Michael Satlow offers the first in-depth synthetic study of Jewish marriage in antiquity, from ca. 500 B.C.E. to 614 C.E. Placing Jewish marriage in its cultural milieu, Satlow investigates whether there was anything essentially "Jewish" about the institution as it was discussed and practiced. Moreover, he considers the social and economic aspects of marriage as both a personal relationship and a religious bond, and explores how the Jews of antiquity negotiated the gap between marital realities and their ideals. Focusing on the various experiences of Jews throughout the Mediterranean basin and in Babylonia, Satlow argues that different communities, even rabbinic ones, constructed their own "Jewish" marriage: they read their received traditions and rituals through the lens of a basic understanding of marriage that they shared with their non-Jewish neighbors. He also maintains that Jews idealized marriage in a way that responded to the ideals of their respective societies, mediating between such values as honor and the far messier realities of marital life. Employing Jewish and non-Jewish literary texts, papyri, inscriptions, and material artifacts, Satlow paints a vibrant portrait of ancient Judaism while sharpening and clarifying present discussions on modern marriage for Jews and non-Jews alike.

This volume surveys the legal and literary references to gender, sexuality and marital relations found in biblical sources and Rabbinic texts until the end of the Tamudic era (c. 600 C.E.). Subject areas include Israel's familial historiography, kinship and law in biblical Israel, gender and status, judicial review of law, divine covenant and marriage covenant, conditions mandating divorce, monogamous and polygamous marriage, levirate surrogate marriage, endogamy and exogamy, marital choice, marriage and reproduction as religious imperatives, the home as a 'small temple', the marital writ for ontological security, emotional fidelity, the validation of eroticism, love's body: idealization and aesthetics, denial of sexual responsibility as Judaism's original sin, sexuality and dignity, conjugal rights and responsibilities, fertility and infertility, contraception and abortion, erotic and reproductive techniques, menstruation: The time to refrain from embracing, the suspected adulteress, children and eternity.

This volume revisits issues of empire from the perspective of Jews, Christians, and other Romans in the third to sixth centuries. Through case studies, the contributors bring Jewish perspectives to bear on longstanding debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity.

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