History of the Jews in Babylonia (non Sabbath version)
Posted: Sun May 10, 2015 11:23 am
I recently bought the first volume of Jacob Neusner's five volume series of books named in the title of this thread.
This volume, I think, was originally published by E J Brill in 1964. The other four came out between then and 1970. All five volumes were re-issued by Wipf & Stock as paperbacks in 1999.
Anyhow, I wonder if I can get the opinion of others who may have read this volume (covers Parthian politics and the involvement of the Jewish inhabitants, ca. 140 bce to 227 ce). The paperback is still available for about $25 USD.
This is not my first attempt to read books by Neusner. If anything, the guy is extremely sure of himself. He speaks with erudition, but there are times I cannot seem to grasp his logic, regardless of how plausible his suggestions sound to my untrained ear. The other books I have are The Economics of the Mishnah (1969), The Oral Torah (1986), The Memorized Torah (1985), and A Midrash Reader (1990). I have at best perused them, but did noticed that Neusner can change his mind - a lot. His biggest turn-around was after his mentor Morton Smith passed away. Previous to this event, he was gushing praise for the man as editor of a Festschrift commemorating Smith. After Smith's death, in an intro to another scholar's book on memorization by Jews in the 1st century, Neusner rips (no pun intended) Smith to pieces.
Neusner is an ordained rabbi (Reform Judaism, I think), and has published English translations of the Mishnah and both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud. I own these translations in one form or another, and to be honest, he seems to take great pains to give detailed outlines of the discussions (whose speaking to whom, scriptural allusions. etc.), which I like a lot.
However, I have seen online posts that seem to cast doubt on his understanding of Mishnaic Hebrew and Talmudic Aramaic, but I wonder if the real objection has to do with Neusner making these discussions more understandable to non-Jews, or among Jews those, at least, who are non-rabbis.
I suppose the examples they give are nit picking, but I am no expert, and do not read either Hebrew or Aramaic. I'd like to get some opinions and see if we can get a productive discussion going.
DCH
This volume, I think, was originally published by E J Brill in 1964. The other four came out between then and 1970. All five volumes were re-issued by Wipf & Stock as paperbacks in 1999.
Anyhow, I wonder if I can get the opinion of others who may have read this volume (covers Parthian politics and the involvement of the Jewish inhabitants, ca. 140 bce to 227 ce). The paperback is still available for about $25 USD.
This is not my first attempt to read books by Neusner. If anything, the guy is extremely sure of himself. He speaks with erudition, but there are times I cannot seem to grasp his logic, regardless of how plausible his suggestions sound to my untrained ear. The other books I have are The Economics of the Mishnah (1969), The Oral Torah (1986), The Memorized Torah (1985), and A Midrash Reader (1990). I have at best perused them, but did noticed that Neusner can change his mind - a lot. His biggest turn-around was after his mentor Morton Smith passed away. Previous to this event, he was gushing praise for the man as editor of a Festschrift commemorating Smith. After Smith's death, in an intro to another scholar's book on memorization by Jews in the 1st century, Neusner rips (no pun intended) Smith to pieces.
Neusner is an ordained rabbi (Reform Judaism, I think), and has published English translations of the Mishnah and both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud. I own these translations in one form or another, and to be honest, he seems to take great pains to give detailed outlines of the discussions (whose speaking to whom, scriptural allusions. etc.), which I like a lot.
However, I have seen online posts that seem to cast doubt on his understanding of Mishnaic Hebrew and Talmudic Aramaic, but I wonder if the real objection has to do with Neusner making these discussions more understandable to non-Jews, or among Jews those, at least, who are non-rabbis.
I suppose the examples they give are nit picking, but I am no expert, and do not read either Hebrew or Aramaic. I'd like to get some opinions and see if we can get a productive discussion going.
DCH