Between Rome and Babylon

Book excerpt: Between Rome and Babylon includes over thirty papers by Aharon Oppenheimer about Jewish life in Palestine and Babylonia in the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud (1st-4th centuries), dealing with leadership and society, political and military activity, relations with the authorities and historical geography. The collection is organized around three inter-connected themes: 1 Roman Palestine and its Environs; 2 The Bar Kokhba Revolt; 3 Babylonia Judaica. About two-thirds of the papers were originally published in Hebrew. They have been selected and edited for this collection, and translated for the first time into English or German. The rest of the papers originally appeared in various different languages and contexts, and they too have been selected and edited to fit the three themes. Cross-references have been added, as well as detailed indices.The aim of the papers is to cast light on Jewish history by extracting methodically historical meaning from Talmudic sources, taking into account when they were written, where they were edited, and how far they can be presumed authentic; and by looking at them in combination with Greek, Roman, Persian and Arabic written sources as well as relevant archaeological finds.