Heresy & Identity in Late Antiquity

Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity Edited by

Eduard Iricinschi. and Holger M. Zellentin

Mohr Siebeck

EDUARD IRICINSCHI, born 1968; MA in Philosophy from Bucharest University, and MA in Religious Studies from New York University; is finishing a doctorate in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. HOLGER M. ZELLENTIN, born 1976, is an Assistant Professor of Rabbinics at the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

ISBN 978-3-16-149122-1 ISSN 0721-8753 (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2008 Mohr Siebeck, Tiibingen, Germany. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Guide-Druck in Tiibingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany.

Preface The colloquium held on January 16-18 2005, "Making Selves and Marking Others: Heresy and Self-Definition in Late Antiquity," follows in the steps of two earlier Princeton colloquia and volumes, which have gained wide academic attention. The series of colloquia was initiated by Peter Schafer in 2000, with generous funding from the Princeton University Graduate School, and continued in the following years under his tutelage.* Each year, two graduate students in the Department of Religion at Princeton University choose a topic of interdisciplinary interest and organize a semester-long workshop on the selected theme, followed by a colloquium. During the workshop, graduate students present their papers to colleagues and faculty from a variety of fields, and rework them into a formal presentation. At the concluding colloquium, the participants discuss their revised work with recognized scholars from Princeton University and other institutions, invited by the organizers to present their views on the same topic. We take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to our contributors, and to all who so generously supported the colloquium and this publication. As representative of all those who ensured our success, we have space to name only the most prominent ones. It is hardly possible to exaggerate Peter Schafer's initiative and support for this project. Annette Yoshiko Reed has considerably facilitated our task by providing us with invaluable academic and editorial advice. Bam Saul and Lorraine Fuhrmann have ensured a pleasant stay at Princeton for all participants of the colloquium. At Princeton University, the Center for the Study of Religion, the Department of Religion, and the Program in Judaic Studies generously provided office space and funding for the colloquium and the publication. Finally, Henning Ziebritzki and Tanja Mix from Mohr Siebeck guided the project to its present form. Holger Zellentin and Eduard Iricinschi * Adam H. Becker and Annette Y. Reed, eds. The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, TSAJ 95 (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003); and Ra'anan Boustan and Annette Y. Reed, eds., Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004). See now also Gregg Gardner and Kevin L. Osterloh, eds., Antiquity in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Pasts in the Greco-Roman World (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming); and the colloquium organized in January 2007 by Philippa Townsend and Moulie Vidas, "Revelation, Literature, and Community in Antiquity."

Table of Contents Preface ...................................................................................................... V EDUARD IRICINSCHI & HOLGER M. ZELLENTIN

Making Selves and Marking Others: Identity and Late Antique Heresiologies .................................................................. 1 KAREN L. KING

Social and Theological Effects of Heresiological Discourse ..................... 28 WILLIAM E. ARNAL

Doxa, Heresy, and Self-Construction: The Pauline Ekklesiai and the Boundaries of Urban Identities ..................................................... 50 AVERIL CAMERON

The Violence of Orthodoxy .................................................................... 102 Y ANNIS P APADOYANNAKIS

Defining Orthodoxy in Pseudo-Justin's "Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos" ............................................................... 115 CAROLINE HUMFRESS

Citizens and Heretics: Late Roman Lawyers on Christian Heresy .......... 128 RICHARD LIM

The Nomen Manichaeorum and Its Uses in Late Antiquity ..................... 143 KEVIN LEE OSTERLOH

Judea, Rome and the Hellenistic Oikoumene: Emulation and the Reinvention of Communal Identity ............................................ 168 JOHNG. GAGER

Where Does Luke's Anti-Judaism Come from? ...................................... 207 PHILIPPA TOWNSEND

Who Were the First Christians? Jews, Gentiles and the Christianoi ...... 212

VIII

Table of Contents

ELAINE PAGELS

The Social History of Satan, Part III: John ofPatmos and Ignatius of Antioch - Contrasting Visions of "God's People" .................................. 231 EDUARD IRICINSCHI

If You Got It, Flaunt It: Religious Advertising in the Gospel of Philip ........................................................................... 253 ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED

Heresiology and the (Jewish-)Christian Novel: Narrativized Polemics in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies .................... 273 BURTON L. VISOTZKY

Goys '5I'n't Us: Rabbinic Anti-Gentile Polemic in Yerushalmi Berachot 9: 1 .................................................................... 299 GREGG GARDNER

Astrology in the Talmud: An Analysis of Bavli Shabbat 156 ................. 314 HOLGER M. ZELLENTIN

Margin of Error: Women, Law, and Christianity in Bavli Shabbat 116a-b ............................................... 339 ISRAEL JACOB YUVAL

The Other in Us: Liturgica, Poetica, Polemica ........................................ 364

List of Contributors ................................................................................. 387 Modern Author Index ............................................................................. 389 Subject Index ..........,................................................................. :.............. 397

Making Selves and Marking Others: Identity and Late Antique Heresiologies EDUARD IRICINSCHI & HOLGER M. ZELLENTIN

"The Other may not be very other at all." Kwame Anthony Appiahl

As influential catchwords, "heresy" and "identity" have recently acquired the sense of entitlement and hazard that only a dominant academic paradigm would impart. In a famous manifesto of the 1970s, for instance, sociologist Peter Berger associates modernity with the "universalization of heresy." According to Berger, the freedom to choose among different versions of plausibility characterizes the post-Enlightenment person. Under these new .circumstances, heresy surrenders itself to the imperative of multiple worldviews and becomes the very label of modern religious life: "For premodern man, heresy is a possibility - usually a rather remote one; for modern man, heresy typically becomes a necessity."2 Academic success has not been easy on "identity" either. In the last three decades of shifting cultural geographies, identity has become an everpresent theoretical tool in the Humanities and Social Sciences to the point where Sinisa Malesevic has invoked the utopia of an identity-less world. 3 A number of social scientists and historians concur that the birth of

* We would like to thank Adam Becker, Ra'anan Boustan, Gregg Gardner, Martha Himmelfarb, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Jeffrey Stout, Philippa Townsend, and Moulie Vidas for their careful reading, insightful critiques, and helpful suggestions for improving this text. 1 Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethics of Identity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005). 2 Peter L. Berger, The Heretical Imperative: Contemporary Possibilities of Religious Affirmation (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1979), 28. Closer to our disenchanted twenty-first century, Arthur Versluis identifies the origins of totalitarianism in "the emergence of historical Christianity," more precisely, in its incipient heresiology and the unabated history of witch-hunting in Christianity; The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism (Oxford: OUP, 2006), ix. 3 Sinisa Malesevic, Identity as Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism (Basingstoke U.K.; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 13-14.

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"identity" must be located at the advent of modernity.4 Anthony Giddens, for instance, argues that it was only "late" or "high modernity" that brought with it "transformations in self-identity."5 This raises the question: How legitimate is the search for identity formations in pre-modern texts?6 What are the benefits of projecting modern theoretical concepts of "identity" back into the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds of Late Antiquity? And, if modernity is indeed an age of heresy, then how might this skew our images of those deemed "heretics" in our pre-modern sources? What is the work that the categories of "heresy" and "identity" do, when applied to times so distant from our own? To these questions, the essays in the present volume offer a broad array of answers, drawing on sources ranging from Second-Temple Jewish and New Testament literature to late antique Christian and Rabbinic writings. They explore, in particular, how discourses of "heresy" relate to the formation of religious identities by Jews, Christians, and others. Taken together, they map the multiple functions of the discourse of "heresy" in late antique religions and their shifting relationships to "identity." Some essays focus on the ways in which (re)imagined dissenters are perceived, described, grouped, categorized, and/or disqualified in our late antique sources. Others consider the power of labels such as "heretic," "min," "Jew," "Christian," "gnostic," and "Manichean." The volume thus seeks to open a vista onto the varied ways in which late antique groups and communities defined their own socio-political borders and secured in-group identities by means of discourses about "heresy" and "heretics." The papers collected here put to work the methodological tools provided both by the recent scholarly emphases on textuality and by the social study of heresiology in order to reach a more 4 Roy F. Baumeister begins his research on basic conceptual issues with Descartes' dubitative formula and expands it to the development of the "hidden self' in the sixteenth century; see his Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self (Oxford: OUP, 1986), 11-50. 5 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), 33. Critics of the now-popular notion of "identity" have drawn attention to its lack of analytical value. Malesevi6 holds that the malleability and vagueness of this "conceptually, operationally and politically seriously troubled idiom" causes identity to be just an "operational phantom" (Identity as Ideology, 56). In the most thorough critique to date, Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper advocate a complete dismissal of the project that attempts to strike the right chord between a "hard," essentialist conception of identity and a "soft," constructivist version of it ("Beyond 'Identity'," TS 29.1 [2000]: 1-47). See also Mervyn F. Bendle, "The Crisis of 'Identity' in High Modernity," BJS 53.1 (2002): 1-18; and Richard Jenkins, Social Identity (2d ed. London: Routledge, 2004). 6 On pre-modern attempts at self-understanding and identification, see e.g. Judith M. Lieu, Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World (Oxford: OUP, 2004); and discussion below.

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integrative understanding of late antique religious movements. They shift the focus away from "heretics" and "heresy" to heresiological discourse, by adopting literary approaches and by contextualizing the late antique Jewish and Christian groups that produced our extant literature. In the following section, we review recent developments on ancient heresiology and orthodoxy, connecting them to current discussions on the concept of "identity" in the study of religion. Finally, we introduce the papers in this volume with a focus on their novel approaches.

Hairesis in Modern Scholarship Early Christian hairesis emerged in part from the broader context of Greek Hellenistic culture. John Glucker describes the word's development, beginning with the classical Greek verb haireomai, "to choose." Its root underwent a series of different modifications. For instance, in the third century BCE, hairesis could mean a person's "attitude" or "disposition," and often had political connotations, while later Polybius applied the term to individuals as well as groups. 7 Heinrich von Staden traces the transition from individual to group applications first in the medical schools, then in philosophical schools of Hellenistic Alexandria. According to von Staden, in the Ptolemaic Alexandrian medical hairesis literature: [A] group with a fairly coherent and distinctive theories, with an acknowledged founder [ ... ], and with publicly identifiable leaders who articulate (a) their rejection of rival theories through theoretically founded polemics, as well as (b) their own systematic alternatives, would qualify as a hairesis. [ ... ] It is worth noting that, no later than the second century BCE, hairesis begins to occur in non-medical literature, too, as a designation for a group that is thought to be doctrinally distinctive, especially for a philosophical schooL ... In some of these non-medical texts "doctrine," "school," and "sect" all might be defensible translations of hairesis, but in each case it refers to a group phenomenon, not to individual choice. 8

The Alexandrian classification left a lingering imprint on the term hairesis. From the second century BCE onwards, hairesis had mostly referred in Greek literature to a group, usually associated with its founder. The term hairesis appeared in the titles of books concerning the opinions of philosophers or their respective doctrines, yet it did not initially signify the institutionalized schools. 9 The meaning of the term "heresy" as 7 John Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1978), 168, 172-3. 8 Heinrich von Staden, "Hairesis and Heresy: The Case of the haireseis iatrikai, " in Jewish and Christian Self-definition, v. 3, Self-definition in the Greco-Roman World (ed. Ben F. Meyer and E.P. Sanders; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982),76-100, esp. 80. 9 Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, 174-5.

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"philosophical school" became more common in the subsequent decades, and by the first century BCE it came to characterize precisely these philosophical institutions. 10 As early as 1979, Marcel Simon registered the similar use of orthodoxy and hairesis in Judaism and incipient Christianity. He pointed to the trajectory between the New Testament book of Acts (24: 14 and 26:5) and Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, and most notably to a passage in the latter that describes Justin's branch of Christianity as a Jewish hairesis (Dial. 62.3; ca. 140-150 CE).l1 Semantically, hairesis remained an open term all through third century CE, according to Simon. Yet the consequences of such "choice" varied from case to case. For Origen, hairesis designated the necessary tools of paideia in the most relevant areas of human life, such as medicine, philosophy and Judaism; in the writings of Clement and Hippolytus, pagan philosophical schools receive a clearly better assessment than Christian heresies; finally, in Hellenistic philosophical writings, hairesis designates a highly qualitative choice. 12 Von Staden suggests that the relational character of haireseis in early Christian contexts divorced it from its more independent uses in Alexandrian medicine or in philosophical schools, such as "doctrine," "school," or "sect." Whereas these neutral descriptions underlined the discrete character of each philosophical or medical group and its leader, hairesis received new meanings in Patristic writings that described degrees of separation from the true church, such as "falling away," "breaking away," "separation," "estrangement," "alienation. "13 Even after hairesis developed into "heresy" in early Christianity, one of the term's most important denotations remained Hellenistic philosophy and its numerous schools. Consequently, ancient Greek thought provides modem scholars with one of the main contexts for most of the research on heresy. Understanding "heresies," however, in connection to philosophical schools has led scholars to describe them as real and concrete social movements, rather than as perceptions of a specific religious group or individual. In this sense, the history of the term "heresy" has long directed most scholars' analysis towards the study of genuine, discrete groups. 10 Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy, 182-184, cf. Alain Le Boulluec, La notion d 'heresie dans la litterature grecque, IT -IIT sieeles (Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1985),47. 11 Marcel Simon, "From Greek Hairesis to Christian Heresy," in Early Christian Literature and the Classical Intellectual Tradition: In Honorem Robert M Grant, TMologie historique 54 (ed. William R. Schoedel and Robert L. Wilken; Paris: Editions Beauchesne, 1979), 101-116, esp. 105-6. 12 Origen Contra Celsum 3.12-3; cf. 2.27; 5.61, Diogenes Laertius used it as a praise in Vito Phi/os. Introd; see Simon, "From Greek Hairesis to Christian Heresy," 108-111. 13 Von Staden, "Hairesis and Heresy," esp. 81,97-98.

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This approach to heresy changed a few decades ago, as Averil Cameron notes in the present volume. Currently, students of late antique MeditelTanean religions question the existence of heresies as deviant from orthodoxy .. The category of heresy, however, continues to fascinate scholars.

Heresiology and Difference Two works stand as milestones of scholarship on heresiology in the last century: Walter Bauer's Rechtgliiubigkeit und Ketzerei im iiltesten Christentum I4 and Alain Le Boulluec's La notion d'heresie dans la litterature grecque. I5 Bauer's book challenged the ecclesiastical understanding of heresy as a late offshoot of orthodoxy, and made room for reevaluating chronological priority in the study of local churches. Bauer's major thesis was that heresy mainly characterized Christian communities in the Roman provincial peripheries - that is Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor, while orthodoxy grew out of a particular form of the Church of Rome. I6 Contesting early heresiological truth-claims put forward by ecclesiastical writers as well as later theological approaches to the study of ancient religions, Walter Bauer made the "contingent character of heresy" the cornerstone of historical reconstructions of Christian origins. 17 Bauer's Rechtgliiubigkeit und Ketzerei broadened the spectrum of possibilities for re-imagining early Christian groups, allowing later scholars to deemphasize the "history-of-ideas" mode of historical reconstruction and focus instead on social history. Positive German reviews of the first edition (1934) commended the ingenious approach and boldness of Bauer' vision; they joined, however, the more critical ones in underlining Bauer's use of the "argument from silence" and excesses of interpretation. 18 14 Walter Bauer, Rechtglaubigkeit und Ketzerei im altesten Christen tum (Tiibingen, Mohr Siebeck, 1934 [1964]); Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (trans. by a team from the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins, ed. by Robert A. Kraft and Gerhard Krodel; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). 15 Le Boulluec, La notion d'heresie. 16 Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy, "Introduction" and ch. 5. 17 See Alain Le Boulluec, "Orthodoxie et heresie aux premiers siecles dans l'historiographie recente," in Orthodox ie, Christianisme, histoire (ed. Susanna Elm, Eric Rebillard, and Antonella Romano; Rome: Ecole Fran :l~n::> 'K"P~' ''':l~' ~::>, 1:1' "~K :l~W~ :1nK :1~ u" :1JP:l n~m "K' ~:l" '~'~~'n " '''~K 1J!jp!j~::>"K r~J:l 1,m'K "~K' W~J~K::> ,nK ow 1nw,w 1:1' "~K They returned and asked him, What of this which is written, "The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons earth" (Ps. 50:1). He said to them, Is it written, "they speak" or "they summon?" Rather he "speaks and summons (sing.) earth." His disciples said to him, Those you pushed off with a straw. What will you reply to us? He said to them, The three are one name, like a man who says: craftsman, builder, architect.

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They returned and asked him, What of this which is written, "For what great nation that has a God so near (pI.) to it" (Deut. 4:7)? He replied to them, It is not written "Whenever we call upon them," rather "whenever we call upon him" (ibid.).

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His disciples said to him, Those you pushed off with a straw. What will you reply to us? He replied to them, Near in all types of nearness ...

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Rabbi Yudan quoted Rabbi Yitzchak, offering four approaches: A human being (flesh and blood) has a patron. They told him, one of your clients has been arrested. He said, I will stand by him. They told him, Behold, he is going to be tortured. He said, I will stand by him. They told him, Behold, he is going to be crucified! Where is he and where is his patron? Yet the Blessed Holy One saved Moses from the sword of Pharaoh ... for when Pharaoh arrested Moses he sentenced him to beheading ...

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Rabbi Yudan quoted Rabbi Yitzchak, offering another approach: A human being (flesh and blood) has a patron. They told him, one of your clients has been arrested. He said, I will stand by him. They told him, Behold, he is going to be tortured. He said, I will stand by him. They told him, Behold, he is going to be drowned! Where is he and where is his patron? Yet the Blessed Holy One saved Jonah from the belly of the fish ...

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Rabbi Yudan quoted Rabbi Yitzchak, offering another approach: A human being (flesh and blood) has a patron. They told him, one of your clients has been arrested. He said, I will stand by him. They told him, Behold, he is going to be tortured. He said, I will stand by him. They told him, Behold, he is going to be consigned to the flames! Where is he and where is his patron? Yet the Blessed Holy One saved Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah from the fiery furnace ...

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Astrology in the Talmud An Analysis of Bavli Shabbat 156 GREGG GARDNER

I. Introduction 1 The role of astrology in Jewish society in Late Antiquity has been a topic of great interest to scholars over the last century.2 Research was sparked by the discovery of a handful of synagogue mosaic floors that feature the signs of the zodiac side-by-side with representations of the menorah, Abraham and other images associated with the Hebrew Bible - an unexpected juxtaposition of pagan and Jewish motifs. To better understand the meanings and motivations underlying these mosaics, researchers have turned to comparative archaeological evidence, Cairo Geniza fragments and, most notably, Rabbinic literature. 3 1 I would like to thank a number of scholars for their comments and suggestions on this paper: Adam Becker, Adam Gregerman, Martha Himmelfarb, Kevin Osterloh, Peter Schafer, David Stern, Katja Vehlow, Holger Zellentin, and the participants of the Making Selves and Marking Others: Heresy and Self-definition in Late Antiquity workshop and colloquium. I alone am responsible for any remaining errors. This paper is dedicated with love to my parents. 2 We use the term astrology to denote the field that interprets the influence of heavenly bodies on human affairs. 3 Scholars often employ two or even all three types of sources in their work; amongst others, see: Joseph M. Baumgarten, "Art in the Synagogue: Some Talmudic Views," in Jews, Christians, and Polytheists in the Ancient Synagogue: Cultural Interaction During the Greco-Roman Period (ed. Steven Fine; London: Routledge, 1999), 76-78 (= Judaism 19 [1970]: 196-206); James H. Charlesworth, "Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues," HTR 70 (1977): 183-200, rev. version: "Jewish Interest in Astrology During the Hellenistic and Roman Period," ANRW 20.2 (1987): 926-50; Iris Fishof, ed., Written in the Stars: Art and Symbolism of the Zodiac (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2001); Solomon Gandz, "Benediction over the Luminaries," JQR 44:4 (1954): 305-25; Solomon Gandz, "The Origin of the Planetary Week or The Planetary Week in Hebrew Literature," American Academy of Research: Proceedings, Vol. XVIII (1948-49): 213-55; Erwin R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, 12 vols. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1953-68), esp. 8:167-232, 12:40-49, 12:152-98; J.C. Greenfield and M. Sokoloff, "Astrological and Related Omen Texts in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic," JNES

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Nevertheless, the most prominent Rabbinic text on astrology has heretofore not received full treatment. Babylonian Talmud, tractate Shabbat 156a-b (henceforth "b. Shabo 156" or "our sugya")4 represents the Talmud's locus classicus on astrology, and is the subject of our study. Our objective is to understand b. Shabo 156 as such, without attempting to harmonize it with archaeological finds. Indeed, a thorough understanding of the text on its own terms is a necessary, but often neglected, first step towards gaining a wider appreciation of attitudes towards astrology amongst late antique Jews. s Our examination of b. Shabo 156 reveals a highly sophisticated, composite text that the redactors of the Babylonian Talmud ("Bavli") shaped into a single literary unit. 6 Our sugya consists of a discussion of 48 (1989): 201-14; Rachel Hachlili, "The Zodiac in Ancient Jewish Art: Representation and Significance," BASOR 228 (1977): 61-77, rev. version: "The Zodiac in Ancient Jewish Synagogal Art: A Review," JSQ 9 (2002): 219-58; Reimund Leicht, Astrologumena Judaica (Ph.D. diss., Freie Universitat Berlin, 2003); Jodi Magness, "Helios and the Zodiac Cycle in Ancient Palestinian Synagogues," in Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past: Canaan, Ancient Israel, and Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age through Roman Palestina (ed. W.G. Dever and S. Gitin, Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2003), 363-89; Stuart S. Miller, " 'Epigraphical' Rabbis, Helios, and Psalm 19," JQR 94, 1 (2004): 27-76; Seth Schwartz, Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), esp. 243-63; Eleazar L. Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha: An Account of the Excavations Conducted on Behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jerusalem: The University Press; London: OUP, 1932); Ephraim E. Urbach, "The Rabbinical Laws of Idolatry in the Second and Third Centuries in Light of Archaeological and Historical Facts," IEJ 9 (1959): 149-65, 229-45; Ze'ev Weiss and Ehud Netzer, Promise and Redemption: A Synagogue Mosaic from Sepphoris, 2d ed. (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1998); Ze'ev Weiss, "The Sepphoris Synagogue Mosaic and the Role of Talmudic Literature in Its Iconographic Study," in From Dura to Sepphoris: Studies in Jewish Art and Society in Late Antiquity, JRASup. 40 (ed. L.I. Levine and Z. Weiss; Portsmouth, R.I.: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2000), 15-30; Ze'ev Weiss, The Sepphoris Synagogue: Deciphering an Ancient Message Through Its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contexts (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2005). 4 A sugya (lit. walk, course, practice) is a Talmudic discussion of a given theme. S A comparison of b. Shabo 156 with synagogue zodiac mosaics would entail a number of methodological difficulties, most notably the question of the Bavli redactors' knowledge of Galilean Jewish affairs. To be sure, there are a number of interesting parallels between the issues explored by the redactors of the Bavli in b. Shabo 156 and those reflected in the zodiac mosaics, especially those of the Beth Alpha and Sepphoris synagogues: the association of astrology with some Galilean Jews (b. Shabo 156 §§A-B), the figure of Abraham (§D), and the general chronological framework of the fifthseventh centuries, during which the Babylonian Talmud was redacted and the synagogues with zodiac mosaics floors were constructed. For the synagogue mosaics, see the sources cited in note 3 above. 6 Our' sugya is thematically unrelated to the Gemara immediately preceding it, as well as its mishnah (b. Shabo 155b = m. Shabo 24:3), which concern feeding animals. This

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Israel's relationship to astrology and claims that Israel is immune from the power of the stars - there is no constellation for Israel is the repeated refrain. Rather, the Bavli posits that Israel should busy itself with fulfilling God's commandments.

II. Methodology Our examination of b. Shabo 156 consists of both literary analyses and source cntIcism. Literary analysis focuses on how wordplay, syntax, dialogue, repetition, biblical citations, structural parallels, and other creative uses of language are employed to create meaning. 7 We assume that the text as it stands reflects the editorial polish, culture and concerns of the Stammaim, the anonymous sages who redacted the Babylonian Talmud from the mid-fifth to the mid-seventh centuries of the Common Era. 8 We can uncover additional meaning and nuance in b. Shabo 156 by considering the images and characteristics of the Rabbis mentioned in the text. We assume that the Stammaim intentionally chose to include these particular Rabbis - Joshua b. Levi, Ijanina, Yo1;tanan, etc. - on account of the sayings that are associated with them in earlier Rabbinic works. 9 We employ source criticism when parallel versions of sections of our sugya have also been preserved elsewhere.lO While we do not propose that the traditions drawn upon by the Bavli are identical to the versions passed down to us today in the Rabbinic writings of the Land of (Eretz) Israel such as the Mishnah, Tosefta, Yerushalmi, Genesis Rabbah, etc., we work under the assumption that versions close to those preserved in earlier sources were known to the Stammaim. 11 The differences between the

strongly suggests that our sugya should be read as a distinct literary unit. It is incorporated into b. Shabo chapter twenty-four on account of the formulation of its opening line, which repeats the phraseology found in the preceding section of Gemara: It is written in the notebook of Zeiri (line 17 of the Vilna edition); It is written in the notebook of Levi (line 20); then our sugya begins on line 23: It is written in the notebook of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi. 7 Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999),27. 8 Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 1. 9 We make no assertions regarding the historical value of these attributions, i.e. whether or not these sages 'actually' uttered the words associated with them in b. Shabo 156. 10 Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories, 25. 11 ibid., 26; idem, Culture, 5.

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earlier sources and b. Shabo 156 illuminate the culture, concerns and worldview of the Stammaim in fifth-seventh centuries Babylonia. 12

III. Text 13 We divide our sugya into seven sections (§A-G) to facilitate analysis. §A. It is written in the notebook of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi: Behold, one who [is born] on the first [day] of the week, will be a man without one (/:Id') [thing] in him. What is "without one thing in him"?14 [What] if one would say "without one virtue"? But Rav Ashi said: I was [born] on [the] first [day] of the week! Rather, [the text should read] "but without one evil [thing in him]."IS But Rav Ashi said: I and Dimi (dymy) bar Kakuzta (qqwzt')16 were [both born] on the first [day] of the week. I am a king, [yet] he is the head of thieves! Rather [it means that he will be] entirely positive or entirely negative. One who [is born] on the second day of the week will be a quarrelsome man. What is the reason? Because the waters were divided on it [the second day]. One who [is born] on the third day of the week will be a rich man; he will [also] be a fornicating [man]. What is the reason? Because the plants were created on it [the third day]. One who [is born] on the fourth day of the week will be a wise and intelligent (nhyr) man. What is the reason? Because the heavenly lights were suspended on it [the fourth day]. One who [is born] on the fifth day of the week will perform charitable acts. What is the reason? Because the fish and birds were created on it [the fifth day]. One who [is born] on the eve of Sabbath will be a busy man. Said Rabbi Na1;tman bar Yitz1;tak: 17 Busy [fulfilling] commandments.

12 Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories, 2; idem, Culture, 6-9. 13 The text is based on the standard Vilna edition; I have noted significant textual variants. For my translation, I have consulted the following sources: I. Epstein (ed.), The Babylonian Talmud Translated into English with Notes, Glossary, and Indices (London: Soncino Press, 1935-48); Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1903; repr. Jerusalem: Horev Press); Ludwig Koehler et. aI., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: Study Edition, 2 vo1s. (Leiden: Brill, 2001); Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories; idem, Culture; Michael Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods (Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University Press, 2002). 14 MS Munich 95, MS Oxford 366, MS Vatican 108. 15 MS Vatican 108. 16 MS Vatican 108: hqnwt'.

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One who [is born] on the Sabbath will die on the Sabbath. Because on his account the great day (ywm' rb') of Sabbath was desecrated. Raba (rb') bar Rav Shila 18 said: He will be called a great holy [man] (qdysh' rb '). §B. Rabbi Banina said to them: Go out [and] tell Bar Levi [i.e. Joshua b. Levi], "The constellation (mzl)19 of the day is not [the] cause, rather the constellation of the hour is the cause." One who [is born under] the sun will be a proud man. He will eat from what belongs to him and drink from what belongs to him; and his secrets will be revealed. If he steals, he will not succeed. One who [is born under] Venus (kwkv nwgh) will be a rich man and will be a fornicating [man]. What is the reason? Because fire 20 was created in him. One who [is born under] Mercury (kwkv)21 will be a bright and wise man, because it is the scribe of the sun. One who [is born under] the moon will be a man [who] suffers illnesses, building and demolishing, demolishing and building; eating from that which is not his, and drinking from that which is not his; and his secrets [are] concealed. Ifhe steals, he succeeds. One who [is born under] Saturn will be a man whose plans are foiled. There are those who say: All plots against him are foiled. One who [is born under] Jupiter ($dq) will be a righteous man ($dqn). Rabbi Nal:tman bar Yitzl:tak said: Righteous in [fulfilling] commandments. One who [is born under] Mars will be a shedder of blood. Rabbi Ashi said: Either [he is] a bloodletter, or a thief, or a butcher, or a circumciser. Rabbah 22 said: I was [born] under Mars [and I am not any of those things]! Abaye said: The master [i.e. Rabbah] punishes and kills too.

§c. It was said [that] Rabbi Banina [had] said: A constellation makes [one] wise, a constellation makes [one] wealthy, and there is a constellation for Israel. Rabbi Yol:tanan said: There is no constellation for Israel Om mzl Iysr '/).23 And Rabbi Y ol:tanan' s approach is consistent [with his view], as Rabbi Y ol:tanan said: From where [do we derive] that there is no constellation for Israel? Because it is said Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the nations, or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens; MS Vatican 108: Rav Nal:tman. MS Munich 95: rbh br rv; MS Oxford 366: rbh br rv shyl'; MS Vatican 108: rb '. 19 Translations of mzl vary: "constellation of the zodiac, planet" (Jastrow, Dictionary, 755); "constellations of the zodiac" (Koehler, Lexicon, 565); Sokoloff translates mzl' as "zodiacal stations, planet, fortune, guardian angel" (Babylonian Aramaic, 653-54). 20 MS Oxford 366: heavenly lights. 21 MS Oxford 366: sun. 22 MS Oxford 366, MS Vatican 108: rv'; MS Munich 95: rv. 23 Translations of this phrase vary: "Israel is not dependent upon planetary nativity" (Jastrow, Dictionary, 755); " 'There is no planet for Israel' i.e. Israel is not dependent on the planets" (Saul Lieberman, Greek in Jewish Palestine [New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1942; repr. 1994], 99); "Israel is immune from planetary influence" (Epstein, Babylonian Talmud: Shabbat, folio 156). 17

18

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[for the nations are dismayed at them] (Jer. 10:2). They [i.e. the nations] are dismayed, but not Israel. §D. And Rab also believes that there is no constellation for Israel, as Rav Yehudah said [that] Rab said: From where [do we derive] that there is no constellation for Israel? As it is said: He [God] brought him [Abraham] outside [and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be"] (Gen. 15:5). Abraham said before the holy one, blessed be he: Master of the universe! [You have given me no offspring], and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir (Gen. 15:3). He [God] said: Not so. [This man shall not be your heir;] no one but your very own issue [shall be your heir] (Gen. 15:4). He [Abraham] said before him: Master of the universe! I looked at my constellation (b '~.tgnynwt), and I am not fated to have a child. He [God] said to him: Abandon your astrological speculation! For there is no constellation for Israel! What is your disposition? Because Jupiter (~dq) is in the west (bm 'rv)?!24 I will turn it back and I will place it in the east. 25 And it is written: Who has roused a victor (~dq) from the east, summoned him to his service? [He delivers up nations to him, and tramples kings under foot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow] (Isa. 41 :2). §E. And from Shmuel also [we learn that] there is no constellation for Israel. Shmuel and Avlat were sitting, and certain people were going to the lake. Avlat said to Shmuel: That man is going but will not come [back]. A snake will bite him and he will die. Shmuel said to him: If he is an Israelite, he will go and come [back]. While they were sitting, he [the Israelite] went and came [back]. Avlat got up, threw [open] his [the Israelite's] bag, [and] found a snake in it that was cut and strewn into two pieces. Shmuel said to him [the Israelite]: What did you do? He [the Israelite] said to him: Everyday we used to pool our bread together and eat. But once there was one of us who did not have bread, [and] he was ashamed. I said to them: I am going to collect [the bread]. When I reached him, I pretended to take [bread] from him, in order that he will not be ashamed. He [Shmuel] said to him: You have fulfilled a commandment. Shmuel derived from this and expounded: [Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit,] but righteousness (~dqh) delivers from death (Prov. 10:2). And not [only] from an unnatural death, rather from death itself [i.e. from all kinds of death]. §F. And from Rabbi Akiva [we] also [learn that] there is no constellation for Israel.

24 25

MS Oxford 366: east. MS Oxford 366: west.

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Rabbi Akiva had a daughter. Chaldeans [i.e. astrologers] said to him: On the day that she enters the bridal chamber, a snake will bite her and she will die. He [Akiva] was very worried about these words. On that day she took a brooch and stuck it in the wall. 26 It happened [that it] sank into the eye of the snake. In the morning, when she took it [i.e. the brooch] the snake came out trailing after it [the brooch]. Her father said to her: What did you do? She said to him: A poor man came in the evening [and] called at the gate. But everyone was busy at the meal and there were none to heed him. I got up, took out a portion that was given to me, [and] gave it to him. He [Akiva] said to her: You have fulfilled a commandment. Rabbi Akiva derived from this and expounded: [Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit,] but righteousness (:jdqh) delivers from death (Prov. 10:2). And not [only] from an unnatural death, rather from death itself [i.e. from all kinds of death]. §G. And also from Rabbi Na1;lman bar Yitz1;lak [we learn that] there is no constellation for Israel. Chaldeans [i.e. astrologers] told Rabbi Na1;lman bar Yitz1;lak's mother: Your son will be a thief. She did not allow him to uncover his head, saying to him: Cover your head, in order that the fear of heaven will be upon you, and ask for mercy. He did not know why she said [that] to him. One day he was sitting and studying under a palm tree. The covering fell from his head [when] he lifted his eyes to see the palm tree. An evil inclination overcame him: he climbed up [the palm tree] and cut off a cluster [of dates that did not belong to him] with his teeth."

IV. Analysis §A: Literary Analysis Consulting his notebook, Joshua b. Levi emphasizes bd' (one) for the first day - Sunday'S child will lack one trait. 27 Joshua b. Levi's views on astrology can determine only one characteristic of a man. The "science" of astrology is reduced, perhaps mockingly, to a play on words: he who is born on the bd (i.e. first) day of the week will be characterized by his lack of bd' thing. The Stammaim and Rav Ashi demonstrate the ambiguity in Joshua b. Levi's astrology, noting how one thing could be an allencompassing personality trait like virtue or wickedness - leaving MS Oxford 366, MS Vatican 108: crack. We need not hold, as Gandz does, that the actual, historical Joshua b. Levi necessarily authored the astrological traditions attributed to him in the Bavli; cf. Gandz, "Benediction," 321-22. 26 27

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Sunday's child either entirely virtuous or entirely wicked. Ashi's proof is that both he and Dimi bar Kakuzta were born on Sunday, yet these twins are completely opposite in nature: 28 Ashi is a king, that is, the virtuous head of the Rabbinic academy of Sura. 29 However, his twin, Dimi bar Kakuzta, is a leader of thieves, where the obscure qqwzt' may reference Cyzicus, an island city whose inhabitants had a reputation for disloyalty.30 The Stammaim's questions and Ashi's responses lead to are-formulation of the astrological prediction from without one thing to entirely positive or entirely negative. For Monday, and throughout the rest of §A, the Stammaim add creation-based explanations for supposedly constellation-controlled horoscopes. Just as the nativity's quarrelsome man opposes another, so too the sky and sea face opposite each other on the second day of creation (Gen. 1:6-8). Here, the Stammaim argue that the position of the celestial bodies does not affect one's nature; rather, the character of Monday's child is contingent upon the order of the creation of the world31 - as determined by God and set forth in the Torah. Likewise, for Tuesday monetary and reproductive wealth is associated with the vegetation created on the third day ( Gen. 1: 11).32 For Wednesday, the Stammaim play on the two meanings of nhyr - both "clear, intelligent" and "to be bright, light, give shine. "33 The latter definition is linked to the lights created on the fourth day in Gen. 1: 14-16. The reference to this biblical passage may also be a subtle statement regarding astrology's inadequacies, as even the lesser light rules over the stars in Gen. 1: 16. For Thursday, the connection

28 That two people who were born on the same day have different fates was a criticism of astrology that was made frequently in the late antique world (Tamsyn Barton, Ancient Astrology [London: Routledge, 1994], 53-54, 76). Rashi notes the similarities between the two men: they are both leaders or heads (r 'sh), just as Sunday was the first day of creation. 29 Mordecei Margaliyot, Encyclopedia of Sages of the Talmud and the Geonim, 2 vols. [Hebrew] (Tel-Aviv: Yavneh Publishing House, 1998),2:185; in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, mllch often denotes the head of an academy (Sokoloff, Babylonian Aramaic, 680). For the great esteem in which the Stammaim held the heads of academies, see Rubenstein, Culture, 16-31. 30 Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3d ed. rev. (Oxford: OUP, 2003), 424. 31 I thank David Stern for this observation. 32 We suggest that 'tyr wzn'y was connected to 'shvym because agriculture was a symbol of productivity and wealth in Late Antiquity. Similarly, Rashi suggests that plants grow quickly like promiscuity and wealth, and that they freely intermingle with other species of plants in the same way that fornicating men and women intermingle. 33 Sokoloff, Babylonian Aramaic, 733.

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between Joshua b. Levi's prediction and the biblical verse is difficult to determine. 34 For Friday, the Stammaim's explanation is replaced by Na1;tman b. Yitz1;tak's dictum. The fourth-century Babylonian Amora's preoccupation with mitzvoth is consistent with the depiction of his character elsewhere in Rabbinic literature. 35 The horoscope for the sixth day of the week may also be an implicit reference to the creation of man on the sixth day in Gen. 1: 2 6-31 - perhaps conveying the message that man was created in order to fulfill God's commandments - and thereby continuing the theme of creation from the previous days. The treatment for Saturday is contingent upon the word d'/:zylw (desecrated), which would portray Sabbath's child in a negative light, but makes little sense. However, d'/:zylw may very well play on the homonym wykhl from Gen. 2:2, where Godfinishes (wykhl) his work on the seventh day.36 That is, Saturday's child will be finished, or perhaps ceased,37 thereby explaining why one who is born on the Sabbath will die on the Sabbath. Here, the Stammaim's masterful control of literary techniques and scripture are on display as they simultaneously reject a possible reading of d'/:zylw as desecrated by proclaiming Saturday's child to be a qdysh' rb' (great holy [man]), offer an exegesis on wyqdsh in Gen. 2:3 (So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed [wyqdsh] it... ),38 maintain the theme of creation running throughout §A, and play on the word rb' as both Raba (b. Shila) and great. The form and language of §A is generally repetitive and attests to the section's literary unity: a nativity from Joshua b. Levi's notebook, followed by What is the reason? and the Stammaim's Genesis-based explanation for the nativity. The Bavli redactors continually and consistently demonstrate that man's nature is not contingent upon astrology and the stars. Rather, one's character is a function of the order of creation, as determined by God and set forth in the Torah. 39

34 Rashi suggests that fish and birds do not make a great effort to acquire food, but rather are given food by the grace of God. We suggest that loving kindness (gwml /:lsdym) is equated with God's blessing for all animals in Gen. 1:22. See also Kocku von Stuckrad, "Jewish and Christian Astrology - A New Approach," Numen 47 (2000): 27. 35 Marga1iyot, Encyclopedia, 2:271. We make no assertions on the beliefs of the actual, historical Na1;tman b. Yitz1;tak. Rather, we are only concerned with how he is portrayed in Rabbinic literature. 36 I thank David Stem for this observation. 37 Koehler, Lexicon, 477. 38 Likewise, Rashi suggests that it is an exegesis of Exod. 20. 39 The domestication of astrology is paralleled in late antique Christian society (Barton, Ancient Astrology, 71).

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§B: Literary Analysis !-Janina was a prominent first-generation (third century) Amora of Eretz Israel. He replaces Joshua b. Levi's day-based nativities with horary horoscopes, where each hour of the day is governed by a particular planet. 40 The horoscopes in §B are followed by Stammaitic explanations that undermine the discipline of astrology with perhaps mocking wordplay, much like in §A. Venus's name (nwgh) is a homonym for "splendor, light,,,41 which is played by the Stammaim as a pun on fire (nwr '). Mercury's proximity to the source of light is played with the Aramaic word nhyr, meaning both "light" and "intelligence."42 Saturn's (shbt') root (shvt) carries the meaning "to be annulled,,,43 a synonym for b,tyl, which is employed in the Stammaim's explanation. 44 Jupiter's name (~dq) is played by NalJ.man b. YitzlJ.ak as ~dqn to emphasize the importance of fulfilling commandments, the same message he gave for Friday in §A. For Mars, Ashi points out the ambiguity of the horoscope by demonstrating how it can be interpreted in diametrically opposite ways (evil thief, yet righteous circumciser), just as was done for Sunday in §A (head of thieves, yet king; entirely positive, yet entirely negative). The third generation Babylonian Amora Rabbah notes that the horoscope was powerless over him, which is answered by Abaye's humorous jab. The natal predictions for those born under the sun and moon lack explanations. However, it is clear that the sun and moon are assigned characteristics that are polar opposites, demonstrating !-Janina's stance that the hour (not the day) determines one's character. The sun illuminates, enabling man's secrets and devious deeds to be seen by all. 45 The moon, however, emerges at night, allowing man to successfully conceal his secrets and theft under the cover of darkness. 46 Literary themes and motifs are also used to bind §B together with §A. Both sections exhibit repetitive form (description of 'scientific' content47) and language (One who [is born] ... ; will be a rich man; What is the reason ?). The protagonists are linked, as earlier traditions suggest that

40 A similar move is made in b. Shabo 129; see Leicht, Astrologumena, 94. 41 Jastrow, Dictionary, 883. 42 Sokoloff, Babylonian Aramaic, 733. 43 ibid., 1107. 44 ibid., 197. 45 Also noted by Rashi. 46 ibid. 47 H. L. Strack and Gunter Sternberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992),52.

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Joshua b. Levi and !-Janina were known to be close associates. 48 Ashi and Nal).man b. Yitzl).ak appear in both sections, playing the same role each time. There is also a general parallelism between the daily and horary horoscopes in §§A-B: Venus and Tuesday both contain the phrase: [he] will be a rich man; he will [also] be a fornicating [man]; Mercury and Wednesday: [he] will be a wise and intelligent man; Jupiter and Friday: Nal).man b. Yitzl).ak on fulfilling commandments; Mars and Saturday: themes of killing and death.49 These common themes, motifs and parallelisms further demonstrate the Stammaim's effort to knit together disparate traditions into a literary whole, a technique that will be further explicated below. §A-B: Source Criticism While it is possible that § §A-B may preserve actual traditions of third century sages from Eretz Israel, we find it unlikely for two reasons. First, the horoscope in §B has striking parallels to non-Rabbinic texts from the Near East which date well into Late Antiquity, if not the Middle Ages. General parallels for the form and content of §A are found in Cairo Geniza fragments. 5o The nativities in b. Shabo 156 resemble those in The Syriac Book of Medicines, as well as a Mandaic text51 - there may even be a common source behind all three texts. 52 Indeed, that Near Eastern astrological texts such as these may have been known to the Bavli is further suggested by the repetition of 'yn ('yn mzllysr'l) in b. Shabo 156, which is also found at the beginning of Syriac omen texts (where it means "if').53 These parallels suggest that §§A-B constitute a received tradition, dating to the days of the Stammaim at the earliest. 54 Second, the type of astrology found in §§A-B is without precedent in earlier Rabbinic 48 Gen. Rab. 78:5; y. Ber. 5:1; y. Shabo 14:4; y. Ta'an. 3:4; Margaliyot, Encyclopedia, 1:133. 49 However, we note that the parallelism is incomplete, due to the lack of correspondence between Thursday and Saturn. 50 Ithamar Gruenwald, "Further Jewish Physiognomic and Chiromantic Fragments," [Hebrew] Tarbiz 40 (1971): 308-11, where the astrological nativities alternate with physiognomic and chiromantic material; Greenfield and Sokoloff, "Astrological," 21011. 51 Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The Syriac Book of Medicines: Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics in the Early Middle Ages, vol. I (London: Philo Press, 1913, repr. 1976), 515 (= vol. II, 615-17); E.S. Dower, The Book of the Zodiac (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1949),97-98. See also Greenfield and Sokoloff, "Astrological," 212. 52 Greenfield and Sokoloff, "Astrological," 213. 53 ibid., 203 n15. 54 The Syriac Book of Medicines may be as late as the twelfth century; see Adam H. Becker, "Doctoring the Past in the Present: E. A. Wallis Budge, the Discourse on Magic, and the Colonization ofIraq," HR 44 (2005): 183.

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literature. That is, the Rabbinic sources that are chronologically closer to the era of Joshua b. Levi and lJanina (third century) treat a very different type of astrology than that which is found in b. Shabo 156. 55 Therefore, the horoscopes in §§A-B reflect the astrological norms of the times of the Stammaim, centuries after the lives of Joshua b. Levi and lJanina. The Rabbis in §§A-B were purposefully chosen by the Bavli redactors due to their interaction with pagans, association with each other, and lofty standing in the Galilean Rabbinic community. Joshua b. Levi figures prominently in Bavli aggadah and is portrayed in Rabbinic literature as trying understand and serve God, possibly by means of pagan customs. 56 The traditions of lJanina's interactions with Gentiles,57 Babylonian roots,58 beliefs in determinism, 59 and close association with Joshua b. Levi,60 shed light on the Stammaim's decision to include him in this text.

§§A-B: Conclusions The editorial skill of the Stammaim is on full display in §§A-B. Using disparate, received traditions, they weave common themes and motifs throughout §§A-B in order to form coherent, related literary units. The objective is to demonstrate God's dominance over the power of the stars. In §A, this is done by positing creation-based explanations for the horoscopes. That is, the nature of a day, and the person born on that day, is dependent upon the order of the creation of the world, as determined by God and set forth in the Torah. It is not determined by the stars. In §B, the Bavli redactors explain the horoscopes with wordplay, further undermining the power of the stars. For the Stammaim, the stars and astrology are mere window dressing, and should be ignored by Joshua b. Levi and lJanina. Evidence from external sources strongly suggests that the Stammaim utilized horoscope traditions that were circulating in their own days, rather than in the days of Joshua b. Levi and lJanina. The Bavli redactors added 55 See discussion on §C below. 56 Gen. Rab. 78:5; y. Ber. 5:1; b. Ber. 7a; b. Abod. Zar. 4b. Jacob Neusner, ed., Dictionary of Ancient Rabbis: Selections from The Jewish Encyclopedia (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 265. Joshua b. Levi may be associated with astrology in one other text, b. Ber. 59; see Solomon Gandz, "Benediction," 322. We agree with Fraenkel that there is not a singular image of Joshua b. Levi that pervades the entire Bavli, and surely not all of Rabbinic literature; see Jonah Fraenkel, The Aggadic Narrative Harmony of Form and Content [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2001),273-94. 57 y. Ber. 5:1;y. Erub. 6:4. 58 Margaliyot, Encyclopedia, 1:133. 59 b. 1ful. 7b. 60 Gen. Rab. 78:5; y. Ber. 5:1; y. Shabo 14:4; y. Ta'an. 3:4; Margaliyot, Encyclopedia, 1:133.

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their own explanations to these horoscopes to undermine the power of the stars and promote Torah and God. §C: Literary Analysis Section C serves as the midpoint of the sugya, situated between the proponents (Joshua b. Levi and !Janina in §§A-B) and opponents (Shmuel, Akiva, and Na~man h. Yitz~ak in §§D-G) of astrology. Section C is linked to §B by the presence of !Janina and the themes of wealth and wisdom. This section also introduces the phrase there is no constellation for Israel, which appears in each of the following sections (§§D-G). That is, the Bavli redactors have integrated §C, which is largely based on a received tradition,61 into our sugya by means of themes and language that are characteristic of b. Shabo 156 as a whole. !Janina and Y o~anan, who have a tradition of disputes in earlier Rabbinic literature,62 face-off in §C, where the consequences of !Janina's and Joshua b. Levi's astrology are brought to the fore. The Babylonianborn !Janina declares that rnzl makes one wise and wealthy. This has two important implications. First, merit and acts of righteousness have no effect on man's wealth or wisdom. 63 Second, astrology is the force that governs man's fate - not the order of creation or any other agent, including God. To emphasize this point, !Janina declares that there is a constellation for Israel- i.e. astral powers indeed hold sway over Israel's fate. Y o~anan counters that there is no constellation for Israel - the stars exercise no influence over Israel. Note that he does not undermine the efficacy of astrology over the Gentiles. Rather, Israel is unique in its immunity from planetary influence. Moreover, Yo~anan's statement that there is no constellation for Israel is made more powerful in light of the earlier Rabbinic traditions that depict him as lenient towards idolatry;64 that is, he knows to draw the line at astrology. The implication of Yo~anan's words is that one's nature is actually determined by adherence to Torah and God. Y o~anan bolsters his position by citing Scripture, which provides decisive proof - as there is no further argument from !Janina. Moreover, Yo~anan establishes a boundary marker: Israel is not subject to astral influences, while those outside of Israel are ruled by the power of the stars.

61 See §C: Source Criticism below. 62

y. Be$ah. 60a; y. Sheb. 38c; Margaliyot, Encyclopedia, 2: 192.

63 Also noted by Rashi. 64 See the sources cited in Baumgarten, "Art in the Synagogue," 76-78.

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§C: Source Criticism Section C has close parallels in earlier Rabbinic writings, indicating that it is indeed a received tradition. By focusing on the differences between these parallel texts, we can better understand the Bavli's unique disposition. The received tradition centers on the use of Jer. 10:2 as an anti-astrological prooftext. The earliest example is Mekhilta Pisha 2:3 (Bo 1), which interprets solar and lunar eclipses as good or bad signs (symn) for all of Israel or the Gentiles: R. Yosiah says: When the constellations (mzlwt) are eclipsed in the east, it is a bad sign (symn) for the inhabitants of the east; in the west, it is a bad sign for the inhabitants of the west. R. Yonatan says: Both these and those [signs] are assigned to the Gentiles, as it is said: Thus said the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations, and do not be dismayed by portents in the sky; [let the nations be dismayed by them!] (Jer. 10:2).65

This tradition is also incorporated into Tosefta Sukkah 2:6, which adds: When Israel is occupied with Torah, they do not worry about all of these [signs], as it is said: Thus said the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations, and do not be dismayed by portents in the sky; [let the nations be dismayed by them!] (Jer. 10:2).66

The passage in t. Sukk. 2:6 indicates that the redactors of the Tosefta understood augury and Torah to be mutually exclusive; one cannot have both. Reliance on signs in the sky necessitates neglect of Torah and vice versa. The idea that Torah and astrology are irreconcilable forces is drawn upon later in our sugya (§G). While this is not the place to delve into a history of astrology in all of Rabbinic literature, it is important to note that the type of star-gazing found in the Mekhilta and Tosefta is of a very different sort than that found in b. Shabo 156. The earlier writings are concerned with augury, the practice of divination from omens or signs. Consequently, the Mekhilta and Tosefta texts are primarily interested in eclipses. In contrast, b. Shabo 156 is concerned with horoscopy and nativities, which use diagrams of the heavens to show the relative position of planets at the moment of one's birth, thereby determining one's character. Consequently, b. Shabo 156 is

65 H. S. Horovitz, and I. A. Rabin, eds., Mechilta d'Rabbi Ismael (Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrmann, 1960), 7, lines 18-20. Translation based on Jacob Lauterbach, Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1933-35), 1:19, and Jacob Neusner, Mekhilta According to Rabbi Ishmael: An Analytical Translation, 2 vols. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), 1: 15. 66 Ed. Saul Lieberman, The Tosefta: According to Codex Vienna, with Variants from Codices Erfurt, London, Genizah MSS. and Editio Princeps (Venice 1521): The Order of Mo 'ed (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1962; repr., 2002), 262. Translation based on Jacob Neusner, The Tosefta: Translated from Hebrew with a New Introduction, 2 vols. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2002), 572.

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concerned with a number of heavenly features, namely all the known planets and their associated days of the week. This seems to be a far more elaborate type of astrology than that found in the Mekhilta and Tosefta, which is little more than eclipse-watching. A second important distinction between earlier and later Rabbinic discussions of astrology concerns those subject to the predictions. In the Mekhilta and Tosefta texts, celestial features govern the fate of large groups: inhabitants of the east, inhabitants of the west, and the whole world. However, b. Shabo 156 is concerned with personal, individual uses of astrology. The signs in the sky are used to predict the nature of the individual born under that sign. The power ofhoroscopy in b. Shabo 156 is far more nuanced, as an array of character traits are predicted. This is much more complex than the astrology that appears in the Mekhilta and Tosefta passages, where omens in the sky are deemed simply "good" or "bad." The exegetical traditions based on Jer. 10:2 continued to be incorporated into discussions on astrology in the Amoraic period, as in the fifth-century work Genesis Rabbah 44:12: In the days of Jeremiah, the Israelites wished to take up this principle [of astrology], but the Holy One, blessed be he, did not permit them. Thus it is written: Thus said the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations, and do not be dismayed by portents in the sky; [let the nations be dismayed by them!] (Jer. 10:2).67

It is notable that the Israelites wished to take up this principle [of astrology] is a statement that is included in Gen. Rab. 44:12, but is absent from parallel passages in the earlier, Tannaitic texts Mek. Pisha 2:3 (Bo 1) and t. Sukk. 2:6. This suggests a heightened concern amongst the editors of Genesis Rabbah over a perception that Jews wished to practice astrology. The statement is cleverly retrojected into the biblical period in the days of Jeremiah, which adds weight to the discussion and establishes a precedent for the redactors' anti-astrological position. The prohibition against astrology can be easily derived from the citation of Jer. 10:2 (Thus said the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations, and do not be dismayed by portents in the sky let the nations be dismayed by them!) in Mek Pisha 2:3 (Bo 1), t. Sukk. 2:6, and Gen. Rab. 44:12. However, it is significant that the redactors of Genesis Rabbah felt the need to clearly explicate the implications of Jer. 10:2: but the Holy One, blessed be he, did not permit them. This unequivocal statement on the 67 Ed. J. Theodor and Ch. Albeck, Midrash Bereshit Raba: Critical Edition with Notes and Commentary, 3 vols. (Jerusalem: Wahrmann, 1965),433. Translation based on H. Freedman, Midrash Rabbah: Genesis, 3d ed.; 2 vols. (London: Soncino, 1983), 36768; and Jacob Neusner, Genesis Rabbah: The Judaic Commentary to the Book of Genesis, A New American Translation, 3 vols. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985), 2: 133-34.

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prohibition of astrological practices is unique to Gen. Rab. 44:12 and adds vigor and urgency to its stance against astrology. This statement, together with the Israelites wished to take up this principle [of astrology], indicates a greater preoccupation with astrology amongst the redactors of Genesis Rabbah than amongst the editors of the Mekhilta and Tosefta. Like Gen. Rab. 44:12, b. Shabo 156 also stakes out a position against astrology, though there is a subtle difference between the two: whereas Genesis Rabbah holds that astrological practices are prohibited; the Bavli is more concerned with demonstrating that astrology is powerless over Israel. The Bavli's position is evident in two passages in §C. The first is Yobanan's statement that there is no constellation for Israel. Israel has no sign of the zodiac and therefore its fate is not controlled by any of the stars or planets in the sky. That the Stammaim considered this idea to be of great importance is suggested by the fact that there is no constellation for Israel is repeated throughout the remainder of our sugya. Following the citation of Jer. 10:2, the Bavli adds that the nations are dismayed, but not Israel. The explications of Jer. 10:2 in b. Shabo 156 and Gen. Rab. 44:12 highlight their different approaches: while Genesis Rabbah seeks to ban astrology ( .. .the Israelites wished to take up this principle [of astrology], but the Holy One, blessed be he, did not permit them), the Bavli argues that the stars are simply powerless over Israel (the nations are dismayed, but not Israel).

§C: Conclusions In §C the Stammaim integrate a received exegetical tradition on Jer. 10:2 into their discussion on astrology. This tradition is also preserved in earlier Rabbinic sources, the Mekhilta, the Tosefta, and Genesis Rabbah. Mek. Pisha 2:3 (Bo 1) holds that the stars rule the fate of the Gentiles,68 a position that is paralleled in, if not drawn upon by, b. Shabo 156. Moreover, the Tosefta's position that Torah study can overcome the power of heavenly bodies is echoed later in our sugya (§G). Our sugya's message is cast in high relief upon comparison with Genesis Rabbah. Whereas Gen. Rab. 44:12 merely prohibits the practice of astrology, b. Shabo 156 holds that the stars are powerless over Israel. The Bavli's slogan there is no constellation for Israel is used in §C for the first time and is prevalent in the following sections of b. Shabo 156; as such, it serves to establish a boundary marker between Israel and the nations.

68 Lieberman, Greek, 99.

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§D: Literary Analysis Section D continues the theme established in §C, that Israel is immune from the power of the stars. Rab, as cited by his student Rav Yehudah, supports Yol).anan's position that Israel is not subject to planetary influence, repeating the slogan there is no constellation for Israel. 69 It is fitting that both Rab and Y ol).anan were active in the third century, the same time period as Joshua b. Levi and Iianina. 70 The prooftexts for Rab' s position center on Abraham, whose dual image as both patriarch and astrologer in Jewish literature makes the selected textual traditions an ideal fit for a sugya on astral influence. The sequence of events as they are presented in the Bavli is crucial. In the biblical account, Abram 71 laments his lack of an heir and God reaffirms his promise to give the patriarch an heir (Gen. 15:3-4); after the lament, God brings Abram outside to count the stars (Gen. 15:5). In b. Shabo 156, it is significant that verse Gen. 15: 5 is cited before Gen. 15: 3-4. That is, in the Bavli, Abram first goes outside to look at the stars, and through their consultation determines that he will not have any heirs. In the Bavli, looking at the stars promotes the patriarch's lament in Gen. 15:3. That astrology lies behind his grievance is made explicit by inserting an extrabiblical tradition: He [Abraham] said before him: Master of the universe! I looked at my constellation, and I am not fated to have a chi/d.72 However, in the biblical account, Abram's disbelief in God's promise causes him to lament, and God takes Abram outside to look at the stars only after the promise is reaffirmed in Gen. 15:4. By placing verse five before verses three-four, and inserting extra-biblical traditions, the Bavli redactors have projected the theme of astrology onto the biblical narrative. That is, the Stammaim have craftily re-arranged the order of Gen. 15:3-5 and interpolated extra-biblical traditions in order to contextualize the verses within a discussion on astrology between the patriarch and God. Abraham is then told to abandon his astrological practices as there is no constellation for Israel - i.e. the stars do not hold sway over Israel, making astrological speculation a fruitless exercise. God then offers to move Jupiter in order to demonstrate his power over celestial bodies. The choice of Jupiter is due to its Hebrew root, ~dq, which also appears in §§B, F-G, serving as another linguistic thread that is 69 In the Bavli, repetitive language frequently serves to bind together smaller sections of a text into a single literary unit (Louis Jacobs, "The Talmudic Sugya as a Literary Unit," JJS 24 (1974): 119-26; Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories, 251-53). 70 Margaliyot, Encyclopedia, 1:133,2:185,192,302. 71 It is notable that the figure is Abraham in the Bavli's reworking of Gen. 15 in b. Shabo 156 §D, though he is Abram in the biblical text. 72 This extra-biblical tradition is also found in b. Ned. 32a.

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woven throughout our sugya. 73 God's dominance over the stars and planets is emphasized by the citation of Isa. 41:2, where ~dq not only means "victor," but also alludes to Jupiter - which is ~dq in §D. The message is that God demonstrates his power over ~dq by rousing it and summoning it to service. Moreover, there is a clever, second play on Isa. 41:2 as a reference to Abraham and his merit - ~dqh - in Gen. 15:6.14 In sum, §D holds that Israel is not influenced by astrology and that God is the true guiding force behind the world.

§D: Source Criticism There are many traditions in Jewish writings that portray Abraham as an astrologer, dating back to the Second Temple period and prevalent throughout Rabbinic literature. 75 Some strands of this tradition treat astrology as magic performed with a special instrument,76 while others as star-gazing. 77 In earlier traditions, Abraham abandons astrology on his own volition. 78 However, in later traditions, Abraham needs some prodding in order to give up his astral ways. 79 We presently investigate the exegetical traditions that utilize Gen. 15:3, 15:5 to associate Abraham with astrology. And Abram said further, "Since You have granted me no offspring [my steward will be my heir''} (Gen. 15:3). R. Shmuel bar Yitzl).ak said: [Abraham said,]80 "My planetary fate (hmzl) oppresses me and says, 'Abram cannot beget a child.' " The Holy One, blessed be he said to him, "That is indeed as you say: Abram and Sarai ('vrm wsry) cannot beget, but Abraham and Sarah ('vrhm wsrh) can beget."

He took him outside [and said: "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." (Gen. 15:5)] R. Joshua in the name of R. Levi [said]: Did he bring him outside of the world, that it should say He took him outside? Rather, [it means that] he showed him the open spaces

73 Rashi posits that Jupiter was Abraham's sign. 74 Also noted by Rashi. 75 For sources on Abraham as an astrologer in the Greco-Roman period, see Annette Yoshiko Reed, "Abraham as Chaldean Scientist and Father of the Jews; Josephus, Ant. 1.154-168, and the Greco-Roman Discourse about Astronomy/Astrology," JSJ 35 (2002): 124-27. 76 T.Qidd. 5:17. 77 Jubilees 12:16-18. 78 Jubilees 12:16-18; Philo, On Abraham, 69-71. For an analysis of the Second Temple sources of Abraham as astrologer, see Reed, "Abraham." 79 Gen. Rab. 44:12; b. Ned. 32a; b. Shabo 156. 80 "Abraham said" is suggested by Theodor-Albeck, Midrash, 432, and Freedman, Genesis, 1:367.

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of heaven, in line with this verse: When he had not yet made earth and fields [i.e. open spacesi 1 (Prov. 8:26). R. Judah b. R. Simon [in the name] of R. Yo];mnan said: He raised him [i.e. Abraham] above the vault of heaven, as he says to him "Look toward heaven (Gen. 15:5}," where look [means] only "from above to below" [therefore he looked downward from above the vault of heaven]. Rabbis say: You are a prophet, not an astrologer. As it is said: Now then, return the man's wife; for he is a prophet (Gen. 20:7). In the days of Jeremiah, the Israelites wished to take up this principle [of astrology], but the Holy One, blessed be he, did not permit them. Thus it is written: Thus said the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations, and do not be dismayed by portents in the sky; [let the nations be dismayed by them!] (Jer. 10:2). Your father Abraham wanted to take up this principle, but [God] did not allow him (Genesis Rabbah 44:12).82

The link between astrology and Gen. 15:5 is inherent in the text (Look toward heaven and count the stars), though Gen. 15:3's link is less obvious. The two citations from Genesis Rabbah above represent the earliest preserved versions of traditions that link Gen. 15:3 and 15:5 with astrology - constituting an innovation in the exegesis of these verses around the fifth century. Genesis Rabbah's lengthy statement on astrology, Gen. Rab. 44:12, bears important similarities to §D of b. Shabo 156. First, both use Gen. 15:5 to discuss Abraham as astrologer. Second, both champion the same general message, that God, not the stars, governs the fate of Israel. 83 Likewise, Gen. Rab. 44: 10 and b. Shabo 156 bear striking similarities in that they both understand Abraham's lament in Gen. 15: 3 to be a result of his astrological practices. While it is not possible to determine if b. Shab. 156 drew upon these traditions exactly as they are preserved in Genesis Rabbah, at the very least it seems likely that Gen. Rab. 44: 10 and 44: 12 and b. Shabo 156 drew upon a common tradition that links Gen. 15:3, 15:5 with astrology. Moreover, it is probable that Genesis Rabbah preserves the earlier version of this exegetical tradition. A comparison of Genesis Rabbah and b. Shabo 156 texts will highlight the differences in their aims and the methods of their redactors. First, b. Shab. 156 has conflated the astrological exegesis of Gen. 15:3, 15:5 into a single narrative, whereas they are presented as separate units in Gen. Rab. 44:10,44:12. The Bavli also incorporates Gen. 15:4, which has no explicit link to astrology in Genesis Rabbah's exegesis on that verse (Gen. Rab. 81 As suggested by Neusner, Genesis Rabbah, 2:133. 82 Text based on Theodor-Albeck, Midrash, 432-34. I have consulted Freedman, Genesis; Neusner, Genesis Rabbah; and NRSV in my translation. 83 As noted by Neusner in his commentary, Genesis Rabbah, 2: 134.

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44: 11). Furthermore, the Bavli redactors have interpolated extra-biblical quotations, creating a smooth dialogue between Abraham and God. 84 Next, we find that Gen. Rab. 44:12 and b. Shab. 156 have slightly different foci. Gen. Rab. 44: 12 claims that Abraham looked downward and thus he did not look up at the stars as astrologers do. It then cites Gen. 20: 7 to indicate that Abraham is a prophet, not an astrologer - for Gen. Rab. 44:12, the two are incompatible. Thus, Gen. Rab. 44:12 centers on undermining the portrayal of Abraham as an astrologer. In contrast, the redactors of b. Shab. 156 §D do not attempt to deny that Abraham practiced astrology. Instead, they accept the patriarch's image as astrologer and then encourage him to change his ways: Abandon your astrological speculation! for Israel is immune from planetary influence as God is the true motivating force behind the world. There is another important distinction between Gen. Rab. 44: 12 and b. Shab. 156 §D. Both texts hold that astrology rules over the Gentiles but is powerless over Israel. In Gen. Rab. 44: 12 this point is made with Scripture alone, and the line between Israelite and Gentile must be inferred from Jer. 10:2. In the Bavli, however, following its citation of Jer. 10:2, the Stammaim add they [i.e. the nations] are dismayed, but not Israel, an idea further underscored by there is no constellation for Israel. For the Bavli, the establishment of astrology as a boundary marker between Israel and the Gentiles is central to the message of b. Shab. 156. The Stammaim explicate this point with a clarity and forcefulness that is unparalleled in Genesis Rabbah or other earlier Rabbinic sources.

§D: Conclusions Section §D craftily manipulates the Gen. 15 narrative to demonstrate that Israel is not subject to planetary influence, as astrology serves as a boundary marker between Israel and the Gentiles - a similar message to that of §C. Section D, however, goes one step further than §C in demonstrating that God trumps the stars and serves as the true guiding force behind the universe. Section D draws upon preexisting exegetical traditions that link Gen. 15:3, 15:5 to astrology. These traditions are relatively recent, as the earliest preserved versions date back only to Genesis Rabbah. However, whereas Gen. Rab. 44:12 denies that Abraham is an astrologer, b. Shab. 156 §D accepts this and encourages the patriarch to change his ways because astrological practices are useless for Israelites. 84 The extra-biblical dialogue is also found in b. Ned. 32a, which preserves a shorter version of the conversation between God and Abraham. The tradition in b. Ned. 32a lacks the citations of Gen. 15:3-4 and Isa. 41:2, as well as God's offer to move Jupiter. It is situated amidst a collection of traditions about Abraham, and develops into a short discussion on augury (n/:lsh) based around Num. 23:23.

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§E: Literary Analysis

The first-generation Babylonian Amora Shmuel (second-third centuries)85 is associated with astrology elsewhere in the Bavli,86 where he professes knowledge of the planetary week. 87 Section §E begins with there is no constellation for Israel, formally, thematically and linguistically tying it to §§C-D, F-G of b. Shabo 156. The genre, however, has changed from a description of "scientific" content (§§A-B) and exegesis (§§C-D) to narrative in §§E-G. The theme of shame, which is common in the Bavli, is prevalent in §E as the Israelite pretends to collect bread from the one who lacks it in order to spare him from public embarrassment. 88 The editorial hand of the Stammaim is evident with the repetition of key words, as the final line of §E bears the root ~dq, which is also found in §§B, D-F. There is a play on the word for snake: the Bavli uses the Aramaic bywy',89 the equivalent of nlJsh in biblical Hebrew, which is also a homonym for omen. 90 Moreover, not only is the Israelite protected from the snake, but the snake itself dies - a reversal of A vlat' s prediction that the snake would kill the Israelite. Like other sections, §E draws on the theme of astrology as a boundary marker between Jews and Gentiles. Not only is Avlat's prediction wrong, but Shmuel is proven to be correct. Recall Shmuel's prediction: if he is an Israelite, he will go and come [back]. That is, Israelites are immune from planetary influence while Gentiles are not - further emphasizing the sugya's anti-astrological message 91 and indicating why from Shmuel also [we learn that] there is no constellation for Israel. Shmuel's proclamation you fulfilled a commandment is paralleled elsewhere in the sugya by Nal).man b. Yitzl).ak (§§A-B) and Akiva (§F). The link between Israel's immunity from astrology and fulfilling commandments becomes an increasingly important theme. Note Shmuel's assuredness that the astrological prediction will be proven false, even before he learns of the mitzvah that was performed: If he is an Israelite, he will go and come [back]. Two possible interpretations arise: an Israelite's fate is protected against an astrological prediction whether or not he fulfills commandments (i.e. Shmuel did not say: If he is an Israelite and performs commandments he will go and come back). Or Shmuel was confident that as an Israelite, this man would surely fulfill a commandment - that is, 85 Margaliyot, Encyclopedia, 2:327. 86

b. Erub. 56a; b. Shab. 129b; see Leicht, Astrologumena, 94-95.

87 Gandz, "Origin," 223. 88 Rubenstein, Culture, 68-69. 89 90

91

Sokoloff, Babylonian Aramaic, 450. Koehler, Lexicon, 1:690-91. I thank David Stem for this observation.

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satisfying commandments make one an Israelite, which in turn provides protection against the horoscope. §E: Source Criticism

Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 6:9, 8d92 Two students of R. Jianina went out to cut wood. A certain astrologer saw them. He said: These two will go out but not return. When they went out they came upon a certain old man. He said to them: Give me alms, for it has been three days since I have tasted anything. They had a loaf of bread. They cut it in half and gave it to him. He ate and prayed for them. He said to them: May your souls be preserved this day just as you have preserved my soul for me this day. They went out safely and came back safely. There were some men there who had heard his [the astrologer's] words. They said to him: Did you not say, "These two will go out but not return"? He said: There is here a man oflies [= me], whose astrology is lies. Even so they went and searched and found a snake, half in this one's load and half in the other's. They said: What good deed did you do today? They told him the deed. He [the astrologer] said: What can I do? For the God of the Jews is appeased by half a loaf.

There are a number of differences between the versions of the story found in the Bavli and Yerushalmi. In y. Shabo 6:9, 8d, the astrologer's prediction is disproved by the actions of two students of Banina - a sage unsuitable for the Bavli's version because of Banina's promotion of astrology earlier in its sugya (§C). Shmuel is a fitting replacement for Banina, as the former is associated elsewhere with astrology and professes knowledge of a planetary week, but does not promote it as intensely as Banina does in §§B-C. 93 The nature of the fulfilled commandment also differs between the texts. In the Yerushalmi, it is a simple act of charity: upon request, the two students give the old man half their loaf of bread. The Bavli, however, takes the mitzvah one step further: the Israelite gives the bread without having been asked. Moreover, the Bavli's Israelite spares the hungry man from the shame of not contributing to the common pool of bread. Indeed, shame is an important theme in the Bavli. 94 The Yerushalmi version seeks to inflict (rather than avoid, as in the Bavli) shame, as it publicly 92 Peter Schafer and Hans-Jiirgen Becker, eds., Synapse zum Talmud Yerushalmi, Band 1111-4 (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001). Translation based on Rubenstein, Culture, 68-69. 93 b. Erub. 56a; b. Shabo 129b; Gandz, "Origin," 223. 94 Rubenstein, Culture, 68-69.

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embarrasses the astrologer. In the Yerushalmi, astrology is nothing but lies; in the Bavli, astrology is a real science that has real use for the Gentiles, but has no influence over Israel, which is consistent with the rest of our sugya. The inclusion of the snake in the astrologer's prediction in the Bavli adds a sense of irony that the Yerushalmi lacks: the astrologer predicts that a snake will kill the Israelite, but in the end, the snake itself is killed. 95 §E: Conclusions Literary and source-critical analyses have highlighted the Bavli's message that Israel is not subject to planetary influence, the theme that permeates the entire sugya. Shmuel's prediction that the Israelite will return unharmed because he is an Israelite reinforces the theme seen elsewhere in our sugya that astrology serves as a boundary marker between Jew and Gentile. Section §E adds a strong emphasis on the fulfillment of commandments, perhaps making it a defining characteristic of an Israelite and a necessary condition for immunity from planetary influence. §F: Literary Analysis There is a great deal of parallelism between §E and §F as both serve as aggadic examples as to why there is no constellation for Israel. In each, the astrologers' predictions are nearly identical and the potential victims are unaware of the proximity of the attacking snake. Moreover, both reverse the astrologer's prediction as the snake is killed instead of the Israelite/Akiva's daughter. Both Shmuel and Akiva ask what did you do upon finding the dead snake. In both stories, the fulfilled commandments involve supplying a man with food. In §F, the banquet distracted others from attending to the beggar. Indeed, elsewhere in the Babylonian Talmud meals often distract people from their moral responsibilities. 96 Both sections end with a sage's interpretation of Provo 10:2, namely that ~dqh, saves not only from an unnatural death, but from death in general. Indeed, the root ~dq is used throughout the sugya, as the Bavli redactors weave a linguistic thread throughout b. Shabo 156. The parallelism between §E and §F demonstrates the Stammaim's editorial skill to formally, thematically, and linguistically bring disparate traditions together into a single literary unit. An important difference arises in the behavior of the sages. In §E Shmuel is confident that the astrologer's prediction will be proven wrong so long as the man is an Israelite. However, in §F Akiva was very worried 95 The use of irony is common in Rabbinic literature; see Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories, 247-48. 96 ibid., 148.

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about the Chaldean's prediction, even though he knows that his daughter is an Israelite. We posit that Akiva is troubled because, at this point in the story, he is unaware that his daughter had performed an act of charity. With Akiva's apprehension, the Bavli redactors raise the importance of righteousness in warding off an evil astrological prediction. Fulfilling commandments somehow defines an Israelite as such, and protects him or her from astrological powers. To sum up, §F promotes the major themes of the sugya - that Israel is immune from planetary influence and that astrology can serve as a boundary marker between Jew and Gentile. Moreover, §F places great emphasis on the fulfillment of mitzvoth and acts of charity, as it is a precondition for immunity from the power of the stars. 97 §G: Literary Analysis

There are a number of motifs and themes in §G that are common to our sugya. In §§E-G, the astrologers do not make their prediction directly to the subject, but rather through an intermediary - Shmuel, Akiva, and Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak's mother. The astrologer's prediction that Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak would be a thief is identical to one of Ashi' s four interpretations of one born under Mars in §B. Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak's transformation from thief in his youth to sage recalls the earlier juxtaposition of the twins Ashi and Dimi, head of an academy and thieves, respectively. The motif of the worried parent appears in both §G with Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak's mother and §F with Akiva. The term "Chaldeans" is also found in §F and there is no constellation for Israel is found throughout the sugya. Section G differs from §F in an important way, as Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak's mother tells her son to cover his head, a more active stance than that taken by Akiva, who merely worries about his daughter. The reasoning, to instill the fear of heaven and her instructions to ask for mercy are unprecedented in b. Shabo 156. Indeed, the introduction of these elements may indicate that Nal;tman's mother was more worried about the astrologer's prediction than Akiva in §F, and far more concerned than Shmuel in §E. That is, as we progress through the sugya, the Bavli redactors increase the importance of adherence to God's commandments, adding more conditions in order to gain immunity from planetary influence. In the end, Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak's distraction from Torah study left him unprotected from the astrologer's prediction. 98 The Rabbis considered We have not found an earlier version of the traditions preserved in §F. While it is possible that the loss of his head covering caused Nal;tman b. Yitzl;tak to succumb to evil inclination, we note that nothing happened to him immediately after his head covering fell. Rather, only after he looked up at the palm tree - thereby interrupting his Torah study - was he overtaken by an evil inclination. 97 98

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Torah study to be one of the greatest mitzvoth,99 and may indeed be one of the defining acts of an Israelite. Moreover, one should avoid any interruptions in Torah study, as any such break could lead to forgetfulness. lOo Indeed, the importance of fulfilling commandments in order to gain immunity from the stars reaches its climax in §G. Whereas §§E-F. hold that fulfilling commandments protects one from the stars, §G demonstrates the counterfactual: the interruption of fulfilling commandments such as Torah study leaves one vulnerable to astrological influence. There is no one better to demonstrate the importance of mitzvoth than NaQ.man b. YitzQ.ak, who earlier in our text (§§A-B) stressed the fulfillment of commandments. 101

V. Conclusion Our analysis of b. Shabo 156 is the first full treatment of the locus classicus of Talmudic discussions on astrology and constitutes a first step towards understanding the Bavli's views on the subject. Our literary and sourcecritical analyses have highlighted the editorial skill and methods of the Bavli redactors. The Stammaim appropriated earlier Galilean Rabbinic traditions on astrology and often changed the focus of these texts. These once-disparate received traditions were woven together into a single literary unit by the Bavli redactors with threads of repetitive language and recurrent themes. It is significant that the text does not deny the efficacy of astrology over the Gentiles. For the Bavli's redactors, astral powers influence the nations but not Israel, and astrology functions as a boundary marker between Israel and the Gentiles. Indeed, the redactors of the Bavli have integrated this boundary marker into the message of b. Shabo 156: the people of Israel are immune from astral influence so long as they fulfill God's commandments. Those who do not busy themselves with God's commandments are subject to the power of the stars like the Gentiles.

99 Rubenstein, Culture, 31-33. 100 Lee Levine, The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak BenZvi Press, 1989),45. 101 We have not found an earlier version of the traditions preserved in §G.

Margin of Error Women, Law, and Christianity in Bavli Shabbat l16a-b HOLGER M. ZELLENTIN

'The horse-leech has two daughters: Give, give' (Proverbs 30.15) What is 'Give, give'? Rav Hisda said in the name of Mar 'Ukba: It is the voice of two daughters who scream from the Gehenom to this world: 'Bring, bring.' Who are they? Heresy and the government. - Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 17a

Introduction In this paper, I argue that the story of Imma Shalom and the philosopher in Bavli Shabbat l16a-b is a nuanced polemic against Christianity, an apology for the Jews' exile and the Christian rule of Palestine, and, at the same time, a defense of Babylonian Rabbinic jurisdiction on inheritance. A clear majority of scholars agreed upon the fact that the story somehow polemicizes against Christianity. Moritz Guedemann, in 1876, was the first to consider Bavli Shabbat l16a-b as a satirical reaction to the Gospel of Matthew, an interpretation that most scholars followed, up to Burton Visotzky's 1995 article. l Hence, the question is not whether the story seeks 1 Moritz Guedemann, Religionsgeschichtliche Studien (Leipzig: Oskar Leiner, 1876), 65-99. Other authors (in chronological order) discussing the passage include Michael Sachs, Beitrage zur Sprach und Altertumsforschung (Berlin: Veit und Comp., 1852); Wilhelm Bacher, Die Agada der Palastinensischen Amoraer (Strasbourg: K.J. Triibner, 1892-99), II, 424n; Gustaf Dalman, Jesus Christ in the Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, and the Liturgy of the Synagogue (New York: Arno Press, 1893, repr., 1973), 69; Robert Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (London: Williams and Norgate, 1903), 146-155; Edgar Hennecke ed., Handbuch zu den Neutestamentlichen Apokryphen (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1904), 70f; George Foot Moore, "The Definition of the Jewish Canon and the Repudiation of Jewish Scriptures," in Essays in Modern Theology and Related .Subjects (ed. Ch. A. Briggs; New York: Scribner's Sons, 1911), 99-125; Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Munich: Beck, 1922), I, 241f; S. Zeitlin, "Jesus in Early Tannaitic

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to ridicule Christianity, but how exactly it does so, and with what aspects of Christianity it is concerned. I will argue that the Christian interpreters of the Gospels, rather than the Gospels themselves, were the Talmud's targets. It seems to me as if the Talmudic author employs the Gospel against its Christian interpreters. Another possible target of the parody includes Jews sympathizing with Christian jurisprudence. Before presenting the story, a few words seem helpful on the general historical background of the rabbis' view of Christianity, as well as on the Talmud's source for the story of Imma Shalom. The Palestinian Rabbinic movement emerged in the second half of the second century CE, approximately at the same time as gentile churches gained momentum. Both parties claimed for themselves the heritage of the Torah, and both claimed God's blessing. For the following two centuries, the relations between Jews and Christians were markedly different within each of the two movements' sub-groups, which in turn were so diverse that they defy classification. In general, the relationships between the wide varieties of Jewish, Christian, and other groups in Palestine were largely determined by their respective stances towards the Roman government, the rulers of Palestine who brought at times death, at times stability. In 313 CE, Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, later known as Constantine the Great, saw it fit to secure himself the support of the empire's Christians. He issued the Decree of Milan, granting the freedom of religion. This period of tolerance was real, but short lived. As Constantine and the power structures of the Roman Empire became more and more Christian, all forms of religious practice not conforming to the new imperial cult were branded either as "pagan," "heretical," or "Jewish." This ongoing development went along with a strong effort to Christianize the territory of "Palestine" - the empire's new Holy Land. The emergence of Christianity as the new ruling power in Rome and Palestine dramatically changed the previous relationships between all Literature," in Abhandlungen zur Erinnerung an Hirsch Peres Chajes (Vienna: The Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation, 1933), 304-307; Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching (New York: Macmillan, 1929),44-47 [German pp. 53ff, Hebrew pp. 37ft]; Jacob Zallal Lauterbach, "Jesus in the Talmud," in idem, Rabbinic Essays (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1951, post mortem), 473570; Luitpold Wallach, "The Textual History of an Aramaic Proverb (Traces of the Ebionean Gospel)," JBL 60/4 (1941): 403-415; Ephraim E. Urbach, The Sages, Their Concepts and Beliefs (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1975), I, 302f and II, 820, [Hebrew, 268-270]; Burton L. Visotzky, "Overturning the Lamp," in idem, Fathers of the World: Essays in Rabbinic and Patristic Literatures (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995), 75-84. In opposition to the common opinion, cf. Johann Maier, Jiidische Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Christentum in der Antike (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982), 78-93.

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groups living in Palestine. Christianity became the new cultural and political enemy that created a common interest among Palestine's pagans, Samaritans, Christian "heretics," and Jews. Palestinian Rabbinic writings from the fourth and fifth centuries show an increasing awareness of Christianity, primarily of the Antiochian and Cappadocian Church Fathers.2 This awareness evoked condemnation. Yet, the Palestinian rabbis still perceived Christianity, perhaps through the lenses of Jewish followers of Jesus in Palestine, as something very close to Judaism. "The Kingdom of worshippers of stars and constellations will turn to Minut," they claimed in the Palestinian Talmud, describing imperial gentile Christianity with a term that had previously denoted heresy.3 The rabbis did their best to prevent everything perceived as Christian from entering into Rabbinic Judaism, but in the process of refuting them, they accepted the presuppositions of many Christian topoi into their own culture. Recent scholarship has shown that post-Constantinian rabbis replied to many Christian stories with polemical and apologetic counter-narratives. 4 As a result, in response to Christian attacks, Rabbinic Judaism reshaped a large number of discourses at the very center of its religious identity. Rabbinic teachings concerning the Temple, the Messiah, and even the Torah itself reflected and refuted discourses of post-Constantinian Christian writers. At the same time, the Christians of Palestine, encouraged by imperial attitudes as expressed in the Theodosian Code, started persecuting Jews, a development that intensified until the Muslim conquest put an end to it.

2 On the varying influence of Alexandrian and Antiochian Christianity on the rabbis, see Burton L. Visotzky, "Jots and Tittles: On Scriptural Interpretation in Rabbinic and Patristic Literatures," Prooftexts 8 (1988): 257-270. 3 Yerushalmi Sotah 23b. The respective material in the Mishna (Sotah 9.15), in which Rabbi Eliezer predicts the kingdom's turn to heresy, is a late addition, missing in most manuscripts. The question of what exactly minut means in the fifth century Palestinian or Babylonian Aramaic (Jewish heresy, gentile Christianity, or both) remains open; yet, see the most recent treatment of the material in Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity (Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 220-225. 4 Israel Yuval, Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2000 [Hebrew]; Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2006 [English]). See also, in this volume, the papers by Israel Yuval, "The Other in Us Liturgica, Poetica, Polemica"; and Burton L. Visotzky, "Goys '.5['n't Us: Rabbinic Anti-Gentile Polemic in Yerushalmi Berachot 9:1." See also Peter Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006); E.P. Sanders, ed., Jewish and Christian Self-definition (Philadelphia: Fortress Pres, 1981); Mark G. Hirshmann, A Rivalry of Genius: Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation in Late Antiquity. (Albany: SUNY Press, 1996); Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds., The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003).

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The Jewry of Babylonia was in a very different position with regard to the new Roman imperial cult. Looking back to a well-established presence since at least the time of the first exile, the Talmud famously comments on Isaiah 13.6: "Bring my sons from far," R. Huna said, "These are the exiles in Babylon, whose minds are at ease like [those of] sons." "And My daughters from the ends of the earth": "These are the exiles in other lands, whose minds are not at ease, like [those of] daughters." (bMenahot 1l0a).

Drawing on admitted gender inequality, the Talmud's parallel acknowledges the privileged status of the Babylonian Rabbinic community. The Zoroastrian rulers of the Sasanian Empire recognized the Jewish community, and persecution was scarce. 5 Moreover, Christian power and culture were not the same in Sasanian Babylonia and in Palestine. Languages and doctrines of Greek and Syriac Christianity were vastly different, and the political situation of Christians in Babylonia after Constantine was exactly the opposite of that in the Roman Empire. The vast and powerful Sasanian Empire was a match for the Roman Empire; and battles between the two empires were common between 240 and 390. 6 The Christianization of the Roman Empire left Sasanian Christians - who were equally recognized as a community in the Sasanian Empire - in a difficult position. Despite their Syriac identity and resulting tensions with Byzantine Christianity, they shared their enemies' Christian faith. As most recently discussed by Peter Schafer, this led the Sasanian rulers to persecute Christians throughout the fourth and early fifth centuries. 7 Only in the fifth century did the status of Christians begin to improve, until Christians were fully incorporated in the Sasanian Empire by the late sixth century. 8 5 See Klaus Schippman, Grundziige der Geschichte des sassanidischen Reiches (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche BuchgeseUschaft, 1990); Geo Widengren, "The Status of the Jews in the Sassanian Empire," Iranica Antiqua (Leiden: Brill, 1961), I, 128. 6 See Engelbert Winter and Beate Dignas, Rom und das Perserreich: Zwei Weltmiichte zwischen Konfrontation und Koexistenz (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2001); and Lucas van Rompay, "Impetuous Martyrs? The Situation of the Persian Christians in the Last Years of Yazdgard I (419-420)," in Martyrium in Multidisciplinary Perspective: Memorial Louis Reekmans (ed. M. Lamberigts and P. van Deun; Louvain: Leuven University Press, 1995),363-375. 7 In the words of Peter Schafer: "The Christians became suspected of being disloyal to the [Sasanian] state and favoring the enemy, of being Rome's 'fifth column' in the midst of the Sasanian Empire. Large-scale persecutions of the Christians broke out, first under Shapur II (309-379), then under Yazdgard I (399-421), Bahram V (421-439), and Yazdgard II (439-457)," in Jesus in the Talmud, 117. 8 See A. V. Williams, "Zoroastrians and Christians in Sassanian Iran," Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 78 (1996): 37-53.

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The Talmud's view of Christianity seems to stem from these later periods, corresponding to the persecution of Christians up to the early fifth century, and to the Christians' rise to prominence in Sasanian Babylonia in the later fifth century and thereafter. 9 Schafer argues that, given the continuing persecution of Jews by Christians in Palestine, it seems that Babylonia's Jewish population were not too troubled by the persecution of its Christian neighbors, and at times defamed the Christians publicly perhaps as part of a general anti-Christian attitude in the Sasanian Empire.lO And we can only imagine how the growing Christian political and intellectual influence in the Sasanian Empire in the late fifth and sixth centuries must have troubled the rabbis, likely leading to even fiercer polemics. In literary terms, Peter Schafer's Jesus in the Talmud has confirmed that the Babylonian Talmud defamed Jesus and Christian doctrine on numerous occasions.ll The present article is a further contribution to the Talmud's view of Christianity. Yet, I wish to add that, at the same time, the Talmudic attitude towards things Christian is much more nuanced than that of the Palestinian rabbis. The stable position of the Babylonian rabbis allowed them to venture into Christian thought with less risk for their own identity. These rabbis could more easily adopt explicitly Christian language in order to delineate their own identity more precisely. I want to show in the following that the Babylonian rabbis knew how to differentiate between various Christian writings and forms of Christianity. Whereas their Palestinian colleagues mostly alluded to Christian concepts and writings with general contempt, the situation in Babylonia not only allowed for open criticism without the fear of retaliation - as in the case of Jesus 12 - but also for serious consideration of Christian arguments, appreciation of certain Christian concepts, as well as for tensions in Christian tradition, as between the early Christian writers and some of the Gospels. The Syriac church writers constantly preached, read and edited 9 It is very hard to reconstruct the development of Babylonian Rabbinic culture during and before the fourth century, since the entirety of its literary production was redacted in the Babylonian Talmud later, mainly between the fifth and seventh centuries. See Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003); and Richard Kalmin, The Redaction of the Babylonian Talmud: Amoraic or Saboraic? (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1989). 10 See Peter Schafer's nuanced discussion of the Martyrdom of Mar Simon in Jesus in the Talmud, 118ff, and Mgr. Sddai Scher and Abbe Perier, eds., Chronique de Seert, Histoire Nestorienne Inedite (Paris: Perier 1907), 1,297. 11 See Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud. For an exhaustive (and dismissive) discussion of most of the relevant primary and secondary sources cf. Johann Maier, Jesus von Nazareth in del' talmudischen Uberlieferung (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1978). On the pr·oblems of Maier's methodology, see Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud, 5. 12 See Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud.

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the Gospels, turning these late first- (or early second-) century texts into documents of contemporary relevance to the rabbis of the middle of the first millennium. The question that remains unanswered (and probably will remain for a while) is: What Christian texts, if any, did the rabbis know? One of the written collections of gospels that would have been easily accessible to the Rabbis is Tatian's Diatessaron, a gospel harmony composed in Syriac, a dialect very close to Babylonian Jewish Aramaic. Since the gospel passages relevant to our story seemed to have been gleaned from the gospels of Matthew and of Luke, the Diatessaron is a very likely source for the author of the story of Imma Shalom. Another possible venue is the Syriac Peshitta, a translation of each of the Greek Gospels of the New Testament. The Peshitta started replacing the Diatessaron in the fifth century, but this process took over a century. Since Tatian's original is lost, I will quote relevant texts from the Peshitta, yet focus on the Diatessaron and its most important commentator, Ephraem the Syrian (303-373).13

Corruption in the Greco-Roman World In my view, the story of Imma Shalom and the Philosopher is based on a Palestinian Rabbinic story on judges and bribery. Its anti-Christian polemic is artfully weaved into the Babylonian adaptation of this older story. The following story in the Pesikta de Rav Kahana 15.9 (Ekha) stems from a text edited in Palestine in the fourth or fifth century of the Common Era (according to Ms. Oxford 151):14 A story of a woman who "honored" the judge [with] a silver lamp (£']O:l ~1Zl I1nK :1"U~). Her adversary went and honored him with a golden young ass (:J:1r ~1Zl n~~o). On the following day she came and found her judgment overturned She said to him [the judge]: "Master, let my case shine forth (~J~' ":1J~) like that silver lamp." He said to her: "What shall I do for you, since the young ass overturned the lamp?"

A woman bribes a judge with a lamp, but her adversary bribes him with a more valuable item, a donkey. We learn that even a bribe cannot secure favorable judgment, since an adversary could subsequently pay an even 13 For the rabbis' knowledge of these texts, see Schafer's conclusions in Jesus in the Talmud, 122f. The Rabbinic stories about Jesus seem to draw most on the Gospel of John, probably in the form of the Diatessaron. See William L. Petersen, Tatian's Diatessaron: Its Creation, Dissemination, Significance, & History in Scholarship, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 25 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994). 14 Bernard Mandelbaum, Pesikta deRab Kahana according to an Oxford Manuscript (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1987), 260f.

Margin of Error.

345

higher price. The punch-line is that the judge hides the criminal truth about his court in a blatantly overt, though still encoded, way stating that "the ass overturned the lamp." The sequel to the passage in the Pesikta speaks about Isaiah's condemnation of bribery, and the story itself hints towards the implications of justice as spelled out in Isaiah 51.3-4: "For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, ... My Instruction ('11'1'1'1) shall go out from me, and I will enact my justice (~~Ill~) as a light to the nations."

Isaiah's parallel structure pairs the Torah with Justice and "going out" with being a "light." The Biblical Hebrew term ~~um can denote both procedural and ethical justice in Rabbinic Hebrew as well. When the woman in the Pesikta urges the judge to "let my case shine forth like a lamp," any Rabbinic reader will understand the reference to "justice" and "light" in the passage from Isaiah. The Rabbinic story hence gestures to the Bible's promise of real justice to come. The anecdote in the Pesikta in turn adapts an even older, Tannaitic Palestinian Rabbinic saying. In Sifre Balak 15, a corrupt bid in silver for priesthood is trumped by a bid in gold, with the ensuing moral likewise being that "the ass overturned the lamp."15 The Tannaitic saying does not include a real lamp or an ass as a bribe. The image of the "ass overturning the lamp" (to which I shall return) in Sifre might have been an independent proverb whose meaning was no longer understood in the time of the Pesikta. 16 In any case, the later Rabbinic version of the text in the Pesikta adds to the story the image of a real lamp and of a real ass made of gold, perhaps in an attempt to connect the puzzling proverb to the anecdote it found in Sifre. The Pesikta also adds the character of the judge himself to the Tannaitic saying (in which the recipient of the bribe is only implicit), and we find cognates to such anecdotes in Greco-Roman literature. Similar stories about corruption in legal affairs had been commonplace for a long time. Petronius, for example, in his Satyricon (3.14) condemns a judge, supposedly a Cynic philosopher, who sells his word for money and considers justice to be "public merchandise," implying that it is the highest

15 Sifre Balak 15 is the oldest of the story's other parallels, yYoma 38c and Wayikra Rabbah 21.9. 16 Wallach argues for the development of the story as based on a proverb prior to the Pesikta, even though he seems to have missed the only Tannaitic version we have in Sifre, cf. Luitpold Wallach, "The Textual History of an Aramaic Proverb," 405f. It seems that the closing statement itself may have triggered the unusual commodities used as bribes, the lamp and the young donkey.

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bid that wins the case. I7 I suggest understanding the Pesikta in this cultural framework, even if the text is too elliptic to allow for a meaningful GrecoRoman contextualization. The same holds true for the story's image of the "overturning of the lamp." The expression was a common euphemism for sexual orgies in the Greco-Roman world, and perhaps the Pesikta implicitly draws a parallel between the corruption of legal and sexual morality.I8 The story's use of the "overturned lamp" in the Pesikta might equate bribery with sexual debauchery and immorality in general, yet the reading remains somewhat speculative. As Burton Visotzky has shown, from the second century onwards, the euphemism of "overturning the lamp" developed into an expression specific to standard accusations against Christians who allegedly indulged in such orgies during worship.I9 We cannot discern with any certainty a comment on Christianity in the Pesikta story's general disdain for corrupt judges (even though at the time of the text's final redaction, there certainly where Christian judges in Palestine). Nevertheless, a later Babylonian Rabbinic reader noted how little it took him to read more than one reference to Christian texts into the story.

Bribing a Christian The Babylonian Talmud shifted the focus of the story of the two bribes towards Christianity in fifth- or sixth-century Mesopotamia, when it retold the narrative for a third recorded time in Shabbat 116a-b. The manuscripts of the Talmud transmit the story in two versions, both of which are presented in the following text. The main text follows the Sephardic Ms. Oxford 366 (add. fol. 23), which slightly deviates from the majority reading in a few crucial details. I italicized the manuscript's variants and indicated the maj ority reading on the right side of the text. Rabbi Meir called it ' aven-gilayon C1p~) l'N) Rabbi Johanan called it 'avon-gilayon C1p~) lUI) [1] Imma Shalom, Rabbi Eli'ezer's wife, was the sister of Rabban Gamliel. She had a legal dispute with her brother She went to face him.

[missing] [missing]

17 See Ramsay MacMullen, Corruption and the Decline of Rome (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988). 18 See Burton L. Visotzky, "Overturning the Lamp," in idem, Fathers of the World: Essays in Rabbinic and Patristic Literatures (Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995), 75-84. 19 See Burton L. Visotzky, "Overturning the Lamp." For rabbis accusing Christians of sexual debauchery see also Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud, 44, and the references given there.

Margin of Error.

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[2] And there was a certain philosopher (KtlOK"tl) in her neighborhood, Who had a reputation as a judge who does not accept bribes (K1nlll). [3] One day, he [Rabban Gamlfel} wanted to laugh about him [the philosopher]. [they] They went to him [the philosopher]. Imma Shalom brought him [the philosopher] a golden lamp (K:J;'11 Kl'lll). She said to him: "I want you to divide ('l'tl'J1) the estate of my [late] father's house." He [the philosopher] said: "Divide (m'tl)!" [4] They said to him: [He, i.e. Rabban Gamliel] "It is written in the Torah that he gave us (l' :J;"1 ;",m): 'If there is a son, the daughter does not inherit (r",11).' " [5] He [the philosopher] said: "From the day that you were exiled (l'11"l) from your land, the Torah of Moses (;'1ll~1 K11"'K) was taken away (11"lJJI1'K) from you and the Torah of the 'avon -gilayon (l""llUI1 K11"'K) was given, [missing] and it is written in it: 'Daughter and Son inherit equally (K1n:> 1m,"). '" [6] The next day he [Rabban Gamliel] returned and brought him a Libyan donkey (K'~n). As they came, he [the Philosopher] said to them: "I went down to the end of the 'avongilayon, And it is written in it: 'I am the 'avon-gilayon (l""l lUI), I did not come to reduce (I1ntl'~') the Torah of Moses and not to add ('tlO'K') to the Torah of Moses I came. And it is written in it: 'If there is a son, the daughter does not inherit' " [7] She said [to the philosopher]: "Let your light shine with the lamp (Kl'lll:J T";'J ,,;'J) Examine (r'y) the judgment!" [missing] [8] Rabban Gamliel said to him: "A donkey (K'~n) came and knocked down (;'llllJ:J') the lamp."

We hear now the story of a corrupt philosopher who, like Petronius' cynic, has a good reputation, but does not refrain from accepting a second bribe: he decides in favor of whoever pays more, just as in the Palestinian Rabbinic story that the Talmud retells. The Talmud left the basic structure and the message of the Pesikta's story intact, with the two bribes, the woman's complaint (including the implicit reference to the light and the justice of Isaiah 51), and the punch-line in which the judge hides the criminal truth by stating that "the ass overturned the lamp." The Talmud, however, gives names to all the opponents, spells out the reasoning of the judge, and transfers the final statement from the judge to the winning opponent (i.e. Rabban Gamliel), hence accusing the "philosopher" with the same symbolic language that the Palestinian judge had used to shamelessly explain himself.

Two Versions of Imma Shalom The differences between the cited Ms. Oxford 366 and the majority reading are few, yet consequential. I suggest that the differences between the two versions are intrinsically linked to the Talmud's view of women and their role in religious conflicts. The first important variant of the Oxford manuscript vis-a.-vis the majority reading is that only this manuscripts opens the story by stating

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that Imma Shalom and her brother had a real lawsuit, and that "she went to face him." The second important variant is that according to the Oxford manuscript, Rabban Gamliel plans to "laugh about" the philosopher alone. In most other manuscripts, the two siblings concoct the plot together. This fact strongly suggests that they never had a real pending lawsuit. The third important variant is that in the Oxford manuscript, both siblings together point out to the judge that his first ruling, favoring Imma Shalom's request to divide the heritage, violates Jewish law. In the majority reading, only Rabban Gamliel protests. The fact that in the Oxford manuscript she joins her brother in pointing out the legal problem detrimental to her own interests gives her a more active role in the proceedings. We can see that the two versions tell a genuinely different story. The Oxford manuscript relates that Rabban Gamliel fought his sister in a lawsuit and sought to ridicule the judge, whereas the majority of manuscripts tells us that Rabban Gamliel and Imma Shalom in harmony tried to expose him, inventing a lawsuit. Since Rabban Gamliel wins the lawsuit and exposes the judge in both versions, both stories are internally coherent. Since we cannot determine which story reflects more genuinely the intentions the Talmud's Babylonian redactors, we therefore cannot decide the case based on the two stories themselves. The evidence of the manuscripts is equally not decisive. On the one hand, the sheer quantity of the majority reading seems overwhelming at first, and probably explains why no commentator of the story ever took into consideration the text provided by the Oxford manuscript. On the other hand, Ms. Oxford 366, written in Sephardic square script and dated to the 13 th century, is one of the older witnesses to the tractate Shabbat, and generally is written very carefully.20 Furthermore, a note in the margin of Ms. Munich 95 adds explicitly that the siblings really had a lawsuit in words almost identical to that of the Oxford manuscript. 21 The version of the story in which siblings fight each other, therefore, is also attested in 20 See Ad. Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and in the College Libraries of Oxford, Including Mss. in Other Languages, which Are Written with Hebrew Characters, or Relating to the Hebrew Language or Literature; and a Few Samaritan Mss. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), and R. A. May, ed., Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library; Supplement of Addenda and Corrigenda to Vol. I (A. Neubauer's Catalogue), compiled under the direction of Malachi Beit-Arie (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1994), cf. I. Safrai, The Literature of the Sages, First Part: Oral Tora, Halakha, Mishna, Toefta, Talmud, External Tractates (Assen: Van Gorcum 1987), 355. 21 Folio 27, top. The addition, probably written in Paris in the fourteenth century, reads "she had a legal dispute with Rabban Gamliel." The note does not add that "she went to face him." See William Rosenau, "Book Notices: Hermann L. Strack, Babylonian Talmud according to the Munich Codex Hebraicus 95," AJSLL 29 (1913): 304-306.

Margin of Error

349

medieval Europe. Finally, Ms. Vatican 108, equally written in Sephardic square script and dated to the 13 th century, while following the majority reading otherwise, equally attests that "he," i.e. Rabban Gamliel alone, wanted to fool the philosopher (~17:J), and not that both siblings planned to do so (117:J) , as in the majority reading.22 This fact reveals that the difference between vav and yud changes the entire narrative. The evidence of Ms. Vatican 108 makes clear that there is only one indication that Imma Shalom was involved in the plan to fool the philosopher in the majority of manuscripts. The rest of the narrative gives no indication that she would not really sue her brother. Hence, the evidence for the reading of Ms. Oxford is weighty enough for further consideration. External evidence supports the minority reading. On the one hand, eliminating the lawsuit, sign of an inner-Rabbinic struggle, and portraying the siblings as confronting the (non-Jewish) judge jointly would be an attractive alteration for any editor striving for Rabbinic unity. Living under Sasanian, Muslim, or under Christian rule might favor such a step.23 Adding the lawsuit, on the other hand, and insisting that only Rabban Gamliel, and not both siblings, tried to set up the judge would reversely weaken Rabbinic unity under foreign rule. 24 This is not a very likely venue; hence, it represents an important argument for the version preserved by the Oxford manuscript. 25 I therefore suggest discussing both stories separately when they diverge from each other. I will call the version of the majority reading version A, and that of the Ms. Oxford 366 (supported by Ms. Vatican 108 and by the addition in Ms. Munich 95) version B. Since the Talmud makes use of fourth-century sources, we must place the story's genesis somewhere after that time. The philosopher's aggressive reference to the Jewish exile makes a date before the Sasanian conquest of Palestine in 614 very likely. I will illustrate how each of the versions might have been understood by its primary Rabbinic audience in Sasanian Babylonia in a time when the 22 Folio 57, bottom. 1. Safrai, The Literature of the Sages, 357. 23 My gratitude to Moulie Vidas for this observation. 24 If the story indeed was inspired by the version of the Pesikta (and the proximity of details suggests this), then a real conflict was part of the original story which could likely have been included in the new version. This fact by itself, however, weighs lightly. Even if the Babylonian story adopts most of the details of the earlier Palestinian version, it showed its liberty in making the judge a philosopher and giving the final word to Rabban Gamliel. 25 On the one hand, the addition on the margin of Ms. Munich suggests that the siblings' lawsuit could have been possibly added in medieval Europe. On the other hand, however, not all editors amend their text according to their worldview, and this addition probably occurred because another manuscript equally attested the lawsuit (the addition being almost identical to Ms. Oxford). The evidence therefore is not decisive.

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Byzantine Empire occupied the Land of Israel and suppressed its Jewry. We do not know whether the story was composed in the period when in the Sasanian Empire Christians where persecuted themselves, or afterwards, when Christians started rising to prominence in the Sasanian political system. Yet throughout the centuries, the Babylonian rabbis had reason to distance themselves from Christian law and theology. The following analysis will suggest that the position of the judge on heritage law concerning women is contiguous to that of Christianity, whereas Rabban Gamliel's position is representative of Rabbinic Judaism. Imma Shalom stands in the middle. My conclusion will be that, in both versions of the story, the struggle between Imma Shalom and Rabban Gamliel would lead the Rabbinic audience to reflect on the political realities of Sasanian Jewry, and on their rulings on the inheritance rights of women under Jewish and Christian law respectively. This is the case regardless whether the siblings' practical joke invokes the possibility of such a struggle (version A), or the story assumes it to be a reality (version B). The two versions real difference lies in the question how the story portrays Imma Shalom. Does she go over to the position that Rabbinic law on inheritance is unjust, and does she really seek the help of a Christian judge, leading to her defeat by Rabban Gamliel (B)? Or does she betray her own financial interests, siding with her brother (A)? In both cases, the story employs her in its attempt to silence the tension caused by the jurisprudence it supports, and by accusing anybody who doubts it of nothing short of heresy.

The Context and the Actors Immediately preceding the story of Imma Shalom in bShabbat 116a is a lively discussion of the status of books containing divine names which leads to a consideration of the books of minim, and notably of the Gospels. 26 The discussion finishes with two derogatory puns connecting the Hebrew term gi/ayon, "margin," to the Syriac term for "gospel." First, This corresponds exactly to the Rabbi Meir calls the gospel 'P7~"

,'N.

26 The context in bShabbat 116a, a discussion based on mYad 3.5, mShabb 16.1, and tYad 2.13, is very ambiguous, but portrays a generally negative reading of the heretical books. See Karl Georg Kuhn, "Giljonim und sifre minim," in Judentum, Urchristentum, Kirche: Festschrift fur Joachim Jeremias (ed. Walther Eltester; Berlin: Alfred Topelman, 1960), 24-61. Cf. Johann Maier, Judische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Christentum in der Antike, (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982), 28-122, for extensive references and again an overly skeptical view; for a more nuanced view, Annette Reed, "Apocrypha, 'Outside Books,' and Pseudepigrapha: Ancient Categories and Modern Perceptions of Parabiblical Literature" (PSCO talk, October 10th 2002, available at http://ccat.sas.upenn. edu/psco/year40/areed 1.html).

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351

Syriac transliteration of the Greek word euangelion, .........~ar, which is perhaps the reason why none of the previous commentators on the story remarked the Talmud's precise use of the Syriac. 28 See Markus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, The Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York: Judaica Press, 1903),27. Another possible reading of 1"7') l1N would be ['on gelion], "margin" or "message" of "power" or "possession." (see Jastrow, ibid, 28). The former reading seems more likely in the present context. 29 Jastrow, Dictionary, 1054. 30 On the story of Rabbi Eliezer see most recently Peter Schafer, Jesus in the Talmud, 41-51. In the Babylonian Talmud's often cited story of the Oven of Akhnai (bBaba Metzia 59b), Rabban Gamliel excommunicates Rabbi Eliezer for relying on miracles and the heavenly voice rather than the word of the Torah. In the story's sequel, Imma Shalom appears l:!S faithful to both her husband and her brother. 31 On Imma Shalom, see Tal Ilan, "The Quest for the Historical Beruriah, Rachel, and Imma Shalom," AJS Review 22 (1997), 1-17.

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anywhere in Rabbinic narratives, but he does become a crypto-Christian in the Pseudo-Clementines. 32 The siblings' father, Shimeon ben Gamliel the First, was traditionally seen as a martyr of the Roman War. We do not know how likely it is that he left a material heritage worthwhile of litigation; the rabbis certainly do not mention it. Accordingly, we will see that the "inheritance" in the story is a symbol for the inheritance of the Land of Israel, and ultimately, for the inheritance of God's promises. In its theological, legal, and ethical challenge to Christianity, the Talmud comments on some aspects of the "sister religion" with each detail it adds to the Palestinian story in the Pesikta, and re-interprets most of the elements from the Palestinian version in light of Christianity. In the following I will analyze the story line by line. My focus will be on the Talmud's adaptation of previous Rabbinic literature, its dialogue with Christian law, doctrine and the Gospels, as well as the ways in which the previous two points are played out through references to the Pentateuch and the Prophets. Daughters and the Law To begin with, the Talmudic story changed the judge from the Pesikta into a "philosopher." This term is well attested in the Palestinian Rabbinic literature to describe a stock opponent of the rabbis, and notably of Rabban Gamliel. 33 In the Babylonian Talmud, the term "philosopher" appears only once more, equally when the text depicts a discussion between a pagan philosopher and Rabban Gamlie1. 34 The primary meaning of "philosopher" in the Bavli, hence, is likely the Greek sage. And while Greek philosophers continued to contribute to the intellectual landscape of Late Antiquity, some Syriac as well as Greek Church Fathers positively identified ascetic life with philosophy, referring to each other at times as "philosopher."35 When the story therefore uses the stereotypical situation of Rabban Gamliel defeating a "philosopher," it makes use of an image familiar to its audience. At the same time, it is possible that the story subtly identifies its enemy as the Greek philosophical tradition of the West. Since in the time of the story the Western world is ruled by the Byzantine Empire, the 32

See Recognitions 1.65f.

33 See Genesis Rabbah 1.9, 11.6, and 20.4, yBerakhot 63b. 34 The opponent is attempting here to defend idol worship (bAvodah Zarah 54b). To be precise, the term also appears in the Bavli's citation of the Mishna in bAvodah Zarah 44b. 35 E.g. Gregory of Nazianzen, Oratio 25.6, Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 8.2. For more examples for Christian "philosophers" in Syriac and Greek see J. Payne Smith, A Compendious Syriac Dictionary, 443f; and G.W.H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961), 774. See also, in this volume, Burton L. Visotzky, "Goys '51'n't Us: Rabbinic Anti-Gentile Polemic in Yerushalmi Berachot 9:1," note 22.

Margin of Error

353

narrative might echo the charges Sasanian officials made against Christians. The Palestinian story of the bribed judge does not specify the law case. The Talmud makes it a dispute of inheritance between Imma Shalom and, her brother, either pretended (A) or real (B): [3A] (One day), they wanted to laugh about him [the philosopher] She brought him a golden lamp And they [the siblings] went to him [the philosopher] [4] She said to him: "I want you to divide the estate of my [late] father." The judge said: "Divide." He [Rabban Gamliel] said to him: "It is written in the Torah that he gave us: 'If there is a son, the daughter does not inherit.' " [3B] One day, he [Rabban Gamliel] wanted to laugh about him [the philosopher] They went to him [the philosopher] Imma Shalom brought him [the philosopher] a golden lamp [4] She said to him: "I want you to divide the estate of my [late] father." The judge said: "Divide." They said to him: "It is written in the Torah that he gave us: 'If there is a son, the daughter does not inherit.' "

Once the judge reaches his verdict after receiving a bribe, either Rabban Gamliel (A) or the two siblings (B) confront the ignorant philosopher with a paraphrase of the Rabbinic objections to Imma Shalom's claim for the inheritance. No matter whether the conflict between the siblings is introduced as pretended or as real, one wonders what the issue could have been between them in the story's economy. The lawsuit must have been credible enough to convince the audience that it could have really occurred (B), or at least that the judge would believe it (A). In order to understand the legal reality the story presupposes, I suggest taking into account the aforementioned legal autonomy that the Sasanian Empire accorded to its citizens. Jews and Christians would typically fall under Jewish and Christian jurisdiction, respectively . We can imagine that this system led at times to ambiguities. And indeed, Christian jurisprudence, in contrast to its Rabbinic counterpart, accorded an inheritance to women who had brothers. For the understanding of our story, it is worth to recall the precise background of the respective traditions. The rabbis took various positions on the story of the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27.5-11, the locus classicus of gender in Biblical inheritance law. According to the Mishna, the second-century Palestinian legal code that forms the basis of the Babylonian Talmud's judicial system, a daughter could not inherit if a son existed: 11:1' tl"v 1:1 (Bava Batra 8.2). Yet, as Johann Maier has pointed out, the ruling led to many problems in

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post-mishnaic times, and our story alludes to these problems. 36 Eventually, the Bavli confirms the mishnaic ruling against daughters (bKetubot 52b), as do (post-Talmudic) Gaonic responsa. 37 The story, however, alludes to much more than to the Rabbinic legal specificity with which Maier portrays the issue. In her study on Rabbinic inheritance law for women, Judith Hauptman has shown how much the Mishna was at odds with most surrounding cultures, especially with the law practiced by the Roman rulers of Palestine, and just how many traces exist of a heated debate over this issue. 38 According to Hauptman, many strands of "feminist impulse" within both Palestinian and Babylonian Rabbinic culture kept challenging the mishnaic ruling that if there was a son, a woman would not inherit. What was true in third-century Palestine became even more poignant with the Christianization of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine rulers maintained the Roman law which gave equal status in matters of inheritance to sons and daughters, while Christian bishops explicitly censured fathers for favoring sons over daughters in their wills. 39 Furthermore, in the Sasanian Empire, Zoroastrian women who had brothers were much more likely to inherit than their Jewish counterparts, adding to the tensions created by the rabbis' ruling.40 Finally, the SyroRoman Law Book, an account of traditional Christian law in the Sasanian Empire from early Islamic times and our best indicator for Christian practice in the Sasanian Empire in the time of the Talmud, makes it clear that Christian sons and daughters inherited equally on intestacy, and had a substantial right to a minimum inheritance in any case. 41 In this respect, 36 In the words of Maier: "Hier liegt also ein in amoraischer Zeit intensiv diskutiertes rechtliches Problem vor, und die Erzahlung in bSabb 116-b schlieBt die damals aktuelle Diskussion ein." (Judische Auseinandersetzungen, 84) See also Maier's references to further literature. 37 Ibid., 85. 38 Judith Hauptman, "Women and Inheritance in Rabbinic Texts: Identifying Elements of a Critical Feminist Impulse," in Introducing Tosefta (ed. Harry Fox and Tirzah Meacham; Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1999),221-240. 39 Anttie Arjava, Women and Law in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 62. Johann Maier has pointed out that the philosopher decided according to Roman law. Even though he insists that the text is a "spate amoraische Komposition," Maier does not take into account the Christianization of the Roman Empire (Maier, op. cit., 81). 40 See B. Hjerrild, "Ay6ken: Women between Father and Husband in the Sassanian Era," in Medioiranica: Proceedings of the International Colloqium on Middle Iranian Studies, Orientalia Lovaniensia 48 (ed. Wojciech Skalmowski and Alois van Tongerloo; Leuven: Peters, 1993), 79-86; cf. A. Perikhanian, "Iranian Society and Law," in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, The Median and Achaemenian Periods (ed. Ilya Gershevitch; Cambridge: CUP, 1985), 111,2,646. 41 See the Syro-Roman Law Book, L 1; and Arjava, Women and Law in Late Antiquity,65.

Margin of Error

355

Christianity must have been very attractive to Jewish women. The Talmudic story acknowledges this fact and evokes the fear of women's legal "emancipation" no matter whether Imma Shalom actually sues l)er brother (version B), or only pretends to do so (A). The story addresses the issue in a typical Talmudic manner: by setting the issue on stage and acting it out. The judge is a Christian who claims to be righteous. When Imma Shalom asks him to divide the heritage, she challenges Rabbinic law (B), or pretends to do so (A). In version B, as in Zoroastrian42 and Christian heresiology43 and in other parts of the Babylonian Talmud, the woman represents the dangerous insider who challenges not only one ruling, but orthodoxy as such. 44 In version A, the Lady complaineth a bit too little. Imma Shalom's orthodox conformity to Rabbinic law and her implicit willingness to give up her heritage, should their father really die (or have died), denies the very choice that was economically most advantageous to the sisters and wives of the rabbis: to go to a non-Jewish court. By silencing any female voice, the text even sharpens the contrast between Rabbinic law on the one side, and the concerns of women on the other side. 42 The aSSOcIatIOn of deviant insiders and women is suggested in a Rivaya (Responsum) based on the Pahlavi Videvdat, which discusses the women who mingle with outsiders in conjunction with the ahrmok, a blasphemous heretic. Potentially, both bring about the destruction of the world. See Kaikhusroo M. Jamaspasa, "On the Heretic and Immoral Woman in Zoroastrianism," in Orientalia: J. Duchesne-Guillemin emerito oblata (Leiden: E J Brill, 1984), 243-266. See also Ketayun H. Gould, "Outside the Discipline, Inside the Experience: Women in Zoroastrianism," in Religion and Women (ed. A. Sharma; Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), 139-182; and Jamsheed K. Choksy, "Woman in the Zoroastrian Book of Primal Creation: Images and Functions within a Religious Tradition," Mankind Quarterly 29 (1988): 73-82. 43 Todd Breyfogle, "Magic, Women, and Heresy in the Late Empire: the Case of the Priscillianists," in Marvin Meyer and Paul Mirecki, eds., Ancient Magic and Ritual Power (Leiden: Brill 1995), 435-454; and Virginia Burrus, "The Heretical Woman as Symbol in Alexander, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Jerome," HTR 84 (1991): 229-248. 44 See Shulamit Valler, Woman and Womanhood in the Talmud (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999); Meir Bar-Ilan, "Witches in the Bible and in the Talmud," in Approaches to Ancient Judaism 5 (ed. Jacob Neusner; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 7-32; Simcha Fishbane, "Most Women Engage in Sorcery: an Analysis of Female Sorceresses in the Babylonian Talmud," in Approaches to Ancient Judaism (ed. J. Neusner; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 143-165; and Judith Hauptman, "Images of Women in the Talmud," in Religion and Sexism (ed. Rosemary Radford Ruether; New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974), 184-212; Tal Ilan, " 'Stolen Water is Sweet': Women and Their Stories between Bavli and Yerushalmi," in The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture HI (ed. Peter Schafer; Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002), 185-223, and Anne Goldfeld, "Women as Sources of Torah in the Rabbinic Tradition," Judaism 24 (1975): 245-256.

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In both versions, Imma Shalom enacts her request in a way that has even more Christian features than her legal position. A passage from the Diatessaron (28.33) and Peshitta's Gospel of Luke (l2.l3f) illustrates this point. I cite from latter one: Somebody in the crowd said to him [Jesus]: "Teacher, tell my brother to divide (~) the inheritance (o