The history of the Jews in Roman Palestine, indeed the history of Palestine in general, in the late second and third centuries CE is only poorly known. The Mishnah is one of the few texts of Palestinian origin from this period, and nearly the only Jewish one whose provenance and date are generally acknowledged as placing it squarely within this region and in this period. In addition, in contrast to literature written in Greek and Latin, and therefore capable of circulating widely within the Roman empire (and presumably written with this intention), the Mishnah was composed in Hebrew and therefore...

In the preceding chapter, I have attempted to draw attention to the problem of reconstructing “history” from Rabbinic texts, and in particular from the Mishnah. The Mishnah is neither an authoritative archive of laws, practices and events, nor even a mine of “facts” to be uncovered and, if necessary, cleansed, purified or cut to shape. Instead, I suggested that we should pay close attention to the Mishnah, and m. Babaʾ Meṣiʿaʾ in particular, as itself an artifact that must be placed into a historical context. This means unpacking the underlying assumptions and referents of the Mishnah, to the extent that...

The previous chapter reviewed the evidence for the use of sources and for redactional strategies in the composition of m. Babaʾ Meṣiʿaʾ. This evidence, I have argued, suggests that the materials that make up our tractate were subjected to an editorial process of collection, adaptation, revision, and glossing. This, in turn, may reflect an effort at centralization and institutionalization of the Rabbinic movement. In the present chapter, I wish to turn to the contents of the texts themselves, and to consider the kinds of economic assumptions and interests that m. Babaʾ Meṣiʿaʾ expresses in its discussion of rules relating to...

A reader who expected a detailed description of the social history of Roman Galilee will have been disappointed by this volume. This study of m. Babaʾ Meṣiʿaʾ has been unable to provide a map of the distribution of wealth, power, and authority in Roman Palestine. Ultimately the product of a religious elite, and reflecting the concerns of propertied householders, the tractate reveals the world of subalterns in only the most limited way. The reasons for these negative conclusions have been discussed in Chapter I. The Mishnah, and Rabbinic law more generally, do not simply describe the way in which Palestinian...