The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World

What did ancient Jews, Christians, Greeks, and Romans think about how and why Jews ate the way they did? Jordan D. Rosenblum examines this question.

Jordan D. Rosenblum (Author)

9781107090347, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 December 2016

204 pages
23.6 x 18 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

'I would not hesitate to recommend [this book] for introductory courses in Jewish studies. It would probably also prove valuable in the education of lay Jewish audiences, whose hunger for knowledge about Jewish food culture often seems insatiable.' Joshua Garroway, H-Net Reviews

In The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World Jordan D. Rosenblum explores how cultures critique and defend their religious food practices. In particular he focuses on how ancient Jews defended the kosher laws, or kashrut, and how ancient Greeks, Romans, and early Christians critiqued these practices. As the kosher laws are first encountered in the Hebrew Bible, this study is rooted in ancient biblical interpretation. It explores how commentators in antiquity understood, applied, altered, innovated upon, and contemporized biblical dietary regulations. He shows that these differing interpretations do not exist within a vacuum; rather, they are informed by a variety of motives, including theological, moral, political, social, and financial considerations. In analyzing these ancient conversations about culture and cuisine, he dissects three rhetorical strategies deployed when justifying various interpretations of ancient Jewish dietary regulations: reason, revelation, and allegory. Finally, Rosenblum reflects upon wider, contemporary debates about food ethics.

Introduction. Reasonable creature
1. Hebrew Bible
2. Greek and Roman sources
3. The Hellenistic period: Jewish sources
4. The Hellenistic period: the New Testament
5. The Tannaitic period: Jewish sources
6. The Rabbinic/Patristic period: Amoraic sources
7. The Rabbinic/Patristic period: Christian sources
Conclusion. Food ethic
Bibliography
Index of pre-modern sources
Selected index of modern scholars
Selected general index.

Subject Areas: Judaism: sacred texts [HRJS], Judaism: life & practice [HRJP], Judaism [HRJ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]