Subject: Re: IOU: Safrai article
From: Jacob L. Wright (wrightjacob@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Oct 08 2007 - 11:06:33 EDT
I apologize for my remark. It was merely an attempt to introduce a bit of
humor into this discussion of whether Safrai's article is in Hebrew and how
one goes about ordering articles. I was not aware that it had anything to do
with the question whether Kiddush Ha-Shem served as a term for martyrdom in
the 1st Century. (The subject was and still is "Safrai article".)
My personal opinion on this question (since Jeffrey has asked me whether I
have anything to say on this topic) is that the expression, found in
Rabbinic literature (it is quite rare in the Yerushalmi but increases in
frequency in later medieval sources), would indeed have described an act of
martyrdom already in the 1st cent. (It - and the related expression that
developed out of it, "Chillul Ha-Shem" - would not have been limited to a
description of this act.) The earliest witness to martyrdom in 2 Macc does
not draw on the concept, but uses language strikingly close to the Yisurin
shel Ahava of Pirkei Abot. The inscriptions from Beth She'arim from later
times use a related expression for martyrs in Rabbinic literature
("kedoshim") to describe the brothers. The earliest date for the BS evidence
would place us in the 2nd cent.
But I work on the Iron Age and early Persian period, and thus will leave the
issue to 1st cent. experts.
Jacob L. Wright
Emory University
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000@comcast.net>
To: "First Century Judaism Discussion Forum" <ioudaios-l@Lehigh.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: IOU: Safrai article
>
>
> "Jacob L. Wright" wrote:
>
>> Oy! This List has such great discussions!
>
> Oy! indeed, especially given that your remark is an example of the very
> thing
> you seem to be complaining about and does nothing to raise the level of
> List
> discourse.
>
> Have you anything to say on the topic at hand -- i.e., whether the idea
> of
> "hallowing the name" was synonymous with martyrdom in the Judaisms of the
> first
> century?
>
> JG
> --
> Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
> 1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
> Chicago, Illinois
> e-mail jgibson000@comcast.net
>
>
>
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