Der deutsche protestantische Historiker und Theologe Emil Schürer war der erste, der sich in seiner „Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi“ mit dem Judentum zur Zeit des Zweiten Tempels wissenschaftlich auseinandersetzte. Die Tatsache, daß Schürers Werk nahezu 100 Jahre später neu aufgelegt und ins Englische übersetzt wurde, gab Anlaß zu der Frage, wie die Forschung zur jüdischen Geschichte in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit sich im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert entwickelt hat.
Statesman, Reformer, and Redactor of the Mishnah
The patriarch Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi headed the independent Jewish leadership institutions in Roman Palestine at the turn of the second and third centuries CE. He was also incredibly rich, a consummate politician, and close to the Roman authorities. He made taqqanot (reforms) in the light of circumstances, and tried to cancel mitzvoth (religious regulations), such as the regulations about shemita (not using the land in the sabbatical year), which entailed hardship for the Jews of his time. He was ahead of his times in his humane and liberal decisions. Rabbi completed the redaction of the Mishnah and thus gave the Jewish people the work that is second in importance only to the Torah, although by so doing he put a brake on the development of the oral law. Aharon Oppenheimer attempts to present Rabbi Jehuda ha-Nassi's character and his life as well as examining the significance of his work for his own generation and succeeding ones.
Between Rome and Babylon includes over thirty papers by Aharon Oppenheimer about Jewish life in Palestine and Babylonia in the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud (1st-4th centuries), dealing with leadership and society, political and military activity, relations with the authorities and historical geography. The collection is organized around three inter-connected themes: 1 Roman Palestine and its Environs; 2 The Bar Kokhba Revolt; 3 Babylonia Judaica. About two-thirds of the papers were originally published in Hebrew. They have been selected and edited for this collection, and translated for the first time into English or German. The rest of the papers originally appeared in various different languages and contexts, and they too have been selected and edited to fit the three themes. Cross-references have been added, as well as detailed indices. The aim of the papers is to cast light on Jewish history by extracting methodically historical meaning from Talmudic sources, taking into account when they were written, where they were edited, and how far they can be presumed authentic; and by looking at them in combination with Greek, Roman, Persian and Arabic written sources as well as relevant archaeological finds.