Erich Gruen: Jewish Identity in the World of Pagan Antiquity

Jews in the ancient world were everywhere a subordinate people, a footnote or afterthought in the grand sweep of history featured by the empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome. How did Jews conceive of their own place in this larger world? And how were they perceived by the greater powers? Did Jews see themselves as a distinctive people apart or as somehow participants in a broader society and culture? This class consists of four lectures that explore that wider topic from a variety of angles: kinship relations and Jewish identity, Greek and Roman perceptions of Jews, Jewish confrontation with Greek mythology, and the Jewish place in the religious pluralism of the Roman empire.