Abstract
Whereas earlier works on Jewish social relations in Greek and Roman antiquity have focused on assimilation or hellenization, Seth Schwartz shifts the focus of this book to integration as a better way of uncovering what was distinctive about Jewish culture. He argues that there was a tension between the social values of the Torah, to which most Jews of the period gave some sort of devotion, and the dominant Mediterranean exchange-based reciprocity that characterized Greek and Roman society and politics. Given this tension, Schwartz explores three textual corpora—Ben Sira, Josephus, and the Palestinian Talmud—addressing the question, “How did the Jews, as adherents of a strongly antireciprocal normative system, cope with life in a world in which institutionalized reciprocity was very hard indeed to escape?” (p. 19).
Schwartz lays the theoretical foundation for his textual and social analysis in the first two chapters of the book. He begins by positing two opposing, abstract theories of societal integration: societies are bound together either by overlapping networks of relationships of personal dependency based on reciprocity, or by corporate solidarity based on shared ideals or myths. For Schwartz, the tension between these two theories is expressed most clearly in the Torah, and in the Hebrew Bible generally, with its strong emphasis on social solidarity and rejection of reciprocity.
Because reciprocity does not occur in a cultural vacuum—it often occurs, for example, in conjunction with honor and shame in his textual corpora—Schwartz next turns his attention to “Mediterraneanism” as the context of reciprocity. Noting the anthropological debates over the value of Mediterraneanism, Schwartz nevertheless thinks that Mediterraneanism may have a heuristic utility, used as a Weberian “ideal type,” in analyzing premodern societies. If Mediterraneanism serves for Schwartz as a hypothetical construct of the common culture in the Greek and Roman world, its antithesis is represented by the Hebrew Bible, which “reads like an item-by-item rejection of the ethnographers' Mediterranean culture” (p. 20). For those Jews of the ancient world who retained some sort of devotion to the values of the Torah and also hoped to function socially and economically in the dominant Greek and Roman culture, a range of accommodation techniques were necessary. Schwartz's analysis of Ben Sira, Josephus, and the Palestinian Talmud seeks to uncover these techniques.
Although the tension between institutional reciprocity and corporate solidarity was systemic in ancient Judaism, Schwartz seeks to explore the varying social effects and political implications of this tension at different periods. Thus, in the remaining chapters of the book he focuses on textual corpora from three socially and politically distinct periods to explore the changing ways in which this tension was resolved. Ben Sira resolved this tension through adaptation, by judaizing reciprocity and honor. The wise (Torah observant) Jew masters gift-exchange and institutional reciprocity for his benefit, will dominate others, and will demonstrate honor through fear of God. With Josephus, Schwartz focuses on euergetism and memorialization. Although Josephus acknowledges that the Jews participated in exchange-based relationships, he claims that they rejected the Roman practice of benefaction, opting instead for charity (and the archaeological evidence from Jerusalem largely supports his claim). Instead of memorializing benefactors with monumental constructions and statues, the Jews expressed their gratitude through inscription in text, orally, and praise to God. By the time of the Palestinian Talmud, the Jews had largely internalized many Roman norms, including patronage and benefaction. The rabbis, however, judaized these norms as well. The culture of benefaction was exploited to convince non-rabbinic Jews to practice charity, and honor was to be bestowed on rabbis in exchange for their teaching of the Torah.
Schwartz has presented a masterful study on the integration of the Jews in Greek and Roman culture. Although it is aimed primarily at specialists, advanced students will also learn from his well-articulated methodology and his careful reading of select texts.
Although Schwartz demonstrates the utility of his hermeneutical model, the structural character of the model itself, characterized by binary opposites, is not without problems. Reciprocity and solidarity, for example, often represent different, non-opposing kinds of structures. Reciprocity, in its institutional form, structures social and economic relationships primarily, and often the exchange is material. Solidarity, on the other hand, is primarily ideological and may mask material exchange without suppressing it. Indeed, Schwartz recognizes that reciprocity and solidarity are not mutually exclusive, but his exploration of their interaction is limited by the structural nature of his model.
Similarly, the Torah, and the Hebrew Bible generally, are not as “anti-Mediterranean” as Schwartz repeatedly claims. He reads the Bible as an “ideal type” to serve as the structural antithesis to Mediterraneanism, but, as with all ideal types, the reality is much more complex. Despite these objections, Schwartz has nevertheless provided an important contribution to, and essential reading for, understanding Jewish integration in the Greco-Roman period.