Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

List of Contributors

Introduction: Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History? Three Stages of Modern Scholarship, and a Renewed Effort

Part I Sons of Aaron and Disciples of Aaron: Priests and Rabbis Before and After 70

“Found Written in the Book of Moses”: Priests in the Era of Torah

The Other Side of Israelite Priesthood: A Sociological-Anthropological Perspective

“A Kingdom of Priests”: Did the Pharisees Try to Live Like Priests?

Sectarianism Before and After 70 CE

Were Priests Communal Leaders in Late Antique Palestine? The Archaeological Evidence

Part II "The Place" and Other Places

Place beyond Place: On Artifacts, Religious Technologies, and the Mediation of Sacred Place

Priests and Priesthood in Philo: Could He Have Done without Them?

Sanctity and the Attitude towards the Temple in Hellenistic Judaism

Doing without the Temple: Paradigms in Judaic Literature of the Diaspora

Part III Art and Magic

The Rising Power of the Image: On Jewish Magic Art from the Second Temple Period to Late Antiquity

Jewish Exorcism Before and After the Destruction of the Second Temple

The Emergence of a New Jewish Art in Late Antiquity

Part IV Sacred Texts: Exegesis and Liturgy

Legal Midrash between Hillel and Rabbi Akiva: Did 70 CE Make a Difference?

Liturgy Before and After the Temple’s Destruction: Change or Continuity?

Liturgy, Poetry, and the Persistence of Sacrifice

Part V Communal Definition—Pompey, Jesus, or Titus: Who Made a Difference?

Setting the Stage: The Effects of the Roman Conquest and the Loss of Sovereignty

Temple and Identity in Early Christianity and in the Johannine Community: Reflections on the “Parting of the Ways”

Religious Reactions to 70: The Limitations of the Evidence

Epilogue: 70 CE After 135 CE—The Making of a Watershed?

Index of Ancient Names and Toponyms

Index of Modern Authors