Essays on Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity in Honour of Oded Irshai

Leading scholars in the study of Late Antiquity discuss the religious landscape of the eastern Roman Empire, with expert discussion of the theological, political, and social issues which confronted Jews and Christians in late Roman Palestine and surrounding regions. Individual chapters analyse in depth the rabbinic, patristic, and archaeological evidence to produce a sophisticated account of religious lives in provincial societies in which rabbinic Judaism took root within a Roman world increasingly dominated from the early fourth century CE by competing Christian power structures, particularly within Palestine. Detailed studies investigate, among other topics, rabbinic speculation about the origins and nature of the Roman state; the implications of the sharing of urban space by different religious traditions and the sharing of religious iconography; competition both within Judaism and Christianity and between Jews and Christians in light of the political pressures exerted by the Christian Roman state; and both similarities and differences in speculation by Jews and Christians about the nature of the expected end of days.