In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

35 A Cosmopolitan“Student of the Sages” Jacob of Kefar Nevoraia in Rabbinic Literature Steven Fine My first academic lecture was given at a regional conference of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew in Long Beach, California. My topic was “On the Use of Rabbinic Literature in Interpreting the Synoptic Gospels: The Amidah in Luke 18?” I remember fondly my excitement at my first paper, and my even greater enthusiasm at entering into what was for me foreign and somewhat subversive territory, New Testament studies. The chair of this session was our own Zev Garber, by then an old friend of mine. I will never forget Zev’s gentleness and professionalism as I proceeded to overread the relationship between rabbinic sources and the Gospels in a way that might allow both to live comfortably within my own curious soul. For over two decades I have been honored to call Zev my friend and, on more than one occasion, my mentor. On the occasion of this Festschrift, I return to my early interest in Jewish-Christian relations. Truth said, my gaze is no less subversive here than it was in 1987, though here my eyes are set on the models of scholarly discourse on Jewish-Christian relations in antiquity, and their implications for contemporary scholarship and community. I hope that Zev is pleased. It has become axiomatic that the writing of biography on the basis of rabbinic literature is deeply fraught, since the lives of the rabbis, like the lives of biblical characters, were the objects of literary construction that included deindividuation and often a deeply hagiographic impulse.1 It is absolutely the case that we cannot know exactly what a particular rabbi actually said and did at any particular time. That said, by broadly contextualizing rabbinic traditions, we can get a sense of the “stage” upon which the rabbis functioned, and of the concepts that existed at the time that the story was formed. Through this kind of holistic reading, we can come as close as possible to the characters that the authors of our literature were quite certain had existed and once walked the earth. Archaeology and geography are important in this type of reconstruction, for they provide nonliterary evidence of Jewish life in antiquity . In the pages that follow, I will attempt to broadly contextualize the traditions of one member of the rabbinic community of late antique Palestine, Jacob of Kefar Nevoraia. I will draw upon rabbinic sources, Roman law, Karaite, Samaritan, and Patristic sources, archaeology, and geography in my attempt to read the traditions of Jacob of Kefar Nevoraia holistically. I will also refer to current scholarship on ethnic identity. For almost a century, scholars have identified Jacob as a “Jewish-Christian.” Rather than being evidence for Jewish-Christianity in antiquity, however, I will argue based upon my holistic reading that Jacob served the rabbis as a point from which to reflect upon the ambiguities of 36 STEVEN FINE Jewish life in the cosmopolitan world of the Roman empire, particularly within “diaspora” communities on the borders of Eretz Israel. The Jerusalem Talmud and classical Amoraic and post-Amoraic midrashim all preserve traditions of Jacob of Kefar Nevoraia.2 The most complete classical Amoraic presentation of Jacob’s exploits appears in Genesis Rabba, chapter 7: 1. “Let the waters bring forth [swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens]” (Gen. 1:20, RSV). 2. Jacob of Kefar Nevoraia ruled in Tyre: 3. Fish require ritual slaughter. 4. Rabbi Haggai heard of this and said to him: Come and be whipped. 5. He [Jacob] said to him: A man who said a word of Scripture should be whipped? 6. He [R. Haggai] said to him: How is it Scriptural? 7. He [Jacob] said to him: For it is written: “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures , and let birds fly” etc. 8. Just as the bird must be ritually slaughtered, so must the fish be ritually slaughtered. 9. He [R. Haggai] said: You have not ruled well. 10. He [Jacob] asked: Whence can you prove this to me? 11. He [R. Haggai] responded: Lie down [to be lashed] and I will prove it to you. 12. He [R. Haggai] said to him: It is written: “If flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, will they suffice them? [or if all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, will they suffice them?]” (Num. 11:22...

Share