The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (review)

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCII, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 2002) 594-597 Shaye J. D. Cohen. The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties. Hellenistic Culture and Society 31. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Pp. ?? + 426. The study of Jewish history in late antiquity owes a mounting debt to Shaye Cohen that is further increased by this book. The volume encompasses a number of previously published articles, several of them revised, expanded, or reshaped, plus two new essays and three new appendices. But this is no random collection. A number of the pieces have been very influential , though not always readily accessible (the common fate of contributions to Festschriften). Scholars will welcome the great advantage of having them housed together. And there is a greater advantage still. Cohen has recast the whole. His extensive rewritings, coupled with the new material , have produced a sustained and learned argument on a subject of vital importance. This work exposes the permeable boundaries between Jew and non-Jew that fostered the concept of conversion, and ultimately issued in a sharpened articulation of Jewish identity. In short, Cohen delineates the emergent conception of what made a Jew a Jew. Insights abound in this book. Cohen demonstrates unequivocally that Jews could not be distinguished in antiquity by appearance, clothing, nomenclature , speech, or occupation (pp. 27-39). He shows further that, though most diaspora Jews might prefer to dwell in their own communities , ghettoes were unknown, neighborhoods overlapped, and intermingling was common (pp. 56-62). Even circumcision would be no definitive marker: how often would the mark be visible (p. 47)? Cohen's compelling chapter on "crossing the boundary," the revision of an article with significant impact on the field, expounds with scrupulous care the remarkably diverse ways in which gentiles might associate themselves with Jews and Judaism (pp. 141-162). This excellent discussion sets the whole issue of conversion into its proper social context. Cohen's penchant for drawing precise distinctions serves him well also in discerning the various connotations that the verb "ioudaizein" could have in pagan, Jewish and Christian texts (pp. 179-192). The new chapter that presents this discussion reinforces the notion of fluid boundaries on which Cohen rightly insists. The latter part of the book deftly explores the rabbinic reaction to this fluidity and the reassertion of boundaries on a new basis. Among other things, Cohen explodes the presumption that the matrilineal principle arose in Second Temple Judaism. His thorough investigation convincingly traces its origin to the Mishnah (pp. 264-282), and his cautious proposal (building on others' suggestions) that Roman law may have prompted this Jewish turn toward the matrilineal idea is, at the very least, instructive and intriguing (pp. 293-298). COHEN, THE BEGINNINGS OF JEWISHNESS—GRUEN595 The heart of the work comes in chapters three and four. Here Cohen puts forth his most striking and stimulating thesis. According to his reconstruction , a fundamental shift occurred in the understanding of Jewish identity in the Hasmonaean era. What had once been a geographic and ethnic concept now took on a political, religious, and cultural character. Hitherto, Jews had defined themselves (and were conceived by others) by reference to the land of Judaea, either as dwellers in that land or as descendants of those who hailed from it, thus retaining an ethnic connection wherever they happened to reside. This relatively tight association underwent transformation in the later 2nd century bce. A political dimension supervened: it became possible to expand the community by incorporating other ethnic groups and individuals. The enlarged society defined itself through a common worship and through common cultural practices, regardless of geographic or ethnic origins. In other words, a "Judaean" metamorphosed into a "Jew." Cohen wisely avoids the notion that the two aspects are incompatible or mutually exclusive, loudaismos ("Jewishness") never lost its ethnic dimension altogether. Nevertheless, the shift amounts to a sea change. Most significantly , it provided an avenue for conversion, a means whereby gentiles could enter into the broader society of Jews through embrace of their god and adoption of their mores. Cohen has identified an issue of the highest importance for Jewish history and ideology, and has addressed it with vigor and incisiveness. What brought...