The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature (review)

Hebrew Studies 50 (2009) 420 Reviews 8; knowledge of the destruction of Jerusalem in 1 Enoch 56:7; Herod’s visit to the hot springs at Callirrhoe toward the end of his life (1 Enoch 67:4–13); identification of the kings and mighty; evaluating the social context; relation to other Jewish writings; and influence on the New Testament. He accepts influence on some of Matthew’s distinctive sayings and sees a pre-70 C.E. date likely, before the suppression of the Son of Man image in later apocalypses (p. 440). In an afterward he notes, however, the possibility that the Parables may reflect ongoing Hekhalot tradition which could be post-70 C.E. (p. 443). Michael Stone’s response (pp. 444–449) agrees with dating the book either at the turn of the era or late first century C.E., preferring the former, and with a cautious acceptance of possible references to the Parthians and to Herod’s hot springs visit. James Charlesworth then brings a further element into the equation, namely the curse on the landowners, reflecting , he suggests, the demotion of Jews from being landowners to being tenants especially during Herod’s reign (pp. 450–468). There follow three papers reinforcing the proposed historical references, Darrell Hannah on Callirrhoe (pp. 469–477), Luca Arcari on the Parthians (pp. 478–486), and Hanan Eshel on Matthias Antigonus in relation to the latter (pp. 487–491). These are important, at least, for the date post quem, but probably more than that. Finally Daniel Olson points to a possible allusion to the Parables in Irenaeus (pp. 492–496), important ad quem. To conclude, Paolo Sacchi offers a brief review of the seminar’s findings. The volume includes a bibliography of works on the Parables 1773–2006. The collection presents an invaluable concentration of current research, with some significant conclusions, not least on dating, an issue which has dogged discussion. Certainty is not achieved, but a date pre-70 C.E. and most likely around the turn of the era now sits nearer the positive end of the probability scale. This is a rich quarry enhanced by engagement with the text in its own right and not as secondary background to other concerns. William Loader Murdoch University Perth, Australia w.loader@murdoch.edu.au THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE TALMUD AND RABBINIC LITERATURE. Edited by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee. Pp. xxi + 412. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Cloth, $75.00. Paper, $24.99. It might seem a strange way to introduce a collection of essays intended to be “the companion to the Talmud and rabbinic literature” by telling the Hebrew Studies 50 (2009) 421 Reviews readers why the term “rabbinic literature” (both the adjective indicating that the writings are authored, in the modern sense of the word, by rabbis who constitute a distinct “rabbinic” class, and the substantive itself that gives the impression that rabbinic literature resembles any modern literary creation) is faulty. However, the editors of the volume have done just that and thus set the critical tone of the whole volume remarkably well. The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature edited by Fonrobert and Jaffee is not a “typical” introduction to rabbinic literature. As a “traditional” introduction, we have had Strack-Stemberger for a long time, and we now have the two volumes of the Literature of the Sages edited by Safrai. The editors of the volume under review here have taken a fresh and critical approach to the complex problems of rabbinic literature. It is only on the few pages of the introductory essay that collections of rabbinic literature are given a general description (this is the “traditional ” way of an introduction to rabbinic literature). Instead, the essays in the volume, written by leading experts in the field of rabbinic culture, try to enlighten rabbinic literature not from itself, but rather from its antique cultural context. It is true even for the first part of the volume (“The Conditions of Rabbinic Literary Activity”) that contains essays on the problematic questions of authorship, of orality and tradition, of the institutional setting, and finally of the impact on the general Jewish population in antiquity...