Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Commerce of the Sacred: Mediation of the Divine among Jews in the Graeco-Roman Diaspora

The Commerce of the Sacred: Mediation of the Divine among Jews in the Graeco-Roman Diaspora

Lightstone, Jack N.

Paperback

Series: Brown Judaic Studies, Book 59

JudaismAnthropologyGeneral Christianity

ISBN10: 0891306641
ISBN13: 9780891306641
Publisher: Soc Of Biblical Literature
Published: Jan 1 1984
Pages: 236
Weight: 0.77
Height: 0.54 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Jack Lightstone's Commerce of the Sacred remains an original and influential contribution to Judaic studies. Lightstone offers critical perspectives on the practices and beliefs of Greco-Roman Jews who lived outside of Palestine and beyond rabbinic control or influence. He investigates their influence on early Christians and examines how the two communities defined themselves in relation to each another. He challenges the view of Judaism as a single set of practices and beliefs and argues that Jews of the Greco-Roman Diaspora did not retain a shared, biblical perception of the world centered on the Jerusalem temple. Rather, they believed multiple points of contact between God and man could be made through particular rites: prayer in the presence of the sacred scrolls, pleas for help at the tombs of dead saints and martyrs, and the interventions of holy men with alleged supernatural powers, to name a few. Many early Christians also participated in this Judaic commerce of the sacred, blurring the social and religious boundaries that distinguished Jews and Christians.

Lightstone innovatively combines approaches from the history of religions and social anthropology to provide a different picture of Judaism during this period. Featuring a new foreword and an updated bibliography, Commerce of the Sacred resituates the Jews in the Greco-Roman world.

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