Contextualizing Babylonian Judaism through the Syriac Persian Martyr Acts

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in locating Babylonian Judaism, and especially the Babylonian Talmud, within its broader socio-historical, religious, and cultural contexts. This is reflected, for instance, in the burgeoning field of Irano-Talmudica, which seeks to situate elements of the Babylonian Talmud in its Persian and Zoroastrian environment. Another less explored, yet equally fruitful area of comparison is available with Syriac Christianity. Syriac is the best documented dialect of Aramaic and boasts a literature consisting of tens of millions of words, from various genres, including narrative, law, biblical interpretation, and liturgy. Part of this literature developed within the Sasanian Empire (221-651) and thus is especially close in time and location to the Babylonian Talmud as well as Babylonian Judaism more generally. This panel focuses on one specific genre of Syriac literature: the Persian Martyr Acts. It aims to show how these Syriac martyrological texts, all of which are set – and many of which seem to have been written – within the Sasanian Empire, provide important comparative material for contextualizing Babylonian Judaism and the Babylonian Talmud. The first paper in the panel by Becker introduces the genre of the Syriac Persian Martyr Acts and describes the various resources that are currently available for the study of these texts. It also provides a thorough methodological analysis of how the Syriac Persian Martyr Acts can be used in the study of Babylonian Judaism. The second paper by Rubenstein focuses specifically on how the Syriac Persian Martyr Acts can shed light on the Babylonian Talmud. In addition to discussing a broader approach to contextualizing the Babylonian Talmud, the paper looks at several specific examples involving the Syriac Persian Martyr Acts. The paper by Butts and Gross approaches the topic of the panel from a different perspective by looking at how Jews are depicted in one particular Persian Martyr Act, the HISTORY OF ABDA DAMSHIKHA, a text that is unique among the Persian Martyr Acts in narrating the story of a young Jewish convert to Christianity who is martyred by his father, not the Persian authorities. Butts and Gross suggest that what appears to be a Christian text meant for internal consumption may in fact offer important data for understanding Jewish-Christian relations in the Sasanian Empire at this time.

Sub Unit

• Rabbinic Literature and Culture

Chair

• Christine Hayes, Yale University

Individual Presentations

• The Persian Martyr Acts: A Survey of the Sources for the Study of Babylonian Judaism - Adam Becker, New York University

• The Babylonian Talmud and the Persian Martyr Acts - Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, New York University

• Jewish-Christian Relations in Northern Mesopotamia toward the End of the Sasanian Period: A View from the Syriac HISTORY OF ABDA DAMSHIKHA - Aaron Michael Butts, The Catholic University of America; Simcha Gross, Yale University