Beginnings of Jewishness

Shaye J. D. Cohen is Ungerleider Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. His earlier books include Josephus in Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as a Historian (1979) and From the Maccabees to the Mishnah: A Profile of Judaism (1987).

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTSA NOTE ON God AND PARENTHESESPROLOGUE: JEWS AND OTHERSPART I: WHO WAS A JEW?IWas Herod Jewish?2"Those Who Say They Are Jews and Are Not":How Do You Know a Jew in Antiquity WhenYou See One?3Ioudaios, Iudaeus, Judaean, JewPART II: THE BOUNDARY CROSSED:BECOMING A JEW4From Ethnos to Ethno-religion5Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew6Ioudaizein, "to Judaize"7The Rabbinic Conversion CeremonyPART III: THE BOUNDARY VIOLATED:THE UNION OF DIVERSE KINDS8The Prohibition of Intermarriage9The Matrilineal PrincipleIOIsraelite Mothers, Israelite Fathers: MatrilinealDescent and the Inequality of the ConvertEPILOGUE: JEWS, JUDAISM, ANDJEWISHNESS: US AND THEMAPPENDIX A: WAS MARTIAL'S SLAVEJEWISH?APPENDIX B: WAS MENOPHILUSJEWISH?APPENDIX C: WAS TROPHIMUSJEWISH?APPENDIX D: WAS TIMOTHY JEWISH?GLOSSARY OF SOME HEBREW TERMSBIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONSGENERAL INDEXINDEX OF PREMODERN SOURCESINDEX OF MODERN SCHOLARS

"I cannot begin to do justice to the nuances and wealth of information that these articles offer. Cohen possesses an enviable gift of being provocative and challenging... He opens the door to the rewarding realm of the internal life of one community. And as unrepresentative as this community may, at first, appear, no scholar interested in issues of identity, self-definition, core and periphery, community and law, family, class and gender in antiquity can afford to give Cohen a miss." - Hagith Sivan, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "One of the greatest strengths of Cohen's erudite book is that he is willing to acknowledge that many parts of his argument are open to challenge. While some might be overwhelmed by the sheer volume, this reviewer thinks he has done a great service in collecting an immense amount of relevant data, allowing readers to weigh the evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions... Cohen's book is the most comprehensive study to date on the question of Jewish identity in antiquity." - J. S. Kaminsky, Choice "Cohen himself exemplifies the scrupulous precision which he shows to be necessary to his subject... An outstanding work of scholarship." - M. J. Edwards, Classical Review"