The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period

✍ Scribed by Jonathan R. Trotter

• Publisher: Brill
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 247
• Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 192
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora, Jonathan Trotter shows how different diaspora Jews’ perspectives on the distant city of Jerusalem and the temple took shape while living in the diaspora, an experience which often is characterized by complicated senses of alienation from and belonging to an ancestral homeland and one’s current home. This book investigates not only the perspectives of the individual diaspora Jews whose writings mention the Jerusalem temple (Letter of Aristeas, Philo of Alexandria, 2 Maccabees, and 3 Maccabees) but also the customs of diaspora Jewish communities linking them to the temple, such as their financial contributions and pilgrimages there.

✦ Table of Contents

The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Diaspora Jews and the Jerusalem Temple in Research
2 Plan and Purpose of this Study
1 Contributions to the Second Temple by Diaspora Jews
1 Diffusion, Nature, and Significance of Contributions to the Jerusalem Temple from Diaspora Jews in the Second Temple Period
1.1 Samaritans’ Contributions to Mount Gerizim in the Second Century BCE
1.2 Gifts to the Jerusalem Temple in the Letter of Aristeas
1.3 Conflicts over the Sacred Money of Diaspora Jews
1.3.1 Josephus, Ant. 14.110–113
1.3.2 Cicero, Pro Flacco, 28.66–68
1.3.3 Official Roman Documents in the Writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria
1.3.4 Authenticity of Official Roman Documents
1.4 Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and Early Rabbinic Literature on the Contributions of Diaspora Jews to the Jerusalem Temple
1.5 Fiscus Judaicus
1.6 Summary: Diffusion, Nature, and Significance of Diaspora Contributions to the Jerusalem Temple in Second Temple Sources
2 Dissent about Half-Shekel Contributions in Judea during the Second Temple Period
3 The Origins of the Half-Shekel Contributions to the Jerusalem Temple
4 Conclusion: Contributions and the Relationship of Diaspora Jews to Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Temple
2 Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Second Temple by Diaspora Jews
1 Philo of Alexandria
2 Josephus
3 Acts of the Apostles
4 Early Rabbinic Literature
5 Popularization of the Pilgrimage of Diaspora Jews to the Jerusalem Temple
6 Conclusion
3 2 Maccabees and the Jerusalem Temple
1 Provenance
2 The Jerusalem Temple in 2 Maccabees 3–15
3 Summary
4 The Letter of Aristeas and the Jerusalem Temple
1 Idealizing the Temple
2 “Seeing” the Temple
3 Legitimizing the Diaspora
4 Summary
5 3 Maccabees and the Jerusalem Temple
1 The Divine Protection of the Jerusalem Temple (3 Macc 1:8–2:24)
2 The Divine Protection of the Egyptian Jews (3 Macc 2:25–7:23)
3 Summary
6 Philo of Alexandria and the Jerusalem Temple
1 Philo of Alexandria and De Legatione ad Gaium
2 Jerusalem as the “Mother-City” of the Jewish People
3 The Jerusalem Temple and the Cosmos
4 Summary
Conclusion
Bibliography
Subject Index