Abstract
In some circles one may still hear the unfortunate phrase, “the four hundred years of silence” describing the period roughly between Nehemiah and the birth of Jesus. Although many people recognize the problematic nature of the phrase, the fact remains that I can much more easily find a good introduction to the background of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible or New Testament than an introduction to the broad Second Temple period. Shaye Cohen’s From the Maccabees to the Mishnah helps to correct this disparity. The book specifically covers the period from the mid-second century BCE to the early third century CE. In this third edition, Cohen has updated the bibliography and added a chapter on the “parting of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity. As an introductory work, the book documents the evidence from the primary sources in the footnotes and provides a section titled “Suggestions for Further Reading” that lists the secondary sources organized by chapter.
Chapter 1 provides the historical overview that serves as the framework for the rest of the thematically developed chapters. The second chapter speaks of the political, cultural, and social aspects of Second Temple Judaism. Politically, Jews tended to follow Jeremiah’s advice of living at peace under foreign rule. They departed from this “Jeremianic political tradition” on only a handful of occasions, such as the Maccabean rebellion. Culturally, most Jews accommodated to Hellenism just as Hellenism absorbed elements of various peoples. On the social level, gentile responses to Judaism ran the gamut from anti-Judaism to philo-Judaism.
Chapter 3 examines the practices and beliefs of Second Temple Judaism. The practice of prayer became more and more important throughout the Second Temple period, eventually even becoming part of the temple liturgy. At the same time, Cohen argues, “the fixity and regularity that characterized the sacrificial system gradually came to characterize prayer” (p. 56). The daily sacrifice of the Tamid, for instance, influenced the development of praying at set times. Regular Torah study and worship in synagogues also arose within this period. These innovations were elements of a larger phenomenon: the democratization of Judaism. Cohen avers that Judaism became “more concerned with the piety and fate of the individual Jew than the religion of pre-exilic Israel had been with the individual Israelite” (pp. 68–69). Turning to the beliefs of Judaism—which are not as important as its practices—Cohen treats three prominent themes: the kingship of God, reward and punishment, and redemption.
Chapter 4 examines the institutions of Judaism that shaped the religion alongside its practices and beliefs. These include the temple, the Sanhedrin, synagogues, and politeumata (autonomous Jewish communities in the cities of the eastern Mediterranean). Chapter 5 turns to another important category of institution in this period: the sect. Sectarian division often occurred over legal questions, the temple establishment, and scriptural interpretation. The Essenes and Christians are the only groups that clearly fit Cohen’s definition of sect, yet Cohen also examines Pharisees, Sadducees, Samaritans, Therapeutae, Sicarii, and Zealots. The chapter could have been clearer if it provided some definition of “sectarianism” alongside that of “sect” in order to highlight the common denominator among all these groups. Cohen concludes, “Sectarianism is the culmination of the democratization of Judaism” (p. 170). After all, the need to engage in prayer, scriptural study, and other practices supplanted or diminished the role of the temple and the priesthood. In this less unified religious landscape, sects were able to offer their own interpretations of Judaism.
In chapter 6 Cohen explores the process of canonization and argues that—rather than stifling creativity—canonization paradoxically gave Jews greater imaginative freedom. He writes, “When the original was still susceptible to change … the custodians of the sacred originals would be wary of capricious modifications” (p. 191). Once the canon was established, writers could give free reign to their imaginations in works separate from the canonical works, such as apocalypses, paraphrases, and commentaries.
Chapter 7 examines the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism, which built on the developments of Second Temple Judaism. After all, daily prayer, Torah study, and synagogue services all made the temple and the priesthood less important and thus prepared the way for a Judaism without a temple or priesthood. Although the rabbis probably arose from the Pharisees, they did not emphasize this connection, because they did not want to exclude anyone. Indeed, within the rabbinic period, Jewish sectarianism of the type that characterized the Second Temple period effectively ended. The temple no longer existed as a point of sectarian contention, although legal disputes still continued in earnest.
The new chapter, which concerns the “parting of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity, concludes the work. Cohen does not accept the theory that such a parting took place because Jewish leaders incorporated the Birkat Haminim (benediction concerning the heretics) into the liturgy at the end of the first century CE. Indeed, Cohen observes that there is no evidence for Christians being the primary targets of the benediction. Instead, in contrast to some recent scholarship, Cohen argues that the evidence supports an early division between Jewish and Christian communities. The rabbis would already have been separated from gentile Christians because they were gentiles. As for Jewish Christians, the rabbinic evidence speaks of them so infrequently that an early separation is probable.
From the Maccabees to the Mishnah represents the continued reflections of a seasoned scholar who has worked long in this period. Yet, the book does not assume extensive knowledge on the part of readers; Cohen even provides a short glossary of terms and a timeline. Although the book’s thematic arrangement could lend itself to presenting the Judaism of the period under discussion as a static entity, Cohen does an excellent job of providing chronological texture throughout the different thematic sections. Moreover, his discussion of broad patterns, such as the democratization of Judaism, binds the various chapters together. Cohen helps the reader to see that Second Temple Judaism, with its fascinating developments and rich body of literature, was anything but “silent.”