What if We Got Rid of the Goy: Rereading Ancient Jewish Distinctions

The goy has been present in Jewish discourses since antiquity. Despite this, its birth and history have received almost no scholarly attention. In this paper we shift the focus from the various historical attitudes towards the goy, to the very constitution of the concept and the dichotomy it constru...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the study of Judaism
Main Author: Rozen-Tsevi, Yishai 1971- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2016
In: Journal for the study of Judaism
Further subjects:B Gentiles Bible Second Temple Jewish-Hellenism rabbinic literature Paul
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:The goy has been present in Jewish discourses since antiquity. Despite this, its birth and history have received almost no scholarly attention. In this paper we shift the focus from the various historical attitudes towards the goy, to the very constitution of the concept and the dichotomy it constructs. We claim that scholars have been anachronistically reading Jewish (or Judaean) texts from the centuries before the common era as if they contained the Jew/goy distinction. Through a series of readings in texts like Jubilees, Pseudo-Aristeas, Joseph and Aseneth, 1-4 Maccabees, the Damascus Document, we seek to demonstrate the plurality of options for separation that existed before the Jew/goy discourse took over.
ISSN:1570-0631
Contains:In: Journal for the study of Judaism
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700631-12340458