Revisiting CPJ 1.23 (P.Tebt. 3.1.817): New Evidence Regarding Law, Property, and the Jews of Egypt
CPJ 1.23, a second-century BCE contract between two Jews for an interest-free loan secured with a house, briefly stirred interest for the possibility that it shows Jews observing their law in the Hellenistic diaspora. Most regard that as unlikely though, and the text has since languished in obscurit...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2024
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| In: |
Journal for the study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman period
Year: 2024, Volume: 55, Issue: 3, Pages: 335-356 |
| Further subjects: | B
law in Greco-Roman Egypt
B loan contracts B documentary papyri B house sale contracts B Leviticus 25 B Jewish Law |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | CPJ 1.23, a second-century BCE contract between two Jews for an interest-free loan secured with a house, briefly stirred interest for the possibility that it shows Jews observing their law in the Hellenistic diaspora. Most regard that as unlikely though, and the text has since languished in obscurity among scholars of Hellenistic Judaism. This article reexamines the text in its proper juridical context—in comparison with other loan contracts from Greco-Roman Egypt—to show that it uses the form for a hypothecated loan to arrange the sale of a house which gives the seller the opportunity to reclaim it within a year of sale according to Leviticus 25:29–30. The article also places this reading of CPJ 1.23 alongside other evidence for Jews using their ancestral norms in handling property matters in Hellenistic Egypt to outline a hypothesis regarding the purpose of this tendency in Ptolemaic-era Jewish legal reasoning. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0631 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman period
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700631-bja10089 |