CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS   vii

ABBREVIATIONS   ix

Introduction   1

PART I: THE JEWS OF PALESTINE TO 70 C.E.   17

ONE
Politics and Society   19

TWO
Religion and Society before 70 C.E.   49

PART II: JEWS IN PALESTINE FROM 135 TO 350   101

THREE
Rabbis and Patriarchs on the Margins   103

FOUR
Jews or Pagans? The Jews and the Greco-Roman Cities of Palestine   129

FIVE
The Rabbis and Urban Culture   162

PART III: SYNAGOGUE AND COMMUNITY FROM 350 TO 640   177

SIX
Christianization   179

SEVEN
A Landscape Transformed   203

EIGHT
Origins and Diffusion of the Synagogue   215

NINE
Judaization   240

TEN
The Synagogue and the Ideology of Community   275

Conclusion   291

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY   293

INDEX   317