Podcast episode
June 22, 2022
Episode 143: Politics and Religion in Late Antiquity, Part I: Geopolitics, Empire, and Rabbinic Judaism
[Thanks to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek for the above image]
[Note, 2025: I almost never do this, but Moshe Shoshan of Bar-Ilan University got in touch, schooling me on many aspects of early rabbinic Judaism which I had got slightly askew, mis-emphasised, or just downright wrong in this episode. So helpful and cutting was his criticism that, after a long application of his suggested reading-lists and much re-writing, I have gone back and re-recorded this episode in updated form (22 Nov., 2025). Many thanks to Professor Shoshan for giving his time and expertise to help improve the SHWEP! Any remaining errors are mine, needless to say, not his.]
After a long time and a lot of episodes spent in the rarified company of late-antique intellectuals like Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus, we thought it might be helpful to come up for air for a minute and take stock of where the Roman world is politically at the end of the third century, on the cusp of the extraordinary transformation of the empire into a Christian state. New religious movements abound, competing for adherents. At the same time, the old, traditional polytheist ways continue, sometimes being rethought by philosophers and intellectuals in order to make them better suited to meet the needs of the late-antique mind. Things are very complex, and increasingly polarised. Sounds like the twenty-first century, come to think of it.
In an attempt to impose some order on all this complexity, in this episode we focus on the basic Roman/Sassanian geopolitical setup prevalent through late antiquity up to the mid-seventh century; we discuss the political position of Jews, mostly in the Roman empire, in the aftermath of the Jewish Wars (66-70CE), the Kitos War (115–117 CE) and lastly the messianic rebellion of Bar-Kochba (c.132–136 CE); we then turn to the social and religious ‘reformation’ of Jewry from within in the wake of the destruction of the Temple and under the influence of more general religious trends of late antiquity. The result of all these changes is something known as ‘Rabbinic Judaism’, and it will be the home of a great deal of extraordinary esoteric thought in the centuries to come.
Recommended Reading:
SHWEP Episode 143 Recommended Reading
Themes
Apocalyptic, Christianity, Dualism, Jewish Messianism, Judaism, Late Antiquity, Manichæism, Orthodoxy, Qumran Scrolls, Rabbinic Judaism, Rome, Zohar, Zoroaster, Zoroastrianism
Lb Behrendt
August 18, 2023
Really good explanation of the role of the rabbi in Judaism. Idk if you know this one, but this episode reminded me of one of the trippiest and most tonally bizarre stories in the Midrash. (I am paraphrasing from memory) it goes like this: Moses and God are chilling out in Heaven and God says “you know Moshe my main dude, one day there will be the most amazing teacher of the Jews, a brilliant man. his name will be Akiva.” Moses says “oh yeah? I want to meet him! Send me to him right now!” so God says okay and sends Moses to Akiva’s classroom. Moses sneaks into the back and listens to a bit of Akiva’s lecture. He quickly realizes he has no idea what Akiva is talking about.
The students seem confused too. One of them raises his hand and goes “Rebbe, where are you getting all of this?”
“It was handed to Moses at Sinai,” is Akiva’s reply.
Moses is baffled, muttering under his breath: “I’ve never heard any of this before!” But as he continues listening, he realizes that Akiva’s analysis is spot on. He agrees 100%, even though it’s stuff that had never occurred to him at the time of receiving and reading the Torah.
After class, Moses goes back to Heaven, and is brimming with excitement and joy. “What an amazing teacher! What a wonderful man! What a brilliant mind! You must tell me, oh Lord, what happened in the rest of Akiva’s life? What was his reward for such excellent teaching?”
So God shows Moses Akiva’s death.
Moses is horrified. “Ruler of the Universe, you’re saying THAT’S Akiva’s reward for his great teachings of Torah??? For his immense wisdom he gets flayed by hot combs?”
God commands that Moses be silent and says “This was my decision.”
That’s the end of the story. (It’s a tough one because it has great joke potential but there’s no punchline and instead a great rabbi gets tortured and killed.) But the lesson of Torah being something about which our understanding has to evolve and grow through history is a good one, and I do love Moses showing up in class going “wtf is this, I never said this.” The literal implication is also I guess that he could show up at any time to scoff at anyone’s Torah study, which rules. I wonder if he can listen to podcasts.
Lb Behrendt
August 18, 2023
Really good simple and concise* explanation, I should have said. Simple and concise are the missing key words there.