Jewish Culture In The World Of Byzantium: An Analysis

With the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire, Jews had to adapt their own cultures and beliefs to fit and endure the changing times. In Culture of the Jews: Mediterranean Origins Oded Irshai explores the changes that took place within Jewish culture and the factors that caused said changes in his article “Confronting a Christian Empire: Jewish Culture in the World of Byzantium.” In his article he looks at the increasingly Christian Roman Empire and its effect on Palestine while analyzing the causes and effects this change caused. With the societal and cultural changes that took place, Palestine slowly ceased to be a mostly Jewish country. This, coupled with increasing Persian invasions, contributed to the ongoing belief that Rome was soon fated to fall and the end of times was approaching. …show more content…
Prior to the changes, an important aspect of the identity of Palestinian Jews was the office of the patriarch, which was hereditary. These figures served as both religious and cultural leaders, but by the time the period in which Irshai is writing about comes around, the position is on the decline. This is in part due to the Christian Church, which could not stand for any of the patriarchs who sometimes claimed that they too hailed from a Davidic line. By spreading rumors they eventually contributed to the downfall of the patriarchate, which was just another one of the changes that Jews had to confront in their society during these increasingly Christian times. Finally, as a result of an increasingly Christianized empire, Jews saw a reemergence of priests, as well as a shift in focus from houses of learning to synagogues.
Irshai believes that a great many changes that occurred within Jewish society at the time came as a direct response to the increasing Christianization of the Roman