From the image offered by the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish elites were deeply embedded within the Sasanian Empire (224−651 CE). The Talmud is replete with stories and discussions that feature Sasanian kings, Zoroastrian magi, fire temples, imperial administrators, Sasanian laws, Persian customs, and more quotidian details of Jewish life. Yet, in the scholarly literature on the Babylonian Talmud and the Jews of Babylonia, the Sasanian Empire has served as a backdrop to a decidedly parochial Jewish story, having little if any direct impact on Babylonian Jewish life and especially the rabbis. Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity advances a radically different understanding of Babylonian Jewish history and Sasanian rule. Building upon recent scholarship, Simcha Gross portrays a more immanent model of Sasanian rule, within and against which Jews invariably positioned and defined themselves. Babylonian Jews realized their traditions, teachings, and social position within the political, social, religious, and cultural conditions generated by Sasanian rule.
Nonfiction
Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity
December 20, 2023
Discussion Questions
Simcha Gross’s Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity is a forcefully argued, deeply learned, and lucidly written study that changes the way we understand Jewish political attitudes in a formative era for Judaism. Bringing the Sasanian Empire from the “distant backdrop” of the Babylonian Talmud to an object of rabbinic interest in its own right, the book situates Jewish life in the empire alongside that of other religious minorities, both to contextualize the Jewish experience within the larger whole and to reveal what was distinctive about it. Equipped with an impressive array of languages, Gross deftly weaves together sources from Jews’ contemporary cultures and settings to cast familiar material in a fresh light. The result is a new understanding of late antique history, and a vigorous appreciation of the Babylonian Talmud as both a product of and a project within the world of the Sasanian Empire.
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