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Poverty and Charity in Roman Palestine

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Poverty and Charity in Roman Palestine Poverty and charity in Roman Palestine Gildas Hamel Abstract The present book reformats the text, notes, and appendices of the origi- nal 1990 publication by the University of California Press. Its pagination is different. There is no index. i D’ur vamm ha d’ur breur aet d’an Anaon re abred A.M.G. 31 Meurzh 1975 Y.M.H. 12 Geñver 1986 Contents Contents ii List of Figures iv List of Tables iv Introduction ix 1 Daily bread 1 1.1 Food items ............................. 2 1.2 Diets ................................ 19 1.3 Diseases and death ........................ 55 1.4 Conclusion ............................ 58 2 Poverty in clothing 61 2.1 Common articles of clothing ................... 61 2.2 Lack of clothing .......................... 70 2.3 Clothing and social status .................... 81 2.4 Conclusion ............................ 104 3 Causes of poverty 107 3.1 Discourse of the ancients on yields . 108 3.2 Aspects of agriculture: climate and soil . 116 3.3 Work and technical standards . 125 3.4 Yields ............................... 145 3.5 Population of Palestine . 159 3.6 Conclusion ............................ 163 4 Taxes and rents 165 4.1 Roman taxes . 168 ii Contents iii 4.2 Jewish taxes and history of tax burden . 171 4.3 Labor and ground rents . 176 4.4 Conclusion ............................ 190 5 The vocabulary of poverty 193 5.1 Explicit vocabulary: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek . 196 5.2 Explicit vocabulary: self-designations . 209 5.3 Greek and Jewish views on poverty and wealth . 229 5.4 Implicit vocabulary . 239 5.5 Conclusion ............................ 248 6 Charity in Roman Palestine 251 6.1 Discourses on charity . 251 6.2 Jewish charity . 256 6.3 Greek charity . 259 6.4 Christian charity . 260 6.5 Conclusion ............................ 261 7 Views on poverty and wealth in the Gentile Church 263 7.1 Poverty in the Greco-Roman world . 264 7.2 The Church Fathers as men of their time . 265 7.3 The Church Fathers as pioneers of a new society . 272 7.4 Conclusion ............................ 280 Epilogue 283 Appendices 287 Weights and Measures 289 Minimum daily bread 293 List of Palestinian sages 295 Abbreviations 297 Books of the Bible ............................ 297 Qumran literature ............................ 298 Other ancient Jewish literature . 298 Other literatures, ancient and modern . 300 Bibliography 305 Ancient sources ............................. 305 Modern literature ............................ 314 List of Figures 3.1 Religious and agricultural calendar . 127 4.1 Herod’s Kingdom at His Death (4 B.C.E.) . 172 4.2 City Creation in Roman Palestine . 175 List of Tables 1 Weights and Measures . 290 iv Acknowledgements My immediate thanks go to the readers of what started all too obviously as a doctoral thesis, for their trust in me, their encouragement, patience, and help. Donald Nicholl guided my steps as a historian, through his own example as well as his kind and honest judgments. Noel King was a watchful sponsor, always willing to discuss problems and suggest references, comments, and improve- ments. Mishael Caspi saved me from many a pitfall in the interpretation of Hebrew and Aramaic sources. I had useful conversations and discussions of the arguments with Gary Lease, who drew my attention to pertinent literature. I also take this opportunity to thank teachers of the past: Guillaume Prat (†), Yves Thomas, Mgr Francis Barbu, Pierre Benoit (†), and Roland de Vaux (†). The faculty, staff, and students of Cowell College, at the University of Cal- ifornia at Santa Cruz, gave constant support and stimulation. To all, especially John Lynch, Provost of Cowell, I am very grateful. Joan Hodgson, Elizabeth Rentz, the Interlibrary Loan staff, Billie Harris in the History of Consciousness Program, and the various agencies of the University of California at Santa Cruz provided me with exceptional means of research. The typing was skillfully done at different stages by Eric Mills and Wallie Romig, neither of whom seemed to mind the challenge of a difficult manuscript. I am also grateful to Rose Anne White and Brian R. MacDonald for their patience and care in editing the book. Much of the credit for any virtue that the book may possess is due to all of those mentioned, as well as to the many scholars whose writings I have used. The re- sponsibility for any shortcomings and blemishes that remain is mine. Finally, I wish to thank my family: my loved ones in Brittany; Dr. Benjamin Kleinstein, who has been a source of strength and wisdom; and above all, Amy. v Note on Quotations and Transliteration The Bible text in this publication is from the Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the Na- tional Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. Quotations from the Pseudepigrapha usually are from J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983–85). Quotations from the Mishnah are from H. Danby, emphThe Mish- nah (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933). Quotations from the Babylonian Talmud are from the Soncino edition: I. Epstein, ed., The Babylonian Talmud, 35 vols. (London: Soncino, 1935–52). Translations of classical Greek or Latin texts come usually from the Loeb Classical Library. The epigraph on the first page of the Introduction is reprinted by permission of Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., Publishers. Talmudic literature is quoted in the following fashion: mKil. 2.1 = Mish- nah, tractate Kil’aim, chapter 2, halakhah 1; or pKil. 2.1.27c = Palestinian (or Yerushalmi) Talmud, tractate Kil’aim, chapter 2, halakhah 1, folio 27 in the Kro- toschin edition, third column. For other abbreviations, see the list provided before the Bibliography. Consistency in the transliteration of Hebrew and Aramaic names and words proved to be impossible, given the disparity encountered in the quo- tations from other authors. In most cases, I have adopted the spelling of the emphEncyclopaedia Judaica (1972). For other names of people or things, I have used the following system of transliteration: ’/a, b/v, g, d, h, w/u/o, z, ḥ, ṭ, y/i, k/kh, l, m, n, s, ‘, p/f, ṣ, q, r, ś, š, t/th. vii Introduction No one knows what others eat, or what others suffer. That is not the sort of thing that can be set down in black and white. If someone were to read what you’ve written, he’d make nothing of it. He’d have to come and spend a night or two, in order to understand. M. Makal, Village in Anatolia Twenty years ago, Momigliano regretted that, whereas much research about the decline of the Roman Empire concerned structural changes, little effort was devoted to evaluating the impact of Christianity and its triumph.1 Since then, much work has been done to show how “Christianity produced a new style of life, created new loyalties, gave people new ambitions and new satisfactions.”2 The present essay started as an inquiry on the role of charity and social aid in Roman Palestine,3 where the transition from a church of Jews to a church of Gentiles meant changes of beliefs, attitudes, and even languages. I focused on charity because it is often assumed that Christian charity en- tailed a radical departure from traditional, Jewish or Pagan, social attitudes. It 1A. Momigliano, “Christianity and the Decline of the Roman Empire,” in The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 5–6. 2Ibid. See also L. E. Keck, “On the Ethos of Early Christianity,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 42 (1974) 435–52. The works of E. R. Dodds, P. R. L. Brown, W. H. C. Frend, R. MacMullen, and R. L. Fox come to mind. 3The word Palestine, applied to Jewish territory, translates Palaestina (strictly speaking, Syria Palaestina). By Roman Palestine is meant an area including Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, the coastal zone, and Idumaea. I use it for the whole period, although it became the name of the province only after 135 C.E. See E. M. Smallwood, The Jews Under Roman Rule (Leiden: Brill,1981), 1, n. 1. ix x Introduction seemed feasible to eine the validity of this thesis by studying the situation of poor people in Roman Palestine during the first three centuries C.E. Was there poverty, and how widespread was it? What were its causes? What were the meanings of the various words for “poor” in Greek and Hebrew-Aaic? In call- ing someone poor, how was his or her situation perceived? finally, did the per- ception of poverty, as well as attitudes to the poor, change as a result of conver- sion to Christianity? If there was social change, can one ascribe it to Christianity rather than to other causes? In the course of the work, it bee apparent that it would be very difficult either to corroborate or to invalidate the initial thesis. One reason is that the interpretation of sources on the situation and composition of the early Church in Roman Palestine, as well as on its beliefs and practices, is a very arduous task, with few assured results. The historical interpretation of the synoptic Gospels and other texts of the New Testament requires one to make thorny choices in source and tradition criticism. Another challenge is that much information about the early Jewish Church is scattered in later Christian authors, whose mo- tivations are not easily ascertained. Tosearch for evidence of Jewish Christianity in the Rabbinic literature and in archaeological reports is even more delicate. In other words, the fully informed comparison of Jewish, Jewish-Christian, and non-Jewish discourses on charity and its practices in Roman Palestine is a task yet to be done. Chapter 6 is no more than a foray in the topic, while Chapter 7 extends the scope of the comparison to the Greco-Roman world.
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