Sardis

Arye Edrei and Doron Mendels

“A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences”

• “Most of the scholars who have dealt with the Jewish diaspora during this period [after the destruction of the Temple] have blurred the distinction between the eastern and western diasporas, explicitly or implicitly assuming that the knowledge about the one diaspora could inform the other….[W]e…suggest that the distinction between the two diasporas was not only geographic, but actually reflected a much more substantive split.” (pg. 92)

Edrei’s and Mendels’ Claims• The new post-Temple centers of Judaism were inaccessible to

the Greek (western) Jewish Diaspora– Two separate corpora of literature developed: Pseudepigrapha and

Apocrypha in the West and the Mishnah and Talmud in the East– The number of places in the western diaspora mentioned in

Rabbinic literature are severely limited.– We find no reference to the Amidah prayer in the Apocrypha and

Pseudepigrapha literature

• “It is our contention that…two Judaisms arose with an ever-growing gap developing between them.

What’s Next?

Epigraphy

• Hamath Tiberias • Sardis

Ritual Objects

• Hamath Tiberias • Sardis

Decorative Art

• Hamath Tiberias • Sardis

Thank You!