11 Feb The latest dominating narrative out of marital ‘decline,’ hence takes on a past golden age of wedding, is actually wrong” (pp

Review from the

Michael L. Satlow , Jewish relationships from inside the antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Push, 2001. xii, 431 pages ; twenty five cm. ISBN 069100255X $.

Tawny Holm , Indiana College away from Pennsylvania.

This smoking cigarettes and full guide of the Satlow happens far showing that conversation about ong Jews, and you may among all of their Christian, Roman, and Greek locals, as it's now from inside the progressive Western and you may modern Jewish neighborhood. Satlow, who observes relationship since a beneficial socially constructed, culturally depending establishment, gets a good refreshingly historical direction to your alarmist commentary of today. “The kissbrides.com gornji ДЌlanak truth your discourse of personal marital ‘crisis' is really so old at minimum should alert me to the new chance that people are speaing frankly about a point of rhetoric so much more than facts. xvi-xvii). As for the contrasting upbeat faith one to progressive marriage are as an alternative an upgrade toward crappy days of the past of the patriarchal previous, Satlow shows that ancient Judaism is far more difficult than simply of many suppose, and has now “one rabbinic articulation of relationship beliefs . . . to rival our very own egalitarian impression” (p. xvii).

If the “one to rabbinic articulation” away from close-egalitarianism impresses every reader, Satlow's instance for great assortment between the various other Jewish communities is actually well-generated (the brand new Palestinian rabbis consistently appear in a far greater light compared to the Babylonian), and his awesome publication have a tendency to ergo be appealing not just to scholars off Near East antiquity and you will Judaism, however, towards read public.