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Hezser, Catherine (2022) 'What Was Jewish about Jewish Slavery in Late Antiquity?' In: de Wet, Chris L., Kahlos, Maijastina and Vuolanto, Ville, (eds.), Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150-700 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 129-148.

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Abstract

Just like other late antique societies, Jewish society in late antique Palestine was a slaveholding society in which slavery was a common phenomenon of daily life. Even though the proportional numbers of slaves within the population would not have reached the extent of Roman mass slavery, many similarities existed between Jewish and Roman slave practices and attitudes towards slaves. At the same time, we must ask whether Jews, who were subjugated to Roman and Byzantine Christian imperial rule and considered the Torah their most authoritative moral guide, developed different perspectives on slavery and treated slaves differently than non-Jewish Romans, whether pagan or Christian, in late antiquity. Was there something specifically Jewish about Jewish slaveholding practices in late antiquity? Did Jews, who commemorated the Exodus from Egyptian slavery in the annual Passover holiday and who were seen as a ‘servile’ people by Roman rulers, develop alternative approaches to slavery?

Item Type: Book Chapters
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > School of History, Religions & Philosophies > Department of Religions & Philosophies
ISBN: 9781108568159
Copyright Statement: This material has been published in de Wet, Chris L., Kahlos, Maijastina and Vuolanto, Ville, (eds.), Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150-700 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, pp. 129-148. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108568159.008. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © Cambridge University Press, 2022
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108568159.008
Date Deposited: 14 Feb 2022 17:03
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/36612

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