Hahn, Johannes and Volker Menze. Eds. 2020. The Wandering Holy Man: The Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism, and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine. Oakland: University of California Press.Cross-file under Syriac Watch.Composed in Syriac, the Life of Barsauma offers new resources for understanding the construction of holiness in late antiquity. This edited volume provides an essential guide to this lengthy composition within its literary, social, and religious contexts. Several of the authors present nuanced analyses of the particularities of ascetic practice among Syrian holy men, especially wanderers and mourners; others examine Christian relations with Jews, pagans, and Samaritans in Palestine and the Near East; and still others turn their attention to the historical figures mentioned in the Life and to the relations between Christianity and empire in the late Roman world. ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.