A review panel from the 2024 Association for Jewish Studies featuring scholars engaging with Simcha Gross’s award winning Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity.One paper has been posted so far:
A Radical Revision of Knowledge About Babylonian Jewish Society (Christine Hayes)
... Gross demonstrates that the static feudal paradigm and the binaries it generates are not supported by a wide array of material and textual evidence (Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Sasanian). He proposes instead an immanent and dynamic model of Sasanian rule in which little was fixed and much was in play, setting the stage for the empire’s different inhabitants to constantly negotiate and renegotiate their position, status, and communal identities. The result is a radical revision of what we thought we knew about of Babylonian Jewish society, the place of the rabbis, and the nature of their textual tradition, as illuminated by comparison with other similarly-situated minority communities who were also navigating the realities of empire and being formed and transformed in the process. ...I noted the publication of the book here and here.
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