historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

JUDEAN NATIONALISM 15
Jews of antiquity, aside from parental instruction, was the public
reading of Scripture. 29
The practice of publicly reading passages from the Bible may have
something to do with the emergence of the synagogue institution.
However, the origins and early history of the synagogue are much
debated and no consensus has emerged. Few would claim that the
procedures in the synagogues of Late Roman and Byzantine Palestine
can be projected back to Second Temple times. For our purposes
we may avoid these issues. Instead we can treat the evidence for
public reading of Scripture without always resolving the question of
its institutional context. 30 The importance of such public readings is
that they could serve as a vehicle for bringing the biblical texts to
non-literate audiences. If the practice was widespread, then the belief
in a common ancestry and culture could become the possession of
the masses, thereby satisfying the requirement of many current
definitions of nationalism. As we shall see, there is abundant literary
evidence for public readings. What is less clear is the extent of
the practice.
Public reading from an authoritative text is attested in the Bible itself,
if we assume that the accounts are historical. However, the case of
2 Kgs 23:1-3 is clearly a one-time event. The description in Nehemiah
29 See D. Goodblatt, "The Talmudic Sources on the Origins of Organized Jewish
Education," in Studies in the History of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel 5 (1980):
83-103 (Hebrew; English summary, VI-VII). Recent independent confirmation of
my skepticism concerning the rabbinic sources and my assertion of the role of parents
appears in C. Hezser, The Social Structure of the Rabbinic Movement in Roman Palestine
(Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997), 94 and 95 n. 92. Hezser has apparently not seen
my article. [I take this opportunity to note that the article, which went to press
while I was abroad and so was never proofread by me, suffered errors of omission
and commission at the hands of the publisher.] To the public reading of Scripture
compare the role of oral performances of Homer in ancient Greek education. See
K. Robb, Literacy and Paideia in Ancient Greece (New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1994).
30 See L. I. Levine, "The Second Temple Synagogue: The Formative Years," in
The Synagogue in Late Antiquity, ed. L. I. Levine (Philadelphia: American Schools of
Oriental Research, 1987), 7-31; L. L. Grabbe, "Synagogues in Pre-70 Palestine: A
Re-assessment," JTS 39 (1988): 401-10; P. V. M. Flesher, "Palestinian Synagogues
before 70 C.E.: A Review of the Evidence," in Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis
and Archaeological Discovery, vol. 1, ed. D. Urman and P. V. M. Flesher, Studia Postbiblica
47 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), 27-39; L. I. Levine, "The Nature and Origin
of the Palestinian Synagogue Reconsidered," JBL 115 (1996): 425-48; R. Hachlili,
"The Origin of the Synagogue: A Re-assessment," JSJ 28 (1997): 34-47. Note that
Levine, "Nature and Origin," 439-40, suggests that public reading from Scripture
may have taken place at the city gate in earlier times.