Abstract not available

This dissertation analyzes the performance of rabbinic expertise in the cultivation of donor and social networks in late antiquity. Through analysis of narrative depictions of rabbis and donors in Palestinian Rabbinic literature, I illustrate the social relationships created and maintained through gift-giving. I argue the rabbis used social networks to cultivate the legitimacy of the rabbinic project, facilitated by the authorizing power of donations. I demonstrate how donations to rabbis served as a means of legitimizing the rabbinic office as they formed into a self-conscious guild whose authority rested on the performance of expertise. These donations were not so simply received, however, as the rabbis disdained reciprocal forms of patronage associated with the broader Roman empire. Therefore, I demonstrate how the rabbis drew from systems of donation in the biblical text in order to assuage the association of their donors with formal patronage. In drawing from the biblical system and applying to their own historical times, the rabbis blended the gift types of tithes, charity, benefaction, and patronage. In this way, narrative accounts of tithes, charity, and informal gifts to rabbis can be read for the dynamics of reciprocal expectations sometimes encoded in the narrative account. With careful attention to rabbinic exegetical strategies, I trace the reception of biblical ideas about giving to their manifestation within the particular context of Roman Syria Palaestina.

The theme of gift has in recent years been subject to considerable commentary in diverse disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, religious studies and literary criticism. The vast majority of these studies focus on how or whether gift can be differentiated from exchange. In this dissertation I maintain that gift is a form of giving and receiving that is distinct from exchange or commerce, and that it need not create an obligation to return or reciprocate. This gift is given unilaterally to the need of the other and results in relatedness rather than indebtedness. This essay considers the characteristics of exchange and of gift, then reviews the thought of five writers on giving/receiving and reciprocation. This is followed by an overview of the gift theme in African Traditional Religion and the Judaic and Christian traditions, and a concluding chapter summarising thoughts on gift and self-interest, sharing, need, and gratitude. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M.A.(Religious Studies)

The theme of gift has in recent years been subject to considerable commentary in diverse disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, religious studies and literary criticism. The vast majority of these studies focus on how or whether gift can be differentiated from exchange. In this dissertation I maintain that gift is a form of giving and receiving that is distinct from exchange or commerce, and that it need not create an obligation to return or reciprocate. This gift is given unilaterally to the need of the other and results in relatedness rather than indebtedness. This essay considers the characteristics of exchange and of gift, then reviews the thought of five writers on giving/receiving and reciprocation. This is followed by an overview of the gift theme in African Traditional Religion and the Judaic and Christian traditions, and a concluding chapter summarising thoughts on gift and self-interest, sharing, need, and gratitude. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A.(Religious Studies)