Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / On title page: MPhil (Ancient Cultures). Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

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Thesis (MPhil (Ancient Studies)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This thesis is a study of five books (Jubilees, 1 and 2 Maccabees, the Damascus Document and Josephus Jewish Antiquities) that represent the literature dealing with the issue of the Sabbath in significant ways, written between 200 B.C.E. and 100 C.E. In this study the author is determined to find the most prominent ways in which various Jews of the period treated the Sabbath, considering both its theological significance and actual practical application. The author seeks to apply the literary-critical method to the study of these books by identifying how the Sabbath pericopes fit into the larger structure of each book and contribute to the overall argument of each work. After dealing with introductory issues, such as terms, methods, historical settings and methodology, the author then works through the major Sabbath-related pericopes in each book followed by a concluding summary for each book. Then author moves from detailed individual conclusions to general summaries, seeking to deduce the “big picture” of the Judaisms represented in the five works that he researched. Throughout the thesis the author is asking all of the texts the following questions: Was there a major Jewish view of the Sabbath or were the views varied within Judaisms? Was the Sabbath one of the most important issues facing the Jewish Community or was it rather a peripheral one? What was the place of Covenant with YHWH in the Sabbath thought of the day? What was the impact of the historical events of the period on the views of the Sabbath? Was the understanding(s) of the Sabbath legalistic or was there a depth of heartfelt spirituality accompanying Sabbath observance? Were the rules with regard to the Sabbath actually carried out or were they largely ignored? At the conclusion he attempts to answer these questions point by point based upon the data that he collected by studying the passages related to the Sabbath observance within the books mentioned above. This study is preliminary in nature, since it attempts to provide only some background information to the question: Did the Jewish Christians of the first century change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday? If so, how did they do so while managing to avoid any kind of major debate over the change? This question the author plans to pursue in his forthcoming research.

The Exodus story of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt and subsequent redemption was central to Jewish accounts of their national origins and was an important component of Jewish self-identification in antiquity. Although Greek and Latin sources appear ignorant of the Exodus story, ancient ethnographies of the Jews in non-Jewish sources claim that the Jews were originally Egyptian. This thesis examines how Josephus presents the Exodus story of the Jews' servile national origins in Egypt to a Roman audience who had biases against slaves, freedmen, and Egyptians, and little knowledge of Jewish origins apart from reports that they were Egyptian by origin. Josephus's first work Jewish War, a politico-military history, includes tangential remarks about Jewish origins, but implies in the proem that the Jews were originally Egyptian. Jewish Antiquities, which rewrites the biblical account of Jewish origins, explicitly denies that the Jews were originally Egyptian and deliberately omits mention of the Jews' servitude in Egypt at important points in the narrative where it would have been expected. In Against Apion, an apologia, Josephus subtly uses keywords and the rhetorical technique of insinuatio to prove that the Jews were not originally Egyptian without stating openly that this is a goal of the work. Several factors explain these results. Aristotle's theory of natural slavery, which posits that slaves are innately defective, was part of the ideological assumptions of first century CE Roman elites. Romans were also ambivalent about their own partly-servile origins in Romulus's asylum. Influenced by Augustan propaganda about Actium, first-century Roman sources deride Egyptians with a range of negative stereotypes. Josephus denies that the Jews were Egyptian and omits their servile origins at important points in the narrative where the Bible mentions it in order to portray the Jews as favorably as possible.

Thesis (MPhil (Dept. of Ancient Studies) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This thesis sets out to examine, as far as possible within the constraints of a limited study such as this, the nature of the Jewish protest movement against the occupation of their homeland by the Roman Empire in the years after the territory had become a direct province of the Empire. These protests were mainly instigated by and initially led by Jewish peasants who experienced the worst aspects of becoming a part of the larger Roman world.