Wisdom, Politics, and Historiography: Tractate Avot in the Context of the Graeco-Roman Near East

In third-century CE Palestine, the leading member of the rabbinic movement put together a highly popular wisdom treatise entitled Tractate Avot. Though Avot has inspired hundreds of commentaries, this book marks the first effort to situate it within the context of the Graeco-Roman Near East. Following his novel interpretation of Avot, this book relates the text to ancient Jewish literary paradigms as well as to relevant socio-political, literary, and intellectual streams of the contemporary Near East. Through comparisons to ancient wisdom literature, the Second Sophistic, Greek and Christian historiography, contemporary collections of sayings, and classical Roman jurisprudence, the book interprets Avot in light of the local Jewish context as well as the ambient cultural atmosphere of the contemporary Near East.