RT Article
T1 Captivity, Masculinity and Degradation in an Early Rabbinic Tale
JF Religious studies and theology
VO 33
IS 2
SP 141
OP 156
A1 Daum, Robert A.
LA English
YR 2014
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1837297509
AB This article examines differences between versions of an erotic Rabbinic narrative about rescuing a captive boy, who had been carried away from Roman-occupied Jerusalem and was enduring (or facing) sexual exploitation at the hands of Roman captors. A synoptic reading suggests a pattern of retroactive "touching up" of scandalous elements in early versions of the tale by the time it appears in early medieval manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud. These changes soften the scandalous implications of a sophisticated Palestinian Jewish appropriation of an Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman homoerotic narrative. The comparatively inelegant later version suggests efforts to de-eroticize the plot, masculinize the captive, and lessen his degradation. Literary and archaeological evidence suggests that these changes might have been motivated by the fact that in earlier versions the captive was anonymous, whilst in later versions he is identified as a pillar of the talmudic tradition.
K1 Rabbi Ishmael
K1 Rabbi Joshua
K1 Rome
K1 Talmud
K1 captivity
K1 homoerotic
K1 Masculinity
K1 Rabbinic
K1 Ransom
K1 sexual degradation
DO 10.1558/rsth.v33i2.141