Position:

Professor of Jewish Studies; Fellow of Wolfson College

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / Wolfson College

Email:

martin.goodman@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

Martin Goodman's research interests are primarily in the political, social and religious history of the Jews in the Roman empire. He has focussed in particular on the relationship of the Jews to the wider Roman world in which they lived.

Current Projects:

• The reception history of Josephus, Jewish War.
• Attitudes to variety within Judaism at different periods in Jewish history.

Courses Taught:

• B.A. in Jewish Studies
• B.A. in Hebrew
• M.St. in Jewish Studies
• M.St. and M. Phil. in Jewish Studies in the Graeco-Roman Period
• M.Phil in Judaism and Christianity in the Graeco-Roman World
• M. Litt. and D.Phil. in Oriental Studies

Recent Publications:

• ŒParadise, gardens, and the afterlife in the first century CE¹, in M.
  Bockmuehl and G.G. Stroumsa (eds), Paradise in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian views (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 57-63.
• ‘Explaining change in Judaism in late antiquity’, in A. Houtman, A. de Jong, and M. Misset-van de Weg (eds), Empsychoi Logoi-Innovations in Antiquity. Studies in honour of Pieter Willem van der Horst  (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 19-27.
• ‘The meaning of FISCI IUDAICI CALUMNIA SUBLATA’, in S.J.D. Cohen and J. Schwartz (eds), Studies in Josephus and the Varieties of Ancient Judaism Festschrift for Loius H. Feldman (E.J. Brill, 2007), pp. 81-89.
• Judaism in the Roman World: Collected essays, Leiden: Brill 2007.
• Rome and Jerusalem: the clash of ancient civilizations, London: Penguin 2007.
• (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002.
• (joint ed.) Apologetics in the Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews and Christians, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999.
• (ed.), Jews in a Graeco-Roman World, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998.
• The Roman World 44BC-AD 180, London: Routledge 1997.
• Mission and Conversion, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1994.

Further Publications:

Books:

• State and Society in Roman Galilee, A.D. 132-212 (Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies series). Rowman and Allanheld, Totowa. 1983.(Republished with new introduction, Vallentine Mitchell, London and Portland, Or. 2000).
• The Ruling Class of Judaea: the origins of the Jewish revolt against Rome, A.D. 66-70. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1987. (Reprinted 1988, 1989, 1991. Paperback edition published 1993; Portuguese and Italian editions.
• The Essenes according to the Classical Sources (with Geza Vermes). JSOT Press, Sheffield, 1989.
• Mission and Conversion: proselytizing in the religious history of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1994. (Paperback edition December 1995).
• The Roman World 44 B.C. – A.D. 180. Routledge, London, 1997.
• Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Studies, Brill, Leiden, 2007.
• Rome and Jerusalem: the clash of ancient civilizations, Penguin, London, 2007.

Articles:

•  ‘Rabbinic sources for the non-rabbinist’, in J. H. Eaton, ed., Horizons in Semitic Studies (Birmingham, 1980), 78-82.
• ‘The purpose of Room F in the Patrician House’, in E. M. Meyers, ed., Excavations at Ancient Meiron, Upper Galilee (Cambridge, Mass., 1981), 71-2.
• ‘The First Jewish Revolt: social conflict and the problem of debt’, JJS 33 (1982), 417-27 (Essays in honour of Yigael Yadin).
• ‘La litterature juive intertestamentaire à la lumière d’un siècle de recherches et de découvertes’ in R. Kuntzmann and J. Schlosser, eds., Etudes sur le Judaisme Hellénistique (Paris, 1984), 19-39 (with G. Vermes).
• ‘A bad joke in Josephus’, JJS 36 (1985), 195-9.
• ‘The world of Pontius Pilate’, Omnibus 13 (1987), 25-8.
• ‘Religious scruples in ancient warfare’, Classical Quarterly 36 (1986), 151-71 (with A. J. Holladay).
• ‘Shoreshei haMered haGadol’, Cathedra 49 (1988), 23-36.
• ‘Nerva, the Fiscus Judaicus and Jewish identity’, JRS 79 (1989), 40-44.
• ‘Proselytising in rabbinic Judaism’, JJS 40 (1989), 175-85.
• Who was a Jew?, Yarnton Trust, Oxford, 1989.  (Yarnton Trust pamphlet).
• ‘Identity and authority in ancient Judaism’, Judaism 39 (1990), 192-201.
• ‘Sacred scripture and “defiling the hands”’, Journal of Theological Studies 41 (1990), 99-107.
• ‘Kosher olive oil in antiquity’, in P. R. Davies and R. T. White, eds., A Tribute to Geza Vermes (Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1990), 227-45.
• ‘The origins of the Great Revolt’, in A. Kasher, U. Rappaport and G. Fuks, eds., Greece and Rome in Eretz Israel: Collected Essays (Yad ben Zvi and Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem, 1990), 39-53.  (Proceedings of conference in Haifa and Tel Aviv, March, 1985.  Also published in Hebrew in Cathedra 49 (1988)).
• ‘Babatha’s story’, JRS 81 (1991), 169-75.
• ‘Opponents of Rome: Jews and others’, in L. Alexander, ed., Images of Empire (JSOT Press, Sheffield, 1991), 222-38.
• ‘Jewish proselytising in the first century A.D.’, in T. Rajak, J. M. Lieu and J. North, eds., Jews among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire (Methuen, London, 1992), pp. 53-78.
• ‘Diaspora reactions to the destruction of the Temple’, in J. D. G. Dunn, ed., Jews and Christians (Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen, 1992), pp. 27-38.
• ‘The Roman state and the Jewish Patriarch’, in L. I. Levine, ed., Galilee in Late Antiquity (Jewish Theological Seminary, New York and Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 127-39.
• ‘Jews in the Decapolis’, Aram 4 (1992), 49-56.
• ‘Texts, scribes and power in Roman Judaea’ in A. K. Bowman and G. D. Woolf, eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (CUP, 1994), pp. 99-108.
• ‘Jews and Judaism in the Mediterranean Diaspora in the late-Roman period:  the limitations of evidence’, Journal of Mediterranean Studies.  4.2 (1994), 208-24.
• ‘Les ennemis de Rome’ in P. Garnsey and R. Saller, eds., L’Empire Romain (Editions La Decouverte, Paris, 1994), pp. 69-88.
• ‘Sadducees and Essenes after 70 CE’, in S. E. Porter, P. Joyce and D. E. Orton, eds., Crossing the Boundaries.  Festschrift Goulder (Brill, Leiden, 1994), pp. 347-56.
• ‘E. P. Sanders’ Judaism:  practice and belief’, Scottish Journal of Theology 47.1 (1994), 89-95.
• ‘Jewish attitudes to Greek culture’, in G. Abramson and T. Parfitt, eds., Jewish Education and Learning (Harmond Academic Publishers, Reading 1994), pp. 167-74.
• ‘Josephus as Roman citizen’, in F. Parente and J. Sievers, eds., Josephus and the History of the Greco-Roman Period (Brill, Leiden, 1994), pp. 329-38.
• ‘A note on the Qumran sectarians, the Essenes and Josephus’, JJS 46 (1995), 161-6.
• ‘The Roman identity of Roman Jews’, in I. M. Gafni, A. Oppenheimer and D. R. Schwartz, eds., The Jews in the Hellenistic-Roman World:  Studies in memory of Menahem Stern, (Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, Jerusalem 1996, pp. 85*-99*.
• ‘Judaea’, in Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd edition, vol. X, ed. A. K. Bowman, E. Champlin and A. Lintott (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).  1996, pp. 737-81.
• ‘Sacred Space in Diaspora Judaism’, in B. Isaac and A. Oppenheimer (eds).  Studies on the Jewish Diaspora in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Te‘uda.  volume 12; Tel Aviv:  Tel Aviv University and Ramot Publishing, (1996) 1-16.
• ‘The function of minim in early rabbinic Judaism’, in H. Cancik, H. Lichtenberger and P. Schäfer (eds.) Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion.  (Festschrift für Martin Hengel zum 70.  Geburstag) Tübingen:  J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) (1996).  vol. 1, pp. 501-10.
• ‘Introduction’, in Josephus, The Life of Herod, transl. J. Gregory (J. M. Dent, London, 1998), pp. xiii-xxi.
• ‘Jews, Greeks and Romans’, in M. Goodman, ed., Jews in a Graeco-Roman World (1998), pp. 3-14.
• ‘The date of the birth of Christ’, Omnibus 37 (January 1999), 32-3.
• ‘The Emergence of Christianity’, in A. Hastings, ed., A World History of Christianity.  (Cassell, London 1999), pp. 7-24.
• ‘The pilgrimage economy of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period’, in L. I. Levine, ed., Jerusalem:  its sanctity and centrality to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  (Continuum, New York 1999), pp. 69-76.
• ‘A note on Josephus, the Pharisees and ancestral tradition’, JJS 50 (1999), 17-20.
• ‘Jewish history and Roman history:  Changing methods and preoccupations’, in A. Oppenheimer, ed., Jüdische Geschichte im  hellenistisch-römischer Zeit (R. Oldenbourg, Munich, 1999), pp. 75-83.
• ‘Josephus, Against Apion’, in M. Edwards et al., eds., Apologetics in the Roman Empire:  Pagans, Jews and Christians, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999, 45-58).
• ‘Galilean Judaism and Judaean Judaism’, in Cambridge History of Judaism (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999), pp. 596-617.
• ‘Palestinian rabbis and the conversion of Constantine to Christianity’, in P. Schäfer and C. Hezser, eds., The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture, vol. II (Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2000), pp. 1-9.
• ‘Judaea’, in Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd edition, vol. XI, ed. A. K. Bowman et al.  (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000), pp. 664-78.
• 'Josephus and Variety in First Century Judaism' The Israel Academy of Science and Humanities.  Proceedings.  Vol VII No. 6. Jerusalem, 2000, pp. 201-13.
• 'Epilogue', in J. J. Collins and G. E. Sterling, eds., Hellenism in the Land of Israel (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001), pp. 302-5.
• 'The Apocrypha', in The Oxford Bible Commentary, ed. J. Barton and J. Muddiman (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 617-26.
• 'Current Scholarship on the First Revolt', in A. M. Berlin and J. A. Overman (eds) The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, history, and ideology London and New York, Routledge, 2002), pp. 15-24.
• 'The nature of Jewish Studies', in M. Goodman (ed.) The Oxford Handbook
  of Jewish Studies (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 1-13.
• 'Jews and Judaism in The Second Temple Period', in M. Goodman (ed.) The
  Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (Oxford, Oxford University Press,
• 2002), pp. 53-78.
• 'The problems of Jewish Studies', Zutot 2 (2002) 188-94.
• 'The Jewish Image of God in Late Antiquity', in R. Kalmin and S. Schwartz, eds., Jewish Culture and Society under the Christian Roman Empire (Peeters and JTS Press, 2003), pp. 133-45.
• 'Modeling the "Parting of the Ways"', in A.H. Becker and A.Y. Reed, The Ways that Never Parted (J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen, 2003), pp. 119-29.
• 'Early Judaism', in E. W. Nicholson (ed), A Century of Theological and Religious Studies in Britain 1902-2002 (British Academy, 2003), pp. 135-51.
• 'Trajan and the Origins of the Bar Kokhba War', in P. Schäfer (ed.), The Bar Kokhba War: New Perspectives (Tübingen, 2003), pp. 23-29.
• 'Trajan and the origins of Roman hostility to the Jews', Past and Present 182 (2004), 3-29.
• 'Foreword', in D.R. Edwards (ed), Religion and Society in Roman Palestine: old questions, new approaches (Routledge, 2004), pp. xiii-xvii.
• 'Coinage and Identity: the Jewish evidence', in A. M. Burnett and C. J. Howgego, eds., Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 163-6.
• 'The fiscus Judaicus and gentile attitudes to Judaism in Flavian Rome', in J. Edmondson, S. Mason, and J. Rives (eds), Flavius Josephus and Flavian Rome (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp.167-77.
• 'The Temple in First Century CE Judaism', in J. Day (ed), Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel (T & T. Clark, 2005), pp. 459-68.
• 'The persecution of Paul by diaspora Jews' in J. Pastor and M. Mor (eds), The Beginnings of Christianity (Yad ben Zvi, Jerusalem, 2005), pp. 379-387.
• ‘Jean Juster and the study of Jews under Roman rule’, in G. Khan, ed., Semitic Studies in Honour of Edward Ullendorff (Brill, Leiden, 2005), pp. 309-22.
• 'The meaning of  FISCI IUDAICI CALUMNIA SUBLATA', in S. J. D. Cohen and J. Schwartz (eds), Festschrift for Louis H. Feldman (E. J. Brill, forthcoming).
• 'L'Histoire du Journal of Jewish Studies', in J. Olszowy (ed), Les Revues Scientifiques d'Etudes Juives Passé et Avenir (Peeters, Paris and Louvain, 2006), pp. 61-71.
• ‘Rome and Jerusalem’, Historically Speaking: The Bulletin of the Historical Society, 9:3 (January/February, 2008), pp. 43-44.
• Jews and Christians in the first centuries. Farmington Papers, Number WR4. Oxford: Farmington Institute for Christian Studies (2008)
• ‘Explaining change in Judaism in late antiquity’, in A. Houtman, A. de Jong, and M. Misset-van de Weg (eds), Empsychoi Logoi-Innovations in Antiquity. Studies in honour of Pieter Willem van der Horst (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 19-27.
• ‘Dal’ impero romano all’antisemitismo moderno’, Aspenia   42 (2008), 189-94.
• ‘Rabbinic Texts and the History of Late-Roman Palestine’, Henoch 30 (2008.2), 213-15. ‘The place of the Sadducees in first-century Judaism’, in F. E. Udoh et al., eds, Redefining First-Century Jewish and Christian Identities: essays in honour of Ed Parish Sanders (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008), pp. 139-152.