Krista Dalton, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Kenyon College and editor at Ancient Jew Review, dives into the fascinating world of early rabbis in Roman Palestine. She discusses how these figures became community experts through social interactions and mutual exchanges, such as dinner parties and donations. Dalton reveals the intricate relationships that fostered their authority and credibility, paralleling rabbinic scholarship with modern scientific trust. Her insights highlight the timeless dynamics of expertise and the importance of community validation.
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insights INSIGHT
Expertise as Social Validation
Expertise is more than knowledge; it is a social claim validated by others.
Rabbis became experts by cultivating social relationships and demonstrating the value of their knowledge.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Figs Spark Tithing Debate
Rabbi Yashua and Rabbi Yohan receive figs from townsfolk, sparking a tithe debate.
This story shows rabbis were embedded in local social and pious networks and faced practical legal questions.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Butcher’s Lavish Dinner with Psalms
A butcher in Laodicea hosts rabbis at an extravagant dinner with a child reciting psalms.
The rabbis appreciate the effort even if they find some practices unusual, showing varied piety expressions.
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Social Circles and Donor Networks in Jewish Late Antiquity
Krista Dalton
Dalton shows that these early rabbis were not an insular specialist group but embedded in a landscape of Jewish piety. Drawing on the writings of rabbis in Roman Palestine from the second through fifth centuries CE, Dalton illuminates the significance of social relationships in the production of rabbinic expertise. She traces the social interactions—everyday instances of mutual exchange, from dinner parties to tithes and patronages—that fostered the perception of rabbis as experts. Dalton describes the relational processes that made rabbinic expertise possible as well as the accompanying tensions; social interactions shaped the rabbis’ domain of knowledge while also imposing expectations of reciprocity that had to be managed.
At the turn of the common era, the Jewish communities of Roman Palestine saw the organization of a small group of literate Jewish men who devoted their lives to the interpretation and teaching of their sacred ancestral texts. In How Rabbis Became Experts: Social Circles and Donor Networks in Jewish Late Antiquity (Princeton University Press, 2025), Krista Dalton shows that these early rabbis were not an insular specialist group but embedded in a landscape of Jewish piety. Drawing on the writings of rabbis in Roman Palestine from the second through fifth centuries CE, Dalton illuminates the significance of social relationships in the production of rabbinic expertise. She traces the social interactions—everyday instances of mutual exchange, from dinner parties to tithes and patronages—that fostered the perception of rabbis as experts.
Dalton shows how the knowledge derived from the rabbis’ technical skills was validated and recognized by others. Rabbis socialized and noshed with neighbors and offered advice and legal favors to friends. In exchange for their expert judgments, they received invitations, donations, appointments, and recognition. She argues that their status as Torah experts did not arise by virtue of being scholars but from their ability to persuade others that their mobilization of Jewish cultural resources was beneficial. Dalton describes the relational processes that made rabbinic expertise possible as well as the accompanying tensions; social interactions shaped the rabbis’ domain of knowledge while also imposing expectations of reciprocity that had to be managed. Dalton’s authoritative analysis demonstrates that a focus on friendship and exchange provides a fuller understanding of how rabbis claimed and defended their distinct expertise.
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