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The Synagogue of Ancient Ostia and the Jews of Rome: Interdisciplinary Studies, edited by Birger Olsson, Dieter Mitternacht, and Olof Brandt. Acta Institute Romani Regni Sueciae, Series in 40, Vol. 57; Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet I Rom, 4o, Vol. 57. Jonsered: Paul Astrom, 2001. 202 pp., 107 figures, 18 unnumbered photographs and drawings, 2 tables. Paper. SEK 450.00.
This is a very unusual volume in several respects. First, it contains valuable new information and data as well as interpretation of the material about the ancient synagogue and surrounding area of Ostia, the ancient port of Rome. Second, it contains a series of essays on various aspects of the interrelationship between early Judaism and nascent Christianity: how the ancient Roman authors viewed the Jewish community, what the Jewish Sabbath liturgy was like, what the epigraphy of the Roman Jewish catacombs contributes to this broad discussion, and what the role of the ritual bath was in Ostia and other diasporan synagogues. This collection of essays is a direct result of a larger research project on the ancient synagogue at Lund University in Sweden. The project's official title, "The Ancient Synagogue: Birthplace of Two Religions," illustrates both the broad scholarly agenda of the team of scholars that was assembled and the range of essays that have been included. Unfortunately, the assumption that because the earliest phase of the Ostia synagogue dates to the first century C.E., something new could be said about the larger diasporan synagogue in general and its liturgy and the social makeup of its community, however, does not hold up under scrutiny.
Among the most useful essays is 0. Brandt's, "The Quarter Surrounding the Synagogue at Ostia" (pp. 19-28), in which he examines the buildings that were near the synagogue over the course of the first five centuries C.E. He notes that the construction of the earliest phase of the synagogue occurred in the second half of the first century C.E., making it the oldest structure aside from the mausolea outside the Porta Marina. Undoubtedly, it contributed to the development of that area. It is in this period that Runesson proposes that the synagogue edifice was used by a congregation organized as a religious guild (see below). In the second century the pagan...