RABBIS AND THE IMAGE OF THE INTELLECTUAL

Late antique rabbis presented themselves as a particularly Jewish type of ancient intellectuals, also represented by Graeco-Roman philosophers, rhetoricians, sophists, and church fathers. Like other scholars, they studied, preserved, developed, and applied their inherited cultural knowledge and established a line of transmission by teaching their personal disciple circles. By being increasingly present in the public spaces of cities in late antiquity, rabbis became role models, who represented a specifically Jewish lifestyle of Torah study and observance in contrast to and competition with philosophical and Christian models. Their biblical interpretations, moral instructions, and halakhic views provided viable alternatives to Byzantine Christian exegesis and dogmatic disputes. The eventual compilation of rabbinic traditions in written rabbinic documents served as a basis for medieval Jewish study practices.