Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part II: Palestine 200-650

Although described as volume II, this is the last volume to appear in a series of four which documents all the named Jews whose record has come down to us from Antiquity. It lists all the Jewish people we know and those we think were Jews from Palestine after 200 CE and before the Arab conquest. Most of the information in it is derived from the Palestinian Talmud and from inscriptions from Jewish cemeteries such as Beit Shearim. Unlike the previous volumes in this series, this volume also lists all the Samaritans known by name from Palestine in this period. It includes more than 3000 entries. Together with the other books in this series, a record of more than 15,000 named Jews has been collected. From this collection it is possible to learn much about the cultural phenomenon of name-giving among Jews in Antiquity and the extent of their assimilation or separateness can be assessed. The entire series is thus a very useful resource for the study of cultural and social history and its utility to scholars will certainly be long lasting. The volume also includes a substantial addendum to volume 1, which appeared in print exactly ten years ago. It includes over 500 entries that had been overlooked in the previous volume, or that have meanwhile been published. In an appendix the results of the project team’s research on inscriptions in Elijah’s Cave in Haifa are presented. This cave is a venerated Jewish site to this day, although its religious character in Antiquity is the subject of debate. The team was able to read 50 inscriptions found on its wall and this added more than 70 names to the present volume.