How Many Judaisms Were There?: A Critique of Neusner and Smith on Definition and Mason and Boyarin on Categorization

This article assesses two hypotheses connected with ancient Judaism: the view that Judaism was so diverse in antiquity that it is best understood as a multiple phenomenon (“Judaisms”), and the view that “Judaism” itself is a problematic concept for antiquity, in that there was no disembedded category for religion in antiquity, and thus ancient Jewishness can be understood only in ethnic, and not religious, terms. The dual concepts of “Judaisms” and “Judaismlessness” reflect larger assumptions with respect to definition, treatment of ancient sources, and scholarly commitments. Attention to the contributions of Jacob Neusner, Jonathan Z. Smith, Steve Mason, and Daniel Boyarin provide a context for analysis and critique, culminating in the argument for a radical narrowing of the scholarly definition of “religion.”