Introduction to Literary Powerplays – Jewish Authors and Power in the Graeco-Roman Period

This special thematic section of Judaica: Neue digitale Folge brings together five articles first presented as papers at an online workshop at the University of Bern in June 2021. The workshop “Jewish authors and power in the Graeco-Roman period was dedicated to the complex relationships, both experienced and imagined, between ancient Jewish authors and power systems and structures throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It did so by exploring these and related themes while relying on diverse sources and questions, such as the analysis of texts from the Hebrew Bible and questions regarding calendar reforms during the rule of Seleucid kings. Implementing the ideas of post-colonial studies on power and power relations, the papers focused on the different fields where power structures and relations played a role in antiquity and put forward and understanding of power not only as physical dominance in various forms, but also as soft powers that emerges from sociocultural structures.