History of the Jews in Spain: Encyclopedia II - History of the Jews in Spain - Early History Before 300 CE

History of the Jews in Spain - Early History Before 300 CE

Image:Hispania.jpgSome associate the country of Tarshish, as mentioned in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, I Kings, and Jonah, with a locale in southern Spain. In generally describing Tyre's empire from west to east, Tarshish is listed first (Ezekiel 27.12-14), and in Jonah 1.3 it is the place to which Jonah sought to flee from the Lord; evidently it represents the westernmost place to which one could sail. If Tarshish was indeed Spain, Jewish contact with Iberia may date back to the time of Solomon. The relationship would likely have been one based on trade. Ezekiel 27.12 describes such a connection: "Tarshish did business with you out of the abundance of your great wealth; silver, iron, tin, and lead they exchanged with you for your wares", and as much is demonstrated in I Kings 10.22: "For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks." The link between Jews and Tarshish is clear. One might speculate that commerce conducted by Jewish emissaries, merchants, craftsmen, or other tradesmen among the Semitic Tyrean Phoenicians might have brought them to Tarshish. Although the notion of Tarshish as Spain is merely based on suggestive material, it leaves open the possibility of a very early, although perhaps limited, Jewish presence on the Iberian Peninsula.

More substantial evidence of Jews in Spain comes from the Roman era. Although the spread of the Jews into Europe is most commonly associated with the Diaspora which ensued from the Roman conquest of Judea, emigration from Palestine into the greater Roman Mediterranean area antedated the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans under Titus. In his Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium, Libri IX, Valerius Maximus makes reference to Jews and Chaldaeans being expelled from Rome in 139 B.C.E. for their “corrupting” influences.

The Roman province of Hisperia came under Roman control with the fall of Carthage after the Second Punic War (218-202 B.C.E.). Exactly how soon after this time Jews made their way onto the scene is a matter of speculation. It is within the realm of possibility that they went there under the Romans as free men to take advantage of its rich resources. These early arrivals would have been joined by those who had been enslaved by the Romans under Vespasian and Titus, and dispersed to the extreme west during the period of the Jewish Wars, and especially after the defeat of Judea in 70 C.E. Graetz places the number carried off to Spain at 80,000. Subsequent immigrations came into the area along both the northern African and southern European sides of the Mediterranean.

Among the earliest records which may refer specifically to Jews in Spain during the Roman period is Paul's Letter to the Romans. Many have taken Paul's intention to go to Spain to minister the gospel (15.24, 28) to indicate the presence of Jewish communities there, as has Herod's banishment to Spain by Caesar in 39 C.E. (Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 2.9.6). (Although the place of banishment is identified in Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews as Gaul – specifically Lyons (18.7.2) – this discrepancy has been "resolved" by "postulating Lugdunum Convenarium, a town in Gaul on the Spanish frontier" as the actual site.

From a slightly later period, Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus 29.2 makes reference to the return of the Diaspora from Spain by 165 C.E. Perhaps the most substantial of early references are the several decrees of the Council of Elvira, convened in the early fourth century, which address proper Christian behavior with regard to the Jews of Spain.

Of material evidence of early Iberian Jewry, representing a particularly early presence is a signet ring found at Cadiz, dating from the 8th-7th century B.C.E.. The inscription on the ring, generally accepted as Phoenician, has been interpreted by a few scholars to be "paleo-hebraic.” Among the early Spanish items of more reliably Jewish origins is an amphora which is at least as old as the first century C.E. Although this vessel is not from the Spanish mainland (it was recovered from Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands), the imprint upon it of two Hebrew characters attests to Jewish contact, either direct or indirect, with the area at this time. Two trilingual Jewish inscriptions from Tarragona and Tortosa have been variously dated from the second to the sixth centuries C.E.. There is also the tombstone inscription from Adra (formerly Abdera) of a Jewish girl named Salomonula, which dates to the early third century C.E..

Thus, while there are limited material and literary indications for Jewish contact with Spain from a very early period, more definitive and substantial data begins with the third century. Data from this period suggests a well-established community, whose foundations must have been laid some time earlier. It is likely that these communities originated several generations earlier in the aftermath of the conquest of Judea, and possible that they originated much earlier.

As citizens of the Roman Empire, the Jews of Spain engaged in a variety of occupations, including agriculture. Until the adoption of Christianity, Jews had close relations with non-Jewish populations, and played an active role in the social and economic life of the province. The edicts of the Council of Elvira, although early (and perhaps precedence-setting) examples of Church-inspired anti-Semitism, provide evidence of Jews who were integrated enough into the greater community to cause alarm among some: of the Council's 80 canonic decisions, all which pertain to Jews served to maintain a separation between the two communities. It seems that by this time the presence of Jews was of greater concern to Catholic authorities than the presence of pagans; Canon 16, which prohibited marriage with Jews, was worded more strongly than canon 15, which prohibited marriage with pagans. Canon 78 threatens those who commit adultery with Jews with ostracism. Canons 48 and 50 forbade the blessing of Christian crops by Jews and the sharing of meals with Jews, respectively.

Yet in comparison to Jewish life in Byzantium and Italy, life for the early Jews in Spain and the rest of western Europe was relatively tolerable. This is due in large measure to the difficulty which the Church had in establishing itself in its western frontier. In the west, Germanic hordes such as the Suevi, the Vandals, and especially the Visigoths had more or less ravaged the political and ecclesiastical systems of the Roman empire, and for a number of centuries the Jews enjoyed a degree of peace which their brethren to the east did not.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early History Before 300 CE", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki