S. Wolfert-De Vries (Univ. Utrecht): Holy land or holy people? The conceptualization of religious belonging in the late antique Jewish diaspora in Egypt

The many Hebrew and Aramaic late antique papyri found in Egypt leave no doubt that there were flourishing Jewish communities in Egypt in late antiquity. This paper will examine how these communities related to the Land of Israel and the Jewish communities there based on an analysis of  various papyrological sources, such as: poetry, letters and a marriage contract. This paper will argue that the Jewish diaspora in late antique Egypt ideologized the Land of Israel primarily as the Land of the Temple. More than belonging to the Land, the idea of belonging to a large Jewish people seems to have been central to the experience of the local Egyptian communities.