Old Age in Ancient Judaism, Early Christianity, and Their Contexts: Senescence and Its Significations

by Albertina Oegema (Editor), Seth A. Bledsoe (Editor)

Overview

The collection of essays in this volume explores the significance of old age for Jews and Christians as well as Greeks and Romans in antiquity.

By examining a diverse range of sources, the authors in this volume elaborate on the manifold ways that old age functioned as a social discourse in ancient Jewish, Christian, Greek, and Roman contexts. Chapters demonstrate how perceptions of old age were closely intertwined with notions of authority and wisdom, gender and social dynamics, social and familial anxieties, and the body and disability. They show that conceptualizations of old age are far more prevalent and significant to ancient social and political structures, rhetorical discourse, and religious imagination than one might expect. By including studies on old age in different religious and cultural contexts, the volume highlights the commonalities, as well as the many differences, that existed among various communities in antiquity.

The volume is of interest for students and scholars of religion, particular those working on Jews, Christians, Greeks, and Romans in the ancient Mediterranean, as well as scholars in classical studies and ancient history. It is also a valuable resource for gerontologists who wish to explore the historical background of present-day notions of old age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040409497
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/08/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280

About the Author

Albertina Oegema is Postdoctoral Researcher in New Testament Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.

Seth A. Bledsoe is Assistant Professor of Ancient Judaism at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Foreword (Mira Balberg)

Introduction

Section 1: Old Age, Wisdom, and Authority

1. Old and Young in Philo’s Legatio ad Gaium (Pieter B. Hartog)

2. “O Glorious Wisdom in an Ugly Vessel”: Old Age, Wisdom, and Wine in Rabbinic Literature (Lieve M. Teugels)

3. Old Age and Political System Change in Ancient Rome (Christoph Michels)

Section 2: Old Age, Gender, and Social Dynamics

4. Beyond Gender: Polycarp’s Martyrdom at the Intersection of Old Age and Masculinity (Peter-Ben Smit)

5. “Wearing Clothes of a Young Woman”: The Agency of Elderly Women in Tannaitic Literature (Albertina Oegema)

Section 3: Old Age, Anxiety, and Familial Discourse

6. Dying in Peace: Old Age and Death Anxiety in the Hebrew Bible and in the Ancient Near East (Klaas Spronk)

7. Diverse Representations of Old Age in Literary and Iconographic Works of Classical Athens (Silvana Dayan)

8. Old Age and the Ethical Discourse of Familial Reciprocity among the Aramaic Documents from Elephantine (Seth A. Bledsoe)

Section 4: Old Age, the Body, and Disability

9. Ambivalences in the Process and Prolongation of Ageing in the Hebrew Bible (Hugh Pyper)

10. A Disabled Patriarch: John Chrysostom’s Use of Disability Discourse in His Characterization of Abraham (Chris L. de Wet)