Abstract

This article reports on the most important results of recent studies published in German that deal with Roman-dominated Judea/Palestine and contextualizes them within international research. Publications by Monika Bernett, Werner Eck, Linda-Marie Günther, Achim Lichtenberger and Julia Wilker offer an equally intense examination of the sources, but significantly differ in their perspectives. The question behind the examination asks whether this region has developed in a particular manner that has been shaped and created by Jewish religion and culture, or whether it was a "normal" Roman province with a history shaped by the same circumstances and events as other parts of the Roman Empire. In the case of Judea, the findings of historical research are simultaneously at the center of contemporary legitimizing discourses. The discussion pleads for a cultural comparative historical investigation that critically questions the binary opposition of Jewish versus pagan.