Jerusalem as the 'omphalos' of the world: on the history of geographical concept

Judaism, Spring, 1997 by Philip S. Alexander

20. "The first prophets" are identified in Bavli Sotah 48b as Samuel and David, but this is probably a later attempt to give the vague expression some precision. See further Ginzberg, Legends, vol. VI, p. 69.

21. Lionel Casson, Travel in the Ancient World (London: Book Club Associates, 1979), p. 173.

22 Jacob Neusner, Genesis and Judaism (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985).

23. Sifrei Deuteronomy 52; Yerushlami Avodah Zarah 1:2; Bavli Shabbat 56b. Ginzberg, Legends, vol. IV, p. 128, and vol. VI, p. 280. The story has a moral purpose: Rome was founded to punish Israel for her sins.

24. He argued this in the Third Jacobs Lectures in Rabbinic Thought, delivered at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in the Spring of 1994. I am unaware that Professor Gafni has formally published these important lectures, which were entitled, "'To give you the Land of Canaan, to be your God' (Leviticus 25:38): Rabbinic Reflections on Land, Centre and Diaspora."

PHILIP S. ALEXANDER is Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature and Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester, England. He was formerly President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.