Observing the Sabbath in the Roman Empire: a Case Study

Abstract

This study of the tax receipts of a small Jewish community in the Egyptian town Edfu shows that it was not always possible to observe the Sabbath strictly when confronted with the governmental power of the Roman Empire, despite the indications of tolerance found in Philo or Josephus. By calculating the weekdays for all the tax receipts of this community, we show that the Jews from Edfu did pay taxes on the Sabbath, to tax collectors from outside their community. When they could collect the taxes themselves, however, which they did in case of the Jewish tax, they took care to observe their own religious practices.