Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud. Commissioned art, architecture, and formal "This thought-provoking book takes a new approach to the graffiti found in holy sites, tombs and sometimes civic structures, regarding them as words that do things rather than simply record a visit."---David Frankfurter, Journal of Roman Studies