In Association with the Ancestral Customs Pharisaic Ancestral Traditions as a Semi-Private Association Code in Matthew 15 and Antiquitates judaicae 13

Scholars have long believed that the "ancestral customs" of the Pharisees mentioned in texts such as Antiquitates judaicae 13.297 and Matt 15: 1-9 were proto-rabbinic oral tradition, based on apparently corroborating readings of Rabbinic works. However, in this article, I will show that this terminology should be understood within the context of the codes of Graeco-Roman associations. Such language is consistent with both the use of association terminology elsewhere in Josephus, as well as with the corpus of association-related inscriptions and papyri presently extant. The idea of the Pharisees as a semi-private association is not unique, though this terminology provides further corroboration that the Pharisees were understood as a semi-private, itinerant association by contemporary Jewish writers.