JUDAISM WHEN CHRISTIANITY BEGAN: A SURVEY OF BELIEF AND PRACTICE
Written by Jacob Neusner Reviewed By Stephen CattoIn this book Jacob Neusner, an eminent scholar of Judaism, aims to give a holistic account of the beliefs and practices of rabbinic Judaism during the first six centuries ad. He deals with subjects such as: the Torah, both in its written and oral forms; the character of God; ritual purity; the Sabbath; the community of Israel; death and afterlife. He extensively uses quotations from various rabbinic material to illustrate his various points, helpfully including his own comments in parenthesis to aid the reader understand the text more fully.
Neusner points out that the Torah was the central focus of Jewish religious life, and as such its significance for the rabbis is the backdrop to many of the chapters in the book. For the rabbis, the Torah was seen as a paradigm for their lives, e.g. although some Jews were exiled from the land of Israel in 585 bcmany were not; similarly many who had been exiled did not return in 450 bc. Even thought this pattern of exile and return had not been the actual historical experience of many Jews, for the rabbis it became the paradigm from Scripture which they then applied to their situation. The temple had once again been removed from them, but as before it would be returned; similarly, what God had done to the Egyptians he would do again to the Romans, ‘The Pentateuch then would be read not as a one-time history but as an eternal paradigm that would shape what people saw and anticipated seeing’ (59).
A chapter on ritual purity describes the acts that both brought and removed ritual uncleanness (ch. 4). ‘The chapter on Sacrifice, Repentance, and Atonement’ deals with the destruction of the temple and the fact that sacrifice could no longer be made; acts of loving kindness taking their place (147). However, the hope of the rebuilt temple remained and this is articulated in the rabbinic literature. As well as repentance for sins, the role of prayer in the process of atonement is also described.
In ‘Death and Afterlife’ (ch. 13) he describes the view of resurrection expressed by the rabbis, as well as passages noting the debate with fellow Jews and Gentiles who did not hold to such a belief. In the final chapter Neusner describes how art and symbols have been used to represent Judaism. He points out that during the twentieth century, many synagogues from late antiquity have been discovered which contain elaborate artwork. This points to variegation in the forms that Judaism took in this period (185).
Although this is a very clearly written book, it has certain limitations. First, it assumes a certain level of understanding of rabbinic literature, and anyone coming without this background knowledge may find it difficult to follow. Second, there are only 8 footnotes in the whole book. Although Neusner clearly refers to rabbinic material through many quotations, some of the material to which he refers falls outside this category (e.g. ch. 14, ‘The Representation of the Faith: Art and Symbol in Judaism’) and some reference to secondary literature would be helpful. Third, as Neusner himself points out, in the first and last chapters, the ideas and interpretations found in the rabbinic texts do not always resonate with what we know of Judaism from other sources. Throughout the book he regularly refers to Judaisms rather than Judaism and therefore, the title of this book may be somewhat misleading. What he gives us is an account of rabbinic Judaism when Christianity began.
Stephen Catto
Moorlands College