A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. Volume One: The Roots of the Problem and the Person (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews 155 There is a good chapter on non-canonical wClttngs (Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha) and the Dead Sea Scrolls, with an emphasis on their importance to our understanding of Mishnaic Judaism and Christianity. The emerging Christian movement and the period of Roman domination are traced, along with the resulting "post-destruction" transition from Temple worship to synagogue worship, which is handled in a clear and succinct manner (pp. 164-169). The post-80 C.E. period is also identified as an age of "fundamental change in Jewish study and learning" (p. 177). Tannaitic Judaism, as it developed out of Pharasaic Judaism, is treated particularly well for students, as is the discussion of the Mishnah. The final segment of the volume deals with the emergence of the Amoraic Schools and the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds during the Byzantine period. As is the case elsewhere in this work, Schiffman does a skillful job of providing just enough historical background before introducing the writings and major academic circles which influenced this period. In addition to the comparative discussion of the Talmud, there is a brief sketch of the development ofJewish liturgy. Having provided a summary of the tools which were developed for the interpretation of the Torah, Schiffman concludes his study with a look at the system of halakhah, and"how Rabbinic Judaism sought to sanctifY the life of each and every Jew" (p. 240). Daily life for the Jew is outlined and the traditional prayers and dress (tsitsit and tefillin) are explained in terms of how they evolved and the meaning they acquired over time. The Sabbath, ritual purity, marriage customs, and the laws of kasbrut are aU tied to the life-cycle ofJewish practice and belief. Taken as a whole, this volume provides one of the best histories of the development ofJewish thought in its most formative period. Students, both Jewish and Christian, will find it a helpful guide. Victor H. Matthews Department of Religious Studies Southwest Missouri State University A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. Volume One: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, by John P. Meier. Anchor Bible Reference. Library. New York: Doubleday, 1991. 484 pp. $25.00. John P. Meier, a Catholic diocesan priest, is Professor of New Testament at Catholic University ofAmerica in Washington, D.C., and past 156 SHOFAR Fall 1992 Vol. 11, No. 1 president of the Catholic Biblical Association. This volume reflects the changes in biblical scholarship wrought in part by the Jewish-Christian dialogue in the wake of the Vatican II's Nostra Aetate. Less denominationally rigid, doctrine-defensive approaches to biblical research have characterized the academic guild, particularly in the last decade. Jewish scholarship, as well, exemplified by such works as Alan Segal's Paul the Convert (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), illustrates the changed atmosphere in which Christian and Jewish scholars ofthe first century C.E. consult one another's texts to gain insight into the evolving historical features of their own traditions. Meier attempts an ecumenical "consensus portrait" of the historical Jesus, i.e., a limitation to that historical data about Jesus of Nazareth upon which Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish scholars could agree. The search for "the historicalJesus" shares the elusive nature of data available about any person in ancient times. Meier does not attempt to offer theological arguments which "prove" the resurrection, for this statement of Christian faith cannot be verified by the sort of historical criteria which describe, for example, Jesus' identity as a Galilean villager, or his trial before Pontius Pilate. Meier establishes linguistic (including Aramaic) and historical corroboration for data about Jesus stated in the canonical gospels by a reexamination of specific references to Jesus and the Christian movement in secular and religious literature of the period contemporaneous with the formation of the New Testament. His dialogue in extensive notes with exegetes, both European and American, reflects the filtering of long classroom experience and the impact of sociological research on the study of the gospels. At the same time his engagement of particular texts focused on single exegetical questions, e.g., "Was Jesus married," seems leaner both theoretically and theologically when compared with Schillebeeckx's earlierJesus: An Experiment in Christology (New...