Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition
Overview
Jacob Neusner, proposes that “there is not now, and there never has been, a dialogue between the religions of Judaism and Christianity.” He asserts that, from the very beginning, the Judaic and Christian religious worlds scarcely intersect. He calls for Jews and Christians to describe honestly and accurately their respective faiths, and by doing so, begin dialoguing with the each other. In this way, Jews and Christians can begin to grasp the ideas and practices of each other’s traditions and beliefs and coincide harmoniously together.
Top Highlights
“Christianity is Christianity because it forms an autonomous, absolute, unique, and free-standing religious system within the framework of the scriptures and religious world of Israel. It suffices therefore to say that the earliest Christians were Jews who saw their religion, Judaism, as normative and authoritative.” (Pages 27–28)
“Christianity and Judaism each took over the inherited symbolic structure of Israel’s religion.” (Page 5)
“Accordingly, the piety of Israel in the first century ultimately defined the structure of the two great religions of Western civilization: Christianity, through its Messiah, for the Gentile; Judaism, through its definition in the two Torahs of Sinai and in its embodiment in the figure of the sage, for Israel. Once they understand that simple fact, Christians can try to understand Judaism in its own terms—and Jews can do the same for Christianity. For they have, in fact, nothing in common, at least nothing in common that matters very much.” (Page 15)
“The Christians saw Israel as a family; the Pharisees saw it as a way of life. The Christians stressed their genealogy; the Pharisees their ethos and ethics. The Christian family held things in common; the holy people held in common a way of life that sanctified them.” (Page 4)
“let me say that the Christians carried forward one aspect of scripture’s doctrine of Israel and the Pharisees another.” (Page 4)
- Title: Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition
- Author: Jacob Neusner
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2003
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Judaism › Relations--Christianity; Christianity and other religions › Judaism; Judaism › History--Talmudic period, 10-425
- ISBNs: 9781592441563, 1592441564, 9781586841089, 1586841084
- Resource ID: LLS:JEWSCHRISTIANS
- Resource Type: Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:52:28Z
Jacob Neusner (1932–2016) was a preeminent scholar of ancient Judaism and one of the most published authors ever, with more than 900 original volumes to his name. He was educated at Harvard University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the University of Oxford, and Yale University. He was research professor of theology and senior fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. Neusner’s work has been highly influential, if sometimes controversial. He pioneered applying “form criticism” to Rabbinic texts, and aimed at a humanistic and academic reading of ancient Jewish literature.
Neusner’s works include the Jacob Neusner Jewish Studies Bundle (99 vols.).