![]() ![]() This volume allows serious readers an opportunity to learn the sources, to follow the debates, and so to understand and assess a revolution in historical and theological scholarship. Whether viewed as parents or foils-or both-the Pharisees have always been a focus for anyone interested in the genesis of Christianity and of rabbinic Judaism. Not least, we are confronted with those other Pharisees-of Jewish and Christian mythology and contemporary critical controversy, who long outlived their historical counterparts but who still haunt and fascinate us. But it also reminds us that “objective” description is not a matter of either choosing or amalgamating sources, but of realizing that how the Pharisees were perceived and presented is indeed also some part of who they were.We also see how interpretation reveals the interpreter as well as the text: in these assured and well-informed analyses, we also discern the moral and intellectual character of the scholar. It demonstrates eloquently that “what we can’t show, we don’t know”-that much of what we assert about Pharisees is simply not supported by the evidence. This is an important book in so many ways. John the Evangelist Executive Director of the Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College. Cambridge University) is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion Rector of the Church of St. Columbia and Union Theological Seminary) is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. Harry Attridge, Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament and Dean of the Divinity School, Yale University In the hands of ordinary post-modernists, such a decentered approach to a historical question might be counterproductive, but in the hands of the learned colleagues that Neusner and Chilton have here assembled, the exercise becomes a very effective way of enabling contemporary students to wrestle with difficulties of the ancient sources. This is a provocative and engaging study that invites the readers to wrestle with the complexity of the sources and to come to their own synthetic conclusions. Philip Davies, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield Schwartz, Professor of Ancient Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |