512 - Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World

Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World

By Alan F. Segal

Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1986. 207 Pp. $20.00.

This is a book about a family quarrel. As the subtitle indicates, Judaism and Christianity constitute the rival siblings. The curious twist, and the bone of contention in this familial fallout, is that both siblings claim to be the same brother. That is, these "fraternal twins," Judaism and Christianity, both of which are the by-product of the last years of Judaean statehood, claim to be Jacob, the son who possesses the birthright and is legitimate heir to the promises of God given to Abraham and Isaac.

Segal traces succinctly, but nonetheless carefully and sensitively, the origins, development, and eventual divorce of these two fraternal religions. The first two chapters chart the significant historical developments from the Babylonian Exile to the time of Jesus and developing Judaism. An important recognition by Segal is his highlighting of the central "root metaphor" of covenant for both Judaism and Christianity. That these two brothers should share the same central metaphor is an indication of their shared background, but the different ways in which they understand and fashion this metaphor signal the tension and eventual separation between them.

Segal should be commended for his grasp of the diverse social and religious atmosphere of the period leading up to the mid-first century. For example, his treatment of the encounter between Hellenism and Judaism sheds new light on an old discussion. Viewed socially and historically, Christianity

513 - Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World

and Judaism, at the time of their inception, emerge as twin alternatives reared in the same fluid environment. They possess the same social matrix.

The next two chapters deal with Jesus and Paul respectively. Segal highlights the apocalyptic and sectarian nature of Jesus and his movement. He assigns considerable historical value to the apocalyptic element in the career of Jesus given the high degree of discomfort regarding apocalyptic in the later church. The inclusion of apocalyptic strata in the Gospels is an indication that Jesus himself was strongly apocalyptic.

Segal might be faulted for not paying closer attention to the various sources for our knowledge of Jesus and the differing perspectives those sources might possess. However, I would concur with him that Jesus and his followers were far from a movement of educational social reform. He is right to highlight the apocalyptic strain in the preaching and message of Jesus.

It was the task of the early church and rabbinic Judaism to transform the apocalyptic fervor of the various sects and movements that preceded them into a form that would provide for their survival and growth. On the Christian side, it was the Apostle Paul whose experience of conversion became the model that would insure the success of Christianity. On the Jewish side, it was the rabbis who, in a protracted process, were able to fashion out of the shattered national hopes of 70 C.E. and after a cohesive and viable religion of personal and collective piety. The last two chapters discuss the conflicts and subsequent division between these two surviving religions of the post-70 period.

Among the ever growing number of books dealing with the topic of Christianity, Jesus, and Judaism, this book is to be highly recommended. Segal displays a deep knowledge of primary sources in both early Christian and Jewish literature. His sensitivity to the diverse and fluid nature of both Judaism and Christianity in the early part of the first century is a result of his sound handling of sociological insights and historical data. He deftly sketches the forces that shaped formative Christianity and Judaism, and at the same time provoke their estrangement.

What then of the two brothers? Like the good counselor, Segal is to be commended for not pretending that there really is no problem or for artificially imposing a unity historically or theologically. These brothers do have problems and there is here no false hope. In the end, this family may have to agree to disagree. Rebecca's Children does however offer a consoling, if not hopeful perspective on Jewish and Christian relations. These two brothers, though separated, do share certain underlying commonalities. Both claims, though competing, are true, and neither claim can be fully understood in isolation from each other. As Segal writes in conclusion, the witness of each is needed to show the truth of the other. Christianity and Judaism seem, more than anything else, to have defined themselves in light of and in response to each other. In this respect at least, these two brothers, though separated, are certainly bound together.

J. Andrew Overman, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, Massachusetts