Law in Religious Communities in the Roman Period

Richard C. Smith is a professor of Classics at the University of
Alberta.

This excellent series is based on seminars given by the Canadian Society
of Biblical Studies. The religious communities described are Judaism and
Christianity: Judaism, during the Second Temple period, and both groups
during the early formation of Christianity. Since the role and function
of law is a major component (not only of the two communities’
self-understanding, but also for their understanding of each other),
this topic (during recent years a focus of scholarly debate) is the
theme of this fourth volume.

Instead of focusing on the historical communities and their writings,
authors Richardson (of the University of Toronto) and Westerholm (of
McMaster University) with the help of Baumgarten (of Bar Ilan University
in Israel), Pettem (of McGill University), and Wassén (of McMaster)
review the major directions of thought about the communities’
attitudes towards law. The result is an accessible text for those in
religious studies or seminaries.

The work points out the importance of nineteenth-century contributors
such as Julius Wellhausen and W. Robertson Smith as well as the more
recent work of E.P. Sanders, W.D. Davies, Jacob Neusner, Morton Smith,
and Walther Zimmerli. The interpretation of the Hebrew word torah and
the Greek word nomos is explored as are such topics as the relation of
law and grace in Judaism, law and early Christian ethical formulation,
the attitude of early Christian groups to torah (as seen by scholars
from F.C. Baur to R.E. Brown), the Pharisees, and the Sadducees (the
last two topics effectively examined by Baumgarten and Wassén,
respectively). Richardson introduces and concludes the volume, giving
perspective. He also outlines recent work (in part a result of the
seminar), and indicates directions for future study.

This book is far more than the specialized treatise its title might
indicate: the authors provide an excellent revision of general
interpretations of the Roman religious communities.