Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity: Volume 1: Paul and the Gospels

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

Every now and then, one is treated to a collection of essays that constitute a veritable intellectual feast; every “course” is rich and satisfying, leaving the partaker to wonder if past satisfactions can be equalled. In this volume, the satisfaction is continuous and one could hardly review better than to enumerate the book’s rich contents. Peter Richardson, in association with David Granskou, and Barry W. Heraut, who prepared the index, edits a collection of papers that have a common genealogy in the Learned Societies meetings, and a carefully attended five-year incubation. The wait was well worth it. William Klassen’s lead-off article, “Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity: The State of the Question,” provides a thorough yet concise history of anti-Semitism through the early decades of the Common Era. John C. Hurd analyzes Paul’s earliest writings in his “Paul Ahead of His Time: 1 Thess. 2:13-16”, offering a structuralist approach to this Pauline passage of putative anti-Jewish doctrine. “Paul and the Law in Galatians 2-3” by Lloyd Gaston, comments: “What is at issue in this volume on Anti-Judaism is not the positive gospel of the apostle to the Gentiles but the negative shadow of Pauline ‘theology of Judaism,’” and proceeds to elaborate using principally a translation and interpretation of Gal. 2:15-21. He also provides a tasty morsel in the article’s appendix “Paul as Apostate.” Editor Richardson writes on the absence of anti-Judaism in 1 Corinthians, and suggests scholars pursue a “sociological” reconstruction of Judaism in early Christianity. E. P. Saunders’ “Paul on the Law, His Opponents and the Jewish People in Philippians 3 and 2 Corinthians 11” advises “[one] must take into account at least three topics: [Paul’s] direct comments to his own people, his attitude towards Judaism [emphasis in original] ... and his attacks on his opponents.” “The Rhetorical Function of the Jews in Romans” by Daniel Fraikin wrestles with Paul’s language and tone: “Is Romans anti-Jewish? The answer can only be complex.”

One of this reviewer’s favorite selections is Charles P. Anderson’s “The Trial of Jesus as Jewish-Christian Polarization: Blasphemy and Polemic in Mark’s Gospel,” which concludes that Mark “constructed his trial scene around basic issues in the early church regarding Jewish response to Christian preaching and proselytizing.” Lloyd Gaston’s second article is “Anti-Judaism and the Passion Narrative in Luke and the Acts;” it attempts to answer the question, “Who killed Jesus?” A similar theme is developed by S.G. Wilson in “The Jews and the Death of Jesus in Acts,” concluding that early Christian writing did blame the Jews for Jesus’s death. Erwin Buck analyzes the Matthean account of Jesus’s troubled hours in “Anti-Judaic Sentiments in the Passion Narrative According to Matthew,” focusing on the roles of the Jewish leadership, the Jewish people, and the Gentiles. This topic is continued, but in a different vein by Benno Przybylski and his “The Setting of Matthean Anti-Judaism.” Przybylski analyzes the works of Georg Strecker and holds him as the most “comprehensive” of the scholars dealing with the notion of Gentile redaction of Matthew’s account. A singular delight was David Granskau’s final entry, “Anti-Judaism in the Passion Accounts of the Fourth Gospel,” a pleasurable gambol through John’s account of the Passion, concluding that the Fourth Gospel “is more complex than had been recognized.” An engrossing and enjoyable collection, this volume is recommended for almost every library and religious scholar.