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The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity

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Jon Levenson's 'The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son', on one hand, is definitely not easy reading. On the other, it has a great deal of importance to say to anyone who reads the Bible either as a literary or inspirational text, to anyone interested in the parallel developments of what we now know as Judaism and Christianity, or to anyone who wonders just how we got from offering children and animals as sacrifices, to offering prayers instead. It's a big change! The book is divided into three parts. The first, 'A Father's Gift' sets the issue of child sacrifice into historical contexts around the Mediterranean and examines the practice and literature on the topic in Biblical Israel. The second, 'Beloved Sons in Genesis' examines the fates of beloved sons and their brothers: Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, Esau and Jacob, and Joseph and his siblings. This is the most difficult section, as Levenson minutely dissects the relevant texts, often going beyond what he really needs for his argument. The writing is dense, but ultimately fascinating and something to keep in mind always as you read the Bible. Being a beloved son is a heavy fate. Part III, 'The Beloved Son Between Zion and Golgotha' deals primarily with the sacrifice of Isaac (or not!) as it was retold and rewritten in Hellenistic, Rabbinic and Christian texts, to enlightening effect. Take your time with this one. It's worth it.

This book by a Jewish scholar of the Old Testament at Harvard is wonderful: interesting subject handled well enough for most college-educated and beyond persons to read easily. The legends and midrash surrounding The Binding of Isaac are interesting enough; in the Hellenistic context of early Christianity, they are compelling, diminishing neither Judaism nor Christianity in respectful inquiry and comparison. I loved it. A fine book for anyone past the (by the way, excellent) _101 Answers to Questions About the Bible_ (Raymond Brown) stage.

I find that the author helps to make the idea of redemption understandable from the biblical persepctive. Levenson is a master at argument that is both concise and convincing.

The reasoning does challenge the reader to stay very close to the details, otherwise you may get lost. If you ar e willing to spend some intensive reading time, Levenson is for you . The author is a top notch scholar who understand Jewish and Christian traditions. The topic of salvation takes on new meaning, when the price for fidelity hinges on the sacrifice of another human being. Both Jewish and Christain readers will find the treatment of salvation taking on a new dynamism.

Jon Levenson, noted Jewish scholar and Harvard Professor, attempts to prove that from the pre-History of Israel, through the age of the Jewish prophets, and into 2nd Temple Judaism (which includes the rise of Christianity), the motif of loss and redemption and Israel's own spiritual conscience is nowhere more crystallized than in the practice of sacrifice. Most controversial to his argument is the claim that child sacrifice was a ritualistic practice that not only affected Israel's pagan neighbors, but during its pre-history was also an embarassing footnote commanded by Yahweh that the prophets and latter rabbinical writers had repressed. Instead of abandoning the practice, it was oddly condemned for the purposes of reinterpretation, becoming an integral part to one's understanding of Passover, and duly appropriated by Christian writers in an attempt to find their own story within the historical current of the Jewish people.

A skeptic may initially take note that Levenson treats the pre-history of the aqedah in Genesis very much as a real event. But he's not concerned to gripe with those who question the validity of such examples. At times, he notes the spurious nature of a passage, but only to address whether it is an interpolation or circumscription from another period, such as the majority consensus on Genesis 22:2 and the second angelic address in verses 15-18. So a skeptic will likely dismiss this book on the grounds that Levenson seems to be treating Genesis as an historical record. Of course, Levenson might redress such charges by claiming that these stories were critical for the faith community, regardless of the facticity of the stories, but nevertheless, the stories help develop Israel's religious conscience, and on these grounds that's all that matters.

A pivotal objection facing Levenson early on in the text is the existence of child sacrifice in prehistoric Canaanite groups, and, in particular, Phoenician Carthage. Levenson appropriates the archaeological opinions of Wolff and Stager from the 1970s, suggesting that the bones of stillborn children, young children, and animals, were all intermingled in vessels found in ancient necropolises to the Carthagian gods, showing that animal substitution and child sacrifice were often interchanged. Levenson gives little attention to other scholars who have come out strongly against such findings, such as M'Hammad Fanti (he mentions one line but does not name Fanti) or Piero Bertolini, since leaving this issue grey would shipwreck his argument before it finds momentum. Fanti suggested that children were cremated, not burned alive, and retroceded to the gods, while in 2007 (Levenson's book was published in 2003), Bertolini, an expert in Phoenican and Punic Archaeology, suggested that the great majority of vessels found contained the remains of stillborn babies, making immolation impossible. The issue is ongoing, full of controversy, regional prejudice, and issues of ethnic identity, and probably deserves closer examination. It must be noted as well that Levenson does not demonstrate concrete archaeological evidence for child sacrifice emerging from the prehistory of the Jews, and the only link he hopes to achieve is through the text itself.

As Levenson explores the location of the adeqah event, he systematically debunks scholarly attempts to plot its location through an extremely erudite extrapolation of Hebrew literary techniques used within Genesis 22. However, his conclusion seems strangely rushed, as he accepts the rabbinical account that Jerusalem is the site of the adeqah, he dismisses the site's etiological reference "Adonai-Yireh" as something Abraham must have called the place in his day. Given that Levenson has masterfully looked at the source of words and recognized the etiological technique used in the Old Testament, it's disappointingly strange that such a prominent feature of the text, bearing the very location of the event, remains unsettled. Thus, the identification with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is no small subject, as it propels the event directly into the Jewish religious conscience and into the ritualism of animal sacrifice.

In Jesus, Levenson simply sees an attempt by the gospel writers to locate him within the tradition. After a chapter in which Levenson shows that fresh interpretations of the adeqah were high priority in 2nd Temple Judaism, it makes sense that the gospel writers would see Jesus as the culmination of the paschal lamb. But more anomalies emerge in his sensitivity towards the Christian tradition, which seem unsatisfying. For example, Levenson admits Paul is the primary conspirator in a program of Supercessionism (that is, the replacement of Judaism with Christianity). At times, Levenson seems to suggest Paul deliberately forces this move as in his identification of the Jewish singular plural zama fulfilled in Jesus as the descendant of Abraham rather than Isaac, but then comes to the conclusion that Paul was trying to initiate a new way of conversion among the Gentiles into Judaism. Levenson seems to stump himself when he reflects on the conversional method of circumcision, which could be prescribed to foreigners under the Levitical codes, only saying that why Paul chooses Jesus over circumcision remains a mystery.

This review is by no means meant to be comprehensive. If there is any thing that can be said about Levenson it is that he never attempts to solve every mystery. He provides a beautiful mosaic of stories that all seem to have similar elements, and does a wonderful job of creating a conversation in the past and recent past. Still, the question of whether that conversation deserves more speakers should not be abandoned. More attention needs to be given to competing theories, and the claim of literal resurrection among early Christians vs. the almost-death of Isaac never fully closes the hermeneutical circle as one would expect. If anything, Levenson's research implicitly demonstrates that there is only so much life experience to share among human beings and we ought to appreciate this, not assume that when similar experiences arise there is some form of complicity driving the motivation.

Jon Levenson's Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son offers an extensive exploration and elaboration on the story of Abraham's binding of Isaac and the fate of Ishmael, and its meaning for Jews and Christians. Levenson outlines parallels in other religions and cultures, and explores Paul's astonishing claim on the story for the origin of Christianity.

Prof. Levenson is good at finding and connecting themes within biblical literature. But what would have been far more interesting and useful is for him to have opened up the lens and compared the sacrificial myths he treats here with those in cultures outside the Judeo-Christian world. As it is, the book is myopic.