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

Alan Segal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 1986

Renowned scholar Alan Segal offers startlingly new insights into the origins of rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. These twin descendants of Hebrew heritage shared the same social, cultural, and ideological context, as well as the same minority status, in the first century of the common era.

Through skillful application of social science theories to ancient Western thought, including Judaism, Hellenism, early Christianity, and a host of other sectarian beliefs, Segal reinterprets some of the most important events of Jewish and Christian life in the Roman world. For example, he finds:

--That the concept of myth, as it related to covenant, was a central force of Jewish life. The Torah was the embodiment of covenant both for Jews living in exile and for the Jewish community in Israel.

--That the Torah legitimated all native institutions at the time of Jesus, even though the Temple, Sanhedrin, and Synagogue, as well as the concepts of messiah and resurrection, were profoundly affected by Hellenism. Both rabbinic Judaism and Christianity necessarily relied on the Torah to authenticate their claim on Jewish life. --That the unique cohesion of early Christianity, assuring its phenomenal success in the Hellenistic world, was assisted by the Jewish practices of apocalypticism, conversion, and rejection of civic ritual.

--That the concept of acculturation clarifies the Maccabean revolt, the rise of Christianity, and the emergence of rabbinic Judaism. --That contemporary models of revolution point to the place of Jesus as a radical. --That early rabbinism grew out of the attempts of middle-class Pharisees to reach a higher sacred status in Judea while at the same time maintaining their cohesion through ritual purity. --That the dispute between Judaism and Christianity reflects a class conflict over the meaning of covenant. The rising turmoil between Jews and Christians affected the development of both rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, as each tried to preserve the partly destroyed culture of Judea by becoming a religion. Both attempted to take the best of Judean and Hellenistic society without giving up the essential aspects of Israelite life. Both spiritualized old national symbols of the covenant and practices that consolidated power after the disastrous wars with Rome. The separation between Judaism and Christianity, sealed in magic, monotheism, law, and universalism, fractured what remained of the shared symbolic life of Judea, leaving Judaism and Christianity to fulfill the biblical demands of their god in entirely different ways.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Segal's exploration of the early histor ies of Christianity and rabbinic Judaism shows that although the two traditions chose different ways to express their birthright, like Jacob and Esau they struggled together in the same womb. Both Christianity and Judaism reinter preted the apocalyptic expectations of the Kingdom of God into a personal faith commitment within the communi ty. Christian success rested on convert ing people from the diverse back grounds of the Greco-Roman world and forming them into a unified group. The Jewish community assured its survival by emphasizing purity laws that marked the boundary between it and the gentile world. Segal's most irenic book concludes that Jews and Chris tians need not dispute over the birth right, for "it can belong to both of them together." For specialists and general readers. Murray L. Wagner, Bethany Theological Seminary, Oak Brook, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The book is enlivened by modern analogies and firmly rooted in social-scientific analysis...A delightful read. (Studies in Religion )

Segal's work reveals a broad command of the sources and the multidisciplinary outlook requisite for modern reconstructions. He has raised issues that will excite discussion and respectfually challenge many a traditional approach. (American Historical Review )

Provocative...[Segal crafts] valuable discussions of the relation between the religious and the political dimensions of Jesus' teaching, the nature of messianism and apocalypticism, and the functions of myth and mythic language in the creation and maintenance of religious communities. (Journal of Religion )

Alan Segalbrings a new perspective to the early histories of Christinanity and Rabbinic Judaism by showing how they are reponses to the same social situation. The book is sociologically significant, sensitive, historically illuminating, and eminently teachable.
--Robert Bellah, University of California at Berkeley

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 18, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674750764
• ISBN-13: 978-0674750760
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Claiming Our Religious Sibling, September 5, 2000

By 

The Rev. Dr. Daniel J. G. G. Block - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Paperback)

The first five chapters of Professor Segal's book contain little that is new. However, since the goal of this or any other academic text is truth rather than novelty, the book is still quite useful. In those first five chapters, Segal more than adequately summarizes the curricula of many a good undergraduate survey of religion, or comparative religion course.

The material that Professor Segal presents on Palestinian cultures, politics, the life and message of Jesus of Nazareth, the role of Paul of Tarsus, and the ascendancy of rabbinical Judaism is not new. However, he does bring all that material together in one book that forms a handy reference for any would-be Biblical or Talmudic scholar.

Professor Segal's most valuable contribution occurs in the last two chapters of his book, where he demonstrates that rabbinical Judaism and Christianity are (fraternal) twin religions born of the same political, social, and religious stimuli. Facing the crises of the wars of independence begun in 66 and 132 c.e., and their consequences, the religious and political systems which centered on the temple at Jerusalem were no longer viable. Thus, Christianity (which in many ways was still a Jewish sect) traveled one road to survival, while rabbinical Judaism took another. The result was two different religions. Nevertheless, Professor Segal does well to remind us that those religions were born of one mother: historical, pre-rabbinical, temple-centered Judaism.

Because Segal's claim is true, it is incumbent upon all Christians and Jews to realize that the differences between them are not schisms between believers and infidels, but a continuing discussion within the household of faith.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked it too, June 8, 2003

By 

Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Paperback)

Unlike the only other reviewer so far, I read this book from a Jewish perspective - that is, primarily looking for insight about the evolution of Judaism. I was not disappointed. Segal argues that classical, rabbinic Judaism (as enunciated in the Talmud and post-Talmud halacha) did not arise fully formed from Sinai. Rather, it arose out of the Pharisees, which in turn was just one sect out of many (though probably the most popular sect) until the Second Temple was destroyed in 70. Segal suggests that the dominance of the Mishnah (a law code written by the Pharisees' intellectual heirs, which was adopted by nearly all Jews) arose not just because it was intellectually compelling but for political reasons: the Romans had an interest in a unified Jewish community governed by one law, the Mishnah, and governed by rabbis who did not expect the Messiah to come any time soon. Interesting theory, though it doesn't explain why the Mishnah survived Jewish movement away from Israel.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two from One, but the Devil is in the Details, August 13, 2004

By 

C. Price "Layman, Lawyer, Blogger" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Paperback)

There is much to like about Rebecca's Children. Alan Segal is a good historian and writer. His thesis, that Rabbinic (Modern) Judaism and Christianity were both branches from Second Temple Judiasm, is well taken. Christianity simply had more success with the Gentiles. Segal's discussion about Judaism before and up to the time of Jesus is also very informative. His discussion about the larger Roman world and its differences from Christianity and Judaism is first rate.

But when it comes to his analysis of early Christianity, he shows himself to be out of his element. Segal insists that the only proper criteria for discovering what Jesus did and said is "dissimilarity." That is, the only things that Jesus did and said that we can be sure of is that which differed from the Judaism from which he came and the church which came from him. While I agree that there is much value to this criteria, it cannot stand in isolation. It is implausible to assume that Jesus learned and retained nothing of his rich Jewish heritage or that the Early Church learned and retained nothing from Jesus. At the very least, Segal should leave some room for considering the criteria of coherence and multiple attestation. I also think that, given how quickly early Christianity became a Gentile movement, features of it and its memories of Jesus that reflect authentic Judaism are likely authentic.

The most attractive feature about the book is that it is likely to reveal to Jews and Christians that they have much more in common than they may have realized. However, to the extent that Segal attempts to reconstruct the historical Jesus and early Christianity, it leaves much to be desired.