Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.