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The Reluctant Parting: How the New Testament's Jewish Writers Created a Christian Book

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The Reluctant Parting explains why the New Testament-written by Jews, about a Jew (i.e., Jesus) and the Hebrew traditions-is nevertheless hostile and critical toward Jews.

Dr. Galambush does an expert job of sorting through the paradoxes of the anti-Judaism of the New Testament. It would be difficult to imagine anyone with a better background to appreciate the nuances and traditions of both religions. Galambush clarifies the Jewish identity of the New Testament writers, showing how early Christians understood themselves AS Jews writing about other Jews.

Christians no longer perceive the NT authors to be Jews writing critically, and even lovingly, toward other Jews (and other Jewish Christians). Instead, gentile Christians read the anti-Jewish statements of the NT as sacred texts. Consequently, many Christians make uncritical, erroneous assumptions about Judaism: that the New Testament portrays the entirety of first century Judaism; that first century Judaism is exactly the same thing as modern Judaism; that all Jews, then and now, believe that God requires complete and perfect observance of the Torah; and so on.

But when the Jewishness of the New Testament is explained, we come a long way toward understanding why the gospel authors, Paul, and the other writers portrayed Jews negatively. Paul, for instance, portrayed himself as an ideal Jew prior to his conversion-but actually he represents only one, very assiduous kind of first-century Judaism. The often cryptic and exclusive statements of the Johannine writings have probable roots in the Apostle John's community. Understanding more clearly the Jewish background of the NT authors also brings us closer to their basic message.

Galambush discusses each of the New Testament writings, which is a very helpful feature of the book. Two other helpful aspects of the book are Galambush's clear and readable style, and the historical and linguistic sidebars. This is a book I'll recommend for many years!

Julie Galambush is a Jewish convert from Protestantism, and is a religious scholar to boot. Thus, she is imminently qualified to present Christianity from a Jewish perspective. Her approach is similar to that of Amy Jill Levine, another Jewish New Testament scholar who patiently explains to Christians that Jesus was a first century Jew who was not out to establish a new religion, but rather was out to get rid of the Roman oppressors and reestablish Jewish law and tradition in his country. Galambush's greatest gift in this book, in my opinion, is to present the books of the New Testament in chronological order, giving a concise explanation of each of them from a first century Jewish perspective. Every Christian should read this book, if for no other reason than to get a quick review of the New Testament in a very digestable form.

First, let me state that I have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Galambush and I find her to be delightful with an intelligent yet approachable personality. This comes through clearly in her writing. Her scolarship is outstanding, but she is not pedantic.

This book was clearly written for me, a Jewish woman who has had little experience with the New Testament. I was so ignorant that I did not realize the Pharisees were Jews, when I read the Gospels in high school.

I found her explanations of the different books of the NT to be interesting. I appreciated that she explained the thoughts of authors of the different texts and how those differed depending on the author. Because the books of the NT were written at different periods of history and in different locations, some by authors who did not know Jesus directly, the history of the first century can be gleaned. The further one moves from the time of Jesus, the more "fantastic" his life became, the more amazing his miracles. Most interesting to me was the apocalyptic book, Revelations, about which I had heard a great deal, but knew nothing.

I enjoyed this book to such an extent, that I purchased an additional two copies to give as gifts and I have lent my copy to friends.

According to the author "The Reluctant Parting seeks to reconstruct the ways in which the early Christians saw themselves and their movement in relation to the rest of the Jewish world (p. xx)." This objective Galambush achieves, largely through an excellent first chapter that traces the subtle transition from Jewish to Jesus/Jewish to Jesus/Jewish/Christian to Christian and the many permutations thereof.

The next chapters go through the New Testament in a story like format, discussing various issues that Galambush believes illustrates her premise. These synopses are quite good and the information is interesting.

The book is not without its flaws, at least from my perspective. For example, Galambush claims that Luke and Acts were written by the same person. I can't help but believe that Acts was written by two people considering the 1st person changeover in the middle. Moreover, she neglects the fact that many parts of Luke were taken from other literature extant in 1st/2nd Century, which brings into question many of her assumptions about this Gospel. Her account of Matthew underplays the legion of errors which Matthew made vis-a-vis Jewish prophecy. My question would be - "How can Matthew have been a pious Jew if he made so many mistakes?" Was he just stupid? Or maybe he wasn't a Jew at all, hence accounting for the errors and also for the harsh anti-Semiticism. Galambusch ignores this line of questioning.

These are relatively minor problems. My main criticism of the book is the all too short epilogue that doesn't match the opening chapter. Here I would have liked Galambush to give us a synthesis of what we've read. Some questions I would have liked discussed - "How did the differing Jewish and Christian subgroups effect each other?" "What were the preeminent outside influences impacting all these groups?" "What distinctive Jewish elements remained after the Christians took over?" "Given the schizod origins of the New Testament, did that influence the subsequent development of the religion?" Maybe these questions were beyond Galambush's scope, or maybe they can be raised in a subsequent edition.

In summary, Galambush's book is a well written, interesting, and informative look at the part which Jewish writers played in constructing the Christian Bible. This book should appeal to students and scholars alike. I think it would be especially appealing to people who have trouble reading the bible but who are interested in the stories contained therein.

The Reluctant Parting illuminates the Jewishness of the "Christian" New Testament by pointing out that the individual books - including the seemingly anti-Jewish books such as Hebrews and Matthew - were written about a Jew, by Jewish authors, for a mostly Jewish audience, in a Jewish context, and with Jewish goals. Hebrews, for instance, was "intended for Jews who had left or were tempted to leave the Jesus sect in favor of "safer" forms of Judaism." (230) Dr. Galambush argues that the Jesus movement, which was originally a prophetic movement within Judaism, later emerged, unintentionally and unwillingly, as a different religion. Her argument clarifies why books such as Hebrews and Matthew are simultaneously Jewish and anti-Jewish. She makes insightful observations about the contexts - religious, political, social, etc - in which the New Testament was written and discusses each book sufficiently and succinctly.

Three things set this book apart from the plethora of other books on Christian Origins: 1) while most of them accentuate the Jewishness of Jesus, this one goes further to highlight the Jewishness of the New Testament authors and their works as well, 2) This book situates the New Testament not only in light of the complexities within first century Judaism, but also in light of the complexities within the Jesus movement itself, and 3) The author consistently bases her arguments on concrete evidence rather than on mere hypothesis.

Dr. Galambush has written an insightful, lucid, engaging, and enjoyable book that is accessible to the initiated and the uninitiated alike. The scope of the book is impressive and its treatment of issues is in-depth. In short, this is a page-turner that is quite enlightening.

Julie Galambush left Christianity and converted to Judaism, and she writes this book to teach Jewish people in the synagogue about the New Testament. She discusses how Christianity and Judaism parted company, and how the New Testament books were written mainly by Jewish people who had a life altering encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. Her interpretations are surprisingly conservative in some cases, like when she claims that James does not contradict Paul, and that Paul probably did write Colossians. She does stumble a few times, like with her failed interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:15 (an admittedly difficult text) and her contention that Christ taught in Matthew that He would come back in the lifetime of His apostles, which is probably not the case, because why would the writer of Matthew leave that in his gospel after all the other apostles had died? Perhaps Matthew 16:28 and Matthew 24:34 need to be reconsidered.

The book is in my opinion too academic for the average layperson, whether Jewish or Christian. There is too much New Testament exegesis to keep the interest of Jewish people, and Christian people would more than likely look to a Christian for information about the New Testament rather than Galambush, so this book is without an audience, which is probably one reason why it has fallen out of print.

But open minded clergy will probably profit greatly from Galambush's readings of the New Testament. Because she was once a Baptist minister, she seems to have a better handle on the teachings of the New Testament than other Jewish writers who have written about it. It was better than I thought it would be.

I wish that Galambush would have discussed her own faith journey and why she personally chose to jettison faith in Jesus as Son of God and Messiah and embrace Judaism. Perhaps there was no room for it in this particular book, but I can't help but conclude that her personal story would have been far more compelling to both Jewish and Christian readers than this highbrow rehashing of the New Testament.

The questions Christian readers of this book (and I can't imagine that there are too many) would come away with would be "I know that Judaism is a beautiful tradition, but how could you possibly leave Christ for Judaism? I don't get it. Can't you just have a seder once a year and attend high holy day services and still believe in Christ? What were you thinking?" But these questions are left hanging in the air.

Hopefully, Julie will open up and tell us more in a future memoir.

This book provides a very interesting Jewish reading of New Testament texts. Galambash brings novel insights and interpretations to this story of the Christian break with Judaism, taking advantage of her personal history.

It is weaker on the "reluctant parting" itself. This parting was a historical event, but the book is organized around the NT texts and not around that event (or process). This means that Galambash doesn't really provide the sequence, implications and perceived meanings of the reluctant parting in any coherent narrative. The main sources for the parting are, of course, the NT texts, and Galambash discusses them in semi-chronological order, distinguishing types of texts (gospels, epistles, revelation) and trying for a more or less chronological discussion within each type. But that's not the same as a real chronological narrative.

As a result, I suspect this book will be more interesting to Bible study groups than to readers of a more historical bent. If you're looking for a straight history, it's at most three stars because of a weak grounding in the larger literatures. But it succeeds as a novel approach to familiar gospel.

In order for my review to meaningful, the reader needs to know that I am NOT a theologian, nor a biblical scholar. I have long been consumed with a desire for knowledge and understanding of the roots of anti-Semitism.

This book was mentioned by one of my instructors. After reading the reviews on Amazon.com (one of Amazon's MANY wonderful features), I bought a copy for myself. After I started the book, again through Amazon.com I bought several additional copies to give to certain friends.

As I understand it, "The Reluctant Parting" is a "reading" of the New Testament through the eyes of Jews of the first and second centuries after the death of Christ. This is NOT a deeply theological book. Dr. Galambush attempts to offer a view of the way in which Jews, Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians and Pagans would have understood the various segments of the work later canonized as the Christian bible. On the other hand, her various suggested understandings are well explained and are supported with biblical references.

Through this reading and view point, Dr. Galambush provides considerable insight into the origins of anti-Semitism. By explaining the likely origins and factors underlying certain statements in the New Testament, she offers plausible understandings of the likely intentions of the authors. She also provides explanations of how those intentions differ from the manner in which these biblical sections have been read and interpreted in the millennia following those first couple of centuries.

I believe that ANY reader, of ANY faith, will finish this book with a better basic understanding of the birth of Christianity as a sect within Judaism and how it "reluctantly parted" to become a major world religion in its own right.

It is NOT "easy" reading. However, biblical reading, in and of itself, is not "easy" reading either! It IS fascinating and well written.

Examining the New Testament through a Jewish lens offers many fresh insights and has been undertaken by a number of scholars and clerics in recent years, most targeting Christian audiences and some, in the process, raising considerable controversy. (Think of Episcopal Bishop John Spong's reading of the gospels as midrash, from which he concluded that not only was Mary not a virgin, she might have been a victim of rape or sexual abuse, speculation that got him pilloried from conservative pulpits across the country.) Galambush's approach developed from her work with a synagogue study group, and while not principally intended for Christian audiences would clearly enlighten and benefit many Christians who take for granted what sounds like casual (or vehement) anti-Semitism in the New Testament, even as it provides for Jewish readers clarity on the roots of many modern Christian attitudes that cause interfaith problems. The book is thoroughly scholarly but entirely accessible to non-academic readers - highly recommended.

I am truly mystified by the negative comments written about this book by other reviewers. Some of the complaints just don't hold any water. For those complaining it's not scholarly enough--well duh, it wasn't written for an academic audience, but a trade audience. For those who said it wasn't groundbreaking-- did the book claim to hold groundbreaking new discoveries? No. Its strengths lie precisely in carrying known research into the deeper implications of faith-- for Christians and Jews alike. For those who say they don't believe there's a Jewish audience-- did you even read the introduction, where she said the book was born out of questions where she was teaching at synagogue? She knows exactly why Jews don't want to have anything to do with the NT, but the questions were there nonetheless.

People have a lot of nerve impugning the credentials of someone with a PhD in OT Studies from Emory and an MDiv from Yale just because the book didn't cover everything they thought it should. As far as I'm concerned, the most important audience for this book is those who want to enrich their understanding of the NT-- and particularly to understand that the worst anti-Semitism of the Christian Church grew out of later misunderstandings (and/or deliberate misreadings) of the texts, all originally written by those who identified as Jewish. A particularly important book for interfaith families, The Reluctant Parting bridges gaps in understandings and helps unite us all as people of the Book.