Customer Reviews

Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations Between Christians and Jews in the Roman Empire (AD 135-425) (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

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Verus Israel is, without a doubt, an important milestone in the history of studies in early Jewish-Christian relations. Its scholarship is strong, its intentions are noble, and its conclusions are logical. That said, however, it is important to remember that it a milestone, written some time ago. Milestones show us how far we have come, but once we have passed them we must realize that they were not the destination.

Marcel Simon wrote Verus Israel some fifty years ago, in the shadow of the Holocaust. Despite the strange times in which he wrote, his work is fairly unbiased, but only in relation to other works of the period. Serious modern scholarship makes Verus Israel, in comparison, seem like something of a cultural relic which, in many ways, it is. Although a mere fifty years is brief when seen beside the nineteen centuries separating Simon from his period of interest, vast stores of data have since been found, and many basic assumptions in the field have changed.

Verus Israel is a classic, and a worthwhile read if you're interested not just in the field of ancient Christian-Jewish relations, but also in the subject's history. Reading this book alone, however, could lead to a false impression of what scholars currently consider to be reliable. It will be best read with several modern works on the subject.