This is to say, by applying the standard scholarly and research norms of rabbinic literature to the field of Egyptology, and, similarly, the standard academic approaches of Egyptology to the study of early
rabbinism, she realizes insights and results that are anything but standard and normal for both.
As noted above, the treatment of premodern Judaism is relatively brief; although Scripture, Second Temple history, early
rabbinism, and medieval history are well covered, the omission of any dedicated discussion of the medieval Jewish philosophical tradition is a questionable editorial choice.
Daftly subtitled "Confronting Jewish Self-Hatred" (next week: Macbeth: Confronting Regicide), it comes freeze-dried with its own scholarly responses--a series of appended essays, including one by a professor of
rabbinism. Whether the publishers were too nervous to let the work stand alone or whether Bean thought it a genuinely good idea to swaddle his art in hermeneutic discourse--midrash--I don't know.
The shift in dates from the first (when the Council of Yavneh allegedly took place) to the second century (with the Jewish community of Palestine in crisis after the disastrous end of the Bar-Kochba Rebellion) thus is not a mere quibble but, rather, allows for a significant decentering of the narrative of the origins of orthodox Judaism (
rabbinism) and its institutions and relations with its rivals.
"Post-exilic Judaism" had to be separated from "biblical Israel" so as to achieve a direct linkage of nascent Christianity with the prophetic era, across the abyss of hyper-nomistic
rabbinism, which emerged and began to consolidate in the "Intertestamental Period."
Odeberg's claim that the contrast between
Rabbinism and Paulinism culminated in the question of the freedom of the will.
I was no busier than Blaise Pascal, whose remarkable book, Pensees, contains complete sections of "
Rabbinism" with midrashim that interpret specific Biblical verses in the light of Jansenist teaching.
What particularly troubled Jocz was that Jewish scholars had successfully persuaded most Christian writers of two things: first, that there is an unbroken line of development between the Old Testament and later
rabbinism; second, that Pharisaic Judaism was the religion in which Jesus was reared and that was congenial to him.
The issue of Hengel's presence should be explained as follows: He is one of two scholars who contributed immensely to our knowledge about the influence of the Hellenistic culture on Judaism and the importance of this for our understanding of early Judaism,
Rabbinism, the New Testament, and early Christianity.
The parting does not really occur until the triumph of
rabbinism, which did not take place until the third century.
What he describes as Zadokite Judaism, therefore, provides the roots for what will eventually emerge as
Rabbinism through the mediation of Pharisaism, while the earliest "roots" of Christianity are to be traced to Enochic Judaism, with more immediate "origins" in the non-Qumran wing of the Essene movement (p.
There are multiple modes of destabilization: Yiddish interrupting Hebrew, Hasidism interrupting
rabbinism, women interrupting the masculinism of Jewish culture, and gays interrupting Israeli heterosexism.