Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU

Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department Faculty Publications Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department

8-2013

Review of Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maurice Casey

Matt A. Jackson-McCabe Cleveland State University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clphil_facpub

Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, and the Other Religion Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Publisher's Statement Copyright Sage Journals 2013. This article first appeared in Biblical Theology Bulletin, no. 3, 2013, p. 170. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146107913493566a

Original Citation Jackson-McCabe, Matt. "Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maurice Casey." Biblical Theology Bulletin, no. 3, 2013, p. 170.

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy & Comparative Religion Department Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel implications for “Judaism” and “Jewish tion between “imagery” and “concept” in Tradition: Essays in Honour of Mau- identities,” the essays are for the most part order to argue that Tertullian was “the first rice Casey. Edited by James G. Cross- concerned simply to identify Jewish con- to clearly endow the expression Son of man ley. London, UK: Equinox, 2010. texts that illuminate the canonical gospels. in the Gospels with a distinct Danielic con- Pp. x + 228. Paper, $26.95. Among the best essays is George tent . . . making it signal the presence of a Brooke’s “Eschatological Wisdom and messianic concept” (p. 89). Maurice Casey is known for investi- the Kingship of God: Light from Some Andrew R. Angel (“God Talk and gating the Jewish and especially Aramaic- of the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Teach- Men’s Talk: Jesus, Tarfon and Ishmael in language context of Jesus and the gospels. ing of Jesus?” (pp. 45–61). Brooke opens Dialogue” [pp. 95–117]) fruitfully compares This volume honors Casey’s work with with a brief methodological statement Matt 5:27–30 with a Talmudic discussion of ten essays by nine authors, plus a Pref- about comparison of the New Testament Leviticus 15 to show that the former’s refer- ace containing brief personal reflections with the Dead Sea Scrolls that all would ence to the “right hand” that “causes you to by C.K. Barrett. If the book’s title seems do well to consider when comparing the stumble” is likely a witty reference to mastur- to signal a special concern for matters of former with anything. Eschewing both bation. Roger David Aus compiles rabbinic identity – a topic of major interest in con- an apologetic emphasis on difference (“to parallels to various elements of the parable temporary scholarship – this reflects pri- protect the uniqueness … of the early of the Prodigal Son to show how they inter- marily an interest brought to the collection Christian project”) and a “too enthusias- relate (“Poverty, Hunger, Going Barefoot, by the editor rather than a recurring focus tic” move from observations of similarity and Homesickness in Lk. 15.11–32 [pp. in the actual essays (see Crossley’s lengthy to assertions of sameness, Brooke endors- 174–85]). Catrin H. Williams offers a very introduction, “Identity, Judaism, and the es an approach that tracks both similarity illuminating study of the Fourth Gospel’s in- Gospel Tradition” [pp. 3–42]). While and difference for the purpose of “mu- terest in Isaiah by situating it in early Jewish the studies presented here might have tually illuminating” comparison (p. 45). discussion of the tensions between Isaah 6:1 The essay then identifies, albeit in a pre- and Exodus 33:20 about the possibilities of liminary way, one particularly promising “seeing God” (“Seeing the Glory: The Re- such comparison: the framing of wisdom ception of Isaiah’s Call-Vision in Jn 12.41” instruction with reference to a divine king- [pp. 187–206]). dom that is simultaneously eschatological A couple of essays get closer to the and presently accessible both in the Jesus issue of identity. Wendy E.S. North ex- tradition and in 4Q Instruction and Songs amines the Fourth Gospel’s characteris- of the Sabbath Sacrifice. tic use of “asides” as a new entrée into Two of the essays build closely on problems of its literary construction of Casey’s work. Bruce Chilton reconstructs “the Jews,” concluding (remarkably) that what he calls the “original wording” (p. the author’s intention was “to promote his 74) of the Lord’s Prayer in order to show own group as an alternative and authentic that Aramaic retroversions of Jesus tradi- form of Judaism” (“‘The Jews’ in John’s tions can shed light not only the meaning of Gospel: Observations and Inferences” words but on the structure of larger units of [pp. 207–26]). A second essay by Cross- discourse (“The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer” ley (“Mark’s Christology and a Schol- [pp. 62–82]). Mogens Müller (“Quota- arly Creation of a Non-Jewish Christ of tion, Concept, or ? The Expression ‘Son Faith”) adduces a “propaganda model” of Man’ in the Gospels” [pp. 83–94]), developed by Noam Chomsky and Ed- observing that “the Danielic [Son of Man] ward Herman to argue that “scholarship saying is never explicitly quoted in the New has imposed its own notions of Christian Testament” (p. 83), draws a subtle distinc- identity on to Mark” thereby reading

170 into it a non-Jewish Christ (p. 119). In a similar vein, Daniel Cohen – postulating “just for the sake of an alternative read- ing” a Galilean Jewish audience for Mark (p. 152) – argues that such an audience would have taken the story of the Ger- asene demoniac not as the beginning of a Gentile mission, but as an indication that Jesus purges the unclean from Israel’s land (“The Gerasene Demoniac: A Jew- ish Approach to Liberation before 70 ce” [pp. 152–73]). The reader who picks up this volume expecting to find sustained analysis of the gospels in light of contemporary dis- cussions of Jewish identity will be disap- pointed. Those who are simply interested in the broader question of Jewish contexts for the Gospels, however, will find worth- while reading. Matt Jackson-McCabe Cleveland State University Cleveland OH 44115

Post-print standardized by MSL Academic Endeavors, the imprint of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University, 2017

171