Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation

by Jacob Neusner

With the conversion of Constantine in 312, Christianity began a period of political and cultural dominance that it would enjoy until the twentieth century. Jacob Neusner contradicts the prevailing view that following Christianity's ascendancy, Judaism continued to evolve in isolation. He argues that because of the political need to defend its claims to religious authenticity, Judaism was forced to review itself in the context of a triumphant Christianity. The definition of issues long discussed in Judaism—the meaning of history, the coming of the Messiah, and the political identity of Israel—became of immediate and urgent concern to both parties. What emerged was a polemical dialogue between Christian and Jewish teachers that was unprecedented.

In a close analysis of texts by the Christian theologians Eusebius, Aphrahat, and Chrysostom on one hand, and of the central Jewish works the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Genesis Rabbah, and the Leviticus Rabbah on the other, Neusner finds that both religious groups turned to the same corpus of Hebrew scripture to examine the same fundamental issues. Eusebius and Genesis Rabbah both address the issue of history, Chrysostom and the Talmud the issue of the Messiah, and Aphrahat and Leviticus Rabbah the issue of Israel. As Neusner demonstrates, the conclusions drawn shaped the dialogue between the two religions for the rest of their shared history in the West.

Genres: Religion, Judaism, History

264 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 1987

About the author

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Neusner was educated at Harvard University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (where he received rabbinic ordination), the University of Oxford, and Columbia University.

Neusner is often celebrated as one of the most published authors in history (he has written or edited more than 950 books.)Since 1994, he taught at Bard College. He also taught at Columbia University, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Brandeis University, Dartmouth College, Brown University, and the University of South Florida.

Neusner was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He is the only scholar to have served on both the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. He also received scores of academic awards, honorific and otherwise.

Reviews

[Robert Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neuser, as always, is great. A thoughtful scholar, he here engages early Christianity from the perspective of a Conservative Jew. Despite the title, there is not any interaction with Constantine or someone like Hauerwas. This book is a comparison between Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah on the one hand, and Eusebius, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Aphrahat on the other. There are multiple appendices, which are the author's own translations of portions of Leviticus Rabbah, larger parts of Genesis Rabbah, and some of Aphrahat's work.
While some may find them tangential and pointless, I enjoyed Neusner's digressions, contrasting the development of the Christian Canon with the Jewish Dual Torah. I heartily disagree with Neusner's characterization of early Christian exegesis, but then again, I think Christian's don't understand it eather. I would recommend SANCTIFIED VISION to any interested party.
Overall, an informative, helpful read

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful and thoroughly-researched, especially in the first and final chapters, this work is weakened by the meandering and often-obscure intervening chapters. Neusner makes an excellent case for the separate and individual developments of the New Testament and the Mishnah, Talmud etc., arguing that there is little in either text-collection that indicates it was motivated by the interactions of Christians and Jews, but rather by concerns internal to the respective communities; he also makes an excellent case for these text-collections developing as a result of internal community concerns rather than as a result of political life in the Roman Empire. Good, but the first and last chapters can be read on their own without losing anything in the process.