Judaisms and their Messiahs at the Turn of the Christian Era

by Jacob Neusner (Editor), William Scott Green (Editor), Ernest S. Frerichs (Editor)

While Jews in ancient Israel had much in common, in fact there existed no such thing as an orthodox Judaism. Diverse Judaisms, each with its own way of life, world view, and definition of the social entity (or Israel) to whom it spoke, flourished. Since there was no single Judaism, there was no single Messiah-idea or Messianic doctrine. Various readings of the Messiah theme reached definition in the various unrelated religious systems or Judaisms produced by those Jews--hence "Judaisms" and "their Messiahs." In this book, distinguished specialists in late antiquity Judaisms, including Christian scholars, take up the differing place and role of the Messiah-idea. Dealing with the best-documented Judaic systems--the Essene community at Qumran, Christian Judaisms represented by Matthew and Mark, the nascent rabbinic Judaism portrayed in the Mishnah, the Judaic system implicit in the writings of Philo--each author works out how a given system treats the Messiah theme.

Genres: Judaism

316 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 1988

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

[Joshua Pearsall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a great book for historical references, and as with the last book to show a massive series of concessions and notes that contradict many objections and attacks on Christianity not only from other skeptics but from the very ones in these pages. Saying that Christanity invented Messianic thoughts then nothing how many of them were present. Doing ridiculous things such as appealing to the imaginary Q document, then saying the gospel writers revised their quotations of it even though they can't even prove the document exist let alone what it says. As Michael Douglas says, speculation isn't argumentation or evidence. Even noting how there were thoughts of a Divine Messiah, of the Messiah as the Son of God &/or the Divine Son, the idea of a Divine Logos as found in Philo, the Messiah as Priest and King, and nothing these ideas are not exclusive. Yet, somehow, "Christians re-interpreted" messianic thought because of the idea of a suffering Messiah, despite how that is all over the Old Testament (Psalm 22, 69, 88, Jonah, Isaiah 52-3; Zechariah 12, and many more). And their claim that somehow the Christian claim is on a singular idea of the Messiah, but yet several authors critique the NT authors for not using the title Messiah while other authors note how the NT authors are using many messianic titles, and failing to grasp that 1 these go together and 2 how to properly understand them. For all the great things this book notes, there are certainly many great errors as well. If you wish to see the true Biblical interpretation and Christian orthodoxy, I recommend books like Walter Kaiser Jr's Messiah in the Old Testament and the Moody Handbook of Prophecy. If you wish to see the skeptics making important notes and concessions that undermine their critiques and claims, and those of other skeptical scholars, and to see and demonstrate their faulty presuppositions, then take a crack at this and enjoy the read.

[Kendall Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good review of discussions of Messiah in various collections of second temple literature. Many of these essays were very helpful for my research. As with any essay collection, some essays are better than others. That is very true for this volume. Some essays are phenomenal; others not so much.

At times the tone is a bit angsty against earlier scholarship, but a lot of good points are made.

All in all, good review with special attention to the primary source material.

[David Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a brilliant review of documents that mention "Messiah" from the second century BC to the second century AD (before and after Jesus). It shares ideas held by various sects (Qumran community, Pharisees, Christians, etc) on the concepts of what and who relating to the Messiah. This book was for the most part a good read, and held my interest.

[R.G. Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good collection of articles on various aspects of Messianic views around the time of the rise of Christianity, but it shows its age at this point, and it's not the most decisive collection of such analysis. Worth reading if you are specifically researching this topic.