Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism

by Daniel Boyarin

Not long ago, everyone knew that Judaism came before Christianity. More recently, scholars have begun to recognize that the historical picture is quite a bit more complicated than that. In the Jewish world of the first century, many sects competed for the name of the true Israel and the true interpreter of the Torah―the Talmud itself speaks of seventy―and the form of Judaism that was to be the seedbed of what eventually became the Christian Church was but one of these many sects. Scholars have come to realize that we can and need to speak of a twin birth of Christianity and Judaism, not a genealogy in which one is parent to the other. In this book, the author develops a revised understanding of the interactions between nascent Christianity and nascent Judaism in late antiquity, interpreting the two "new" religions as intensely and complexly intertwined throughout this period. Although the "officials" of the eventual winners in both communities―the Rabbis in Judaism and the orthodox leaders in Christianity―sought to deny it, until the end of late antiquity many people remained both Christians and Jews. This resulted, among other things, in much shared religious innovation that affected the respective orthodoxies as well. Dying for God aims to establish this model as a realistic one through close and comparative readings of contemporary Christian texts and Talmudic narratives that thematize the connections and differences between Christians and Jews as these emerged around the issue of martyrdom. The author argues that, in the end, the developing discourse of martyrology involved the circulation and exchange of cultural and religious innovations between the two communities as they moved toward sharper self-definition.

Genres: Religion, History, Theology, Judaism, Christianity, Ebooks, Nonfiction

266 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. His books include A Radical Jew, Border Lines, and Socrates and the Fat Rabbis. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Laura Robinson]

Absolutely fascinating take on the relationship of Jews and Gentile in antiquity, as examined through the lens of martyr literature. Touches on all kinds of fun topics along the way -- sex and gender in martyrdom, the portrayal of Jesus in the Talmud, competing theologies of martyrdom in one/both religions, etc.

[Matthias]

Interesting thesis on how discourse of martyrology are exchanged although I do think the sources represent separation of the thinking behind martyrdom very early on (second century) and jews adapted the honourable martyrdom from us. Nevertheless, it is interesting how martyrdom is seen as a positive in christianity unlike judaism where although martyrdom is acknowledged as fine but the majority opinion points towards trickery whereas besides origen, because of christ, most see martyrdom positively. It is also interesting how he downplays the maccabean evidence to suit his thesis although he does make a fair point that the positive martyrdom is not seen.

[Ella]

Short but fascinating and the appendix is a truly devastating academic burn.

[Sarah]

This book wasn't quite what I expected. Boyarin argues that late ancient (Pharisaic/rabbinical) Judaism and Christianity didn't have a mother-daughter relationship, but are better spoken of as twin siblings. I found that thesis fairly convincing. I wasn't as convinced by his claim that the two did not have clearly distinct identities until roughly the fourth century (here he is leaning on the Bauer thesis of an orthodoxy of the "victors"). He examines patristic and rabbinical texts on martyrdom for a test case in how the two traditions began articulating their distinct identities. There is some interesting stuff here, and I'd love to see more comparative readings of such texts. I had a difficult time wading through some of his use of critical theory, however.

[Karl Steel]

...relatively sure I've read this. I don't remember my opinions about this as being much different from my review of the other Boyarin I've read. Enormously important for anyone making claims about ancient
'Christianity' and 'Judaism' and the so-called purity of the ancient church. It was a muddle, and was so for centuries. Christianity as such hardly predates Constantine.