Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity

393 Pages·2006·5.69 MB·English

by  Daniel Boyarin

Border Lines
DIVINATIONS: REREADING LATE ANCIENT RELIGION
SeriesEditors
Daniel Boyarin
VirginiaBurrus
Charlotte Fonrobert
Robert Gregg
Acompletelist ofbooks in the series isavailablefrom the publisher.
Border Lines
The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity
Daniel Boyarin
PENN
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia
Copyright©2004University ofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrights reserved
Printedinthe UnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 4 3 2 1
Publishedby
University ofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4011
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
Boyarin,Daniel.
Border lines : thepartitionofJudaeo-Christianity/Daniel Boyarin.
p.cm.- (Divinations:Rereading LateAncientReligion)
Includes bibliographicalreferencesand index.
ISBN0-8122-3764-1(cloth : alk.paper)
1. Christianity-Origin. I. Title:Border lines. II. Title. III. Series.
BR129.B69 2004
296.3'96'09015-dc22
2003065753
Ghermiipel crine il desiderio alato!
Arrigo Boito
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Contents
Preface:InterrogateMyLove IX
ListofAbbreviations XVlli
1 Introduction 1
PartI MakingaDifference: The HeresiologicalBeginnings of
ChristianityandJudaism
2 Justin's Dialoguewith the Jews:
The BeginningsofOrthodoxy 37
3 Naturalizingthe Border:
ApostolicSuccession in the Mishna 74
PartII The Crucifixionofthe Logos:How LogosTheology
Became Christian
4 The IntertextualBirth ofthe Logos:
The Prologueto John asaJewishMidrash
5 The JewishLifeofthe Logos:
LogosTheologyin Pre- andPararabbinicJudaism 112
6 The Crucifixionofthe Memra:
How the LogosBecame Christian 128
PartIII Sparks ofthe Logos:HistoricizingRabbinicReligion
7 TheYavnehLegend ofthe Stammaim:
On the Invention ofthe Rabbis in the Sixth Century 151
8 "Whenthe KingdomTurnedto Minut":
The ChristianEmpire andthe RabbinicRefusal
ofReligion 202
VUt Contents
ConcludingPolitical Postscript:AFragment 227
Notes 229
Bibliography 333
Index 361
Acknowledgments 373
Preface
Interrogate My Love
AslongasI can remember I have been in lovewith some manifes
tations ofChristianity(notalwaysones thatmy Christianfriends wouldthem
selves love or even approve). Tennessee Ernie Ford singing on television the
hymn"The Garden" moved me to tears when I was a child. For an oddlygen
deredteenager, St.Francis, the Sissy,provedan incrediblytantalizingfigure ofa
man. Later on it was medieval Christian art and architecture, the cathedrals of
Europe, the spirituality ofMeister Eckhart and Jakob Bohme, Still later, and
most significantly, it has been the writings ofthe Fathers ofthe Church (and
their excluded others, the Christian heretics) that have been most riveting for
me, pulling me into aworld so close to that ofmy own beloved Rabbis oflate
antiquityandyet so foreign aswell,aworld in which oceans ofink (and rivers
ofblood) couldbe spilt on questions ofdetail in the description ofthe precise
relationships between the posited persons ofa complex godhead, a world, as
well,inwhichmassivenumbersofmenandwomencouldchoosefreelyanden
thusiastically to liveliveswithout the pleasures ofsex and the joys offamily.I
findthisworld endlesslymovingand alluring,evenwhen atitsmostbizarre tome.
For the last decadeor soI havedevotedmuchofmytimeandspiritto learning
the languagesofandunderstandingsomethingofthe innerandouterworldsof
thoseearlyChristianmenandwomenwho wrotesuch textsandlivedsuch lives.
Some Jews,itseems,aredestinedbyfate,psychology,or personalhistoryto
bedrawnto Christianity.'Thisbookwon'tletmebedonewithit,or soitseems,
untilI come clean and confess thatI am one ofthose Jews.I cannot,ofcourse,
deny the problematic aspects of that desire; desire is frequently unruly and
problematic. Christians, of course, have been bloody rotten to Jews through
muchofourhistories,andJews,whenoccasionallygiventhe chance,havetaken
theirturn at being rotten to Christians. This desire seems sometimes to be not
entirelyunlike the "love" thatbinds an abusive coupleto each other. Neverthe
less, it is there. The question is,then, what creative use can be made ofprob
lematicdesire-notonlywhatpleasurescan it engenderbutalsowhat utilecan
itbe in the world?
Some Jewswho are soabsorbedby Christianityhavebeeninducedbythat