Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel, and the Initial Confrontation (Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism)

263 Pages·2008·11.41 MB·English

by  Jacob Neusner

J
udaism &
C
hristianity
A
in the ge of
C
onstantine
history,
messiah, israel,
and the initial
confrontation
Jacob Neusner
Judaism and Christianity
in the
Age of Constantine
Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism
EDITED BY
Jacob Neusner, William Scott Green, and Calvin Goldscheider
Judaism and Christianity
in the
Age of Constantine
History, Messiah, Israel, and the
Initial Confrontation
Jacob Neusner
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637
TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London
©1987byTheUniversityofChicago
Allrightsreserved.Published1987
Paperbackedition2007
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
16 15 14 13 12 1110 09 08 07 2 3 4 5 6
ISBN-13:978-0-226-57652-7(cloth)
ISBN-13:978-0-226-57653-4(paper)
ISBN-10:0-226-57652-3(cloth)
ISBN-10:0-226-57653-1(paper)
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
JudaismandChristianityintheageofConstantine.
(ChicagostudiesinthehistoryofJudaism)
Bibliography: p.
Includesindex.
1. Judaism—relations—Christianity. 2. Christianity
andotherreligions—Judaism. 3. Judaism—History—
Talmudicperiod,10–425. 4. Christianity—Earlychurch,
ca.30–600. 5. Midrash—Historyandcriticism.
I. Neusner,Jacob,1932– . II. Series.
BM535.J822 1987 292.3(cid:2)872 87–5952
ISBN0–226–57652–3
(cid:4)∞Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimum
requirementsoftheAmericanNationalStandardfor
InformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrinted
LibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1992.
For my nearest and dearest colleagues
WENDELL S. DIETRICH
ERNEST S. FRERICHS
CALY IN GOLDSCHEIDER
ALAN ZUCKERMAN
My teachers, my companions
Better the honor of enjoying the friendship
of these aristocrats of intellect and of heart
than any honors the world has in its power
to confer.
I glory in these colleagues,
I take pride that mine is the merit
of sharing career, profession, life itself
with such as these .
. einen besseren findst du nicht .

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction
1
Religion and Political Change 1
Judaism without Christianity 4
The Judaic Sages' Canon in the Context of the Fourth Century 7
Their Intent, Our Interpretation 11
1. Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine
13
Christianity and the Roman Empire in the Age of Constantine 13
Jews in the Land of Israel in the Fourth Century 18
Judaism in the Land of Israel 23
2. Genesis Rabbah and Israel's History: Christian and Judaic
Theories of History and Its Meaning
29
The Issue of History: Events, Patterns, Proofs 29
Eusebius and the Beginnings of Christian Historiography 31
Genesis Rabbah and Israel's Historical Crisis 36
3. The Talmud of the Land of Israel and the Messiah:
Christian Triumph, Judaic Response
59
vii
viii Contents
The Messianic Crisis 59
Chrysostom: Jewish Unbelief, Christian Wavering 61
The Talmud of the Land of Israel and Israel's Messianic Crisis 65
4. Leviticus Rabbah, Genesis Rabbah,
and the Identification of Israel
81
Who Is Israel? 81
Aphrahat and the People Which Is No Peoples 85
Leviticus Rabbah and Israel's National Crisis 94
Genesis Rabbah: The Claim of the Siblings 106
Genealogy and the Political Crisis 111
5. Politics and Proof-Texts: Exegesis and Canon
114
A Test of Falsification 114
Same Topic, Different Program: No Encounter 117
Jerome and the Christian Exegetical Tradition 119
Sifre to Numbers and the Judaic Exegetical Tradition 124
The Christian Canon in the Fourth Century: Old and New Testaments 128
The Judaic Canon in the Fourth Century: The Written and Oral Torah 133
The Absence of Confrontation 141
Epilogue: The Shape of the Initial Encounter
and the Enduring Confrontation
146
Sages' Success in the Initial Encounter 146
The Enduring Confrontation 149
Appendixes
l. Genesis Rabbah on Israel's History 153
2. Aphrahat on Israel 191
3. Leviticus Rabbah on Israel 203
4. Genesis Rabbah on Israel 224
Bibliography 231
Index 237
Preface
Judaism and Christianity as they would live together in the West met for the
first time in the fourth century_ It was then that Judaism addressed the histori
cal triumph of Christianity in a political form that would persist, and that
Christianity met the Israel defined by the sages of the dual Torah, the Israel
that would enjoy enduring life in the Jewish people from then until now. Be
ginning with the conversion of Constantine in 312 and ending with the recog
nition of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire in the Theodosian
Code of 387, Christianity reached that position of political and cultural domi
nance that it would enjoy until the twentieth century_ In our own day Chris
tianity has entered an age no longer responsive to its politics. This book is
about the first meeting, a confrontation that, for Judaism, defined three im
portant terms of the Judaic system from that time onward. Specifically, in the
fourth century, in response to the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Em
pire, Judaism as shaped by sages in the Land of Israel defined its doctrines of
history, Messiah, and the identity of Israel. Those doctrines successfully
countered the challenge of Christianity from then to the point at which Chris
tianity lost its status as self-evident truth in the West. It follows that Judaism
as we have known it was born in the matrix of triumphant Christianity as the
West would define that faith.
I
The age of Constantine was marked by the interplay of issues that were de
fined in the same way by Judaism and Christianity. In the context of tri
umphant Christianity, Judaic thinkers represented in the important documents
of the late fourth or early fifth century, the Talmud of the Land of Israel of the
Land of Israel, Genesis Rabbah, and Leviticus Rabbah, sorted out those three
central questions that had long presented points on which each party framed
its own ideas. But, transformed by the events of the age from merely chronic
1. In my Death and Birth of Judaism (1987a) I argue that the success of Judaism in the West
derives from its response (a self-evidently valid one, to Jews) to the urgent and paramount ques
tion presented by triumphant Christianity. This is a point I further work out in my Self-Fulfilling
Prophecy (l987b).
ix