The Exegetical Encounter between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity (Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series)

305 Pages·2009·4.64 MB·English

by  Emmanouela Grypeou

The Exegetical Encounter between Jews and
Christians in Late Antiquity
Jewish and Christian
Perspectives Series
Editorial Board
David Golinkin, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz,
Freek van der Steen
Advisory Board
Yehoyada Amir, David Berger, Shaye Cohen,
Judith Frishman, Martin Goodman,
Clemens Leonhard, Tobias Nicklas, Eyal Regev,
Gerard Rouwhorst, Seth Schwartz, Yossi Turner
VOLUME 18
The Exegetical Encounter
between Jews and Christians in
Late Antiquity
Edited by
Emmanouela Grypeou
Helen Spurling
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
University of Tilburg: Faculty of Catholic Theology,
The Netherlands
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel
Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, Israel
The editors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Ingeborg Rennert Center
for Jerusalem Studies.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The exegetical encounter between Jews and Christians in late antiquity / edited by
Emmanouela Grypeou, Helen Spurling.
p. cm. — (Jewish and Christian perspectives series v. 18)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17727-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Bible. O.T. Genesis—Criticism,
interpretation, etc.—Congresses. 2. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—
History—Early church, ca. 30-600—Congresses. 3. Bible. O.T.—Criticism,
interpretation, etc., Jewish—History—To 1500—Congresses. 4. Christianity and other
religions—Judaism—Congresses. 5. Judaism—Relations—Christianity— Congresses.
I. Grypeou, Emmanouela. II. Spurling, Helen.
BS1235.52.E94 2009
222’.110609015—dc22
2009022845
ISSN 1388-2074
ISBN 978 90 04 17727 7
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
Editorial Statement ............................................................................ vii
Preface ................................................................................................. ix
Edward Kessler
Introduction ........................................................................................ xiii
Helen Spurling and Emmanouela Grypeou
‘In the Beginning’: Rabbinic and Patristic Exegesis of
Genesis 1:1 ...................................................................................... 1
Philip Alexander
Adam Alone in Paradise. A Jewish-Christian Exegesis and
Its Implications for the History of Asceticism ......................... 31
Dmitrij F. Bumazhnov
Will and Grace: Aspects of Judaising in Pelagianism in
Light of Rabbinic and Patristic Exegesis of Genesis ............... 43
Burton L. Visotzky
The Christian and the Rabbinic Adam: Genesis Rabbah and
Patristic Exegesis of Gen 3:17–19 ............................................... 63
Hanneke Reuling
Critical Gnostic Interpretations of Genesis ................................... 75
Gerard P. Luttikhuizen
‘Be You a Lyre For Me’: Identity or Manipulation in Eden ...... 87
Michael E. Stone
What Did Cain Do Wrong? Jewish and Christian
Exegesis of Genesis 4:3–6 ............................................................. 101
Robert Hayward
Creating Women’s Voices: Sarah and Tamar in Some Syriac
Narrative Poems ............................................................................ 125
Sebastian P. Brock
vi contents
Genesis 15 in Rabbinic and Patristic Interpretation ................... 143
Günter Stemberger
‘And Abraham Had Faith’: But In What? Ephrem and
the Rabbis on Abraham and God’s Blessings ........................... 163
Judith Frishman
Abraham’s Angels: Jewish and Christian Exegesis of
Genesis 18–19 ................................................................................ 181
Emmanouela Grypeou and Helen Spurling
Keeping it in the Family? Jacob and His Aramean Heritage
according to Jewish and Christian Sources .............................. 205
Alison Salvesen
Early Rabbinic Exegesis of Genesis 38 ........................................... 221
Stefan C. Reif
Origen’s View of ‘Jewish Fables’ in Genesis ................................. 245
Marc Hirshman
Abbreviations ..................................................................................... 255
Index of Ancient Sources ................................................................. 257
Index of Subjects ................................................................................ 275
EDITORIAL STATEMENT
Judaism and Christianity share much of a heritage. There has been a
good deal of interest in this phenomenon lately, examining both the
common heritage, as well as the elements unique to each religion.
There has, however, been no systematic attempt to present findings
relative to both Jewish and Christian tradition to a broad audience
of scholars. It is the purpose of the Jewish and Christian Perspectives
Series to do just that.
Jewish and Christian Perspectives publishes studies that are relevant
to both Christianity and Judaism. The series will include works relating
to the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, the Second Temple period,
the Judaeo-Christian polemic (from Ancient until Modern times), Rab-
binical literature relevant to Christianity, Patristics, Medieval Studies
and the Modern period. Special interest will be paid to the interac-
tion between the religions throughout the ages. Historical, exegetical,
philosophical and theological studies are welcomed as well as studies
focusing on sociological and anthropological issues common to both
religions including archaeology.
The series is published in co-operation with the Bar-Ilan University
and the Schechter Institute in Israel, and the Faculty of Catholic The-
ology of the Tilburg University in the Netherlands. It includes mono-
graphs and congress volumes in the English language, and is intended
for international distribution on a scholarly level.
Detailed information on forthcoming congresses, calls for papers, and
the possibility of organizing a JCP conference at your own institution,
can be obtained at: www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/jcp

PREFACE
Edward Kessler
This book represents a meeting ground for the study of the Bible and
Jewish-Christian relations. Both have changed dramatically in recent
years.
The editors, Emmanouela Grypeou and Helen Spurling, have brought
together a collection of papers which were originally delivered at a
conference they organized under the auspices of The Centre for the
Study of Jewish-Christian Relations and the Faculty of Divinity of the
University of Cambridge in June 2007.
Since the Bible includes the Scriptures both of the Jewish People
and the Church, its interpretation is a crucial factor in understanding
Christian-Jewish relations. Of course, as a classical text of Antiquity,
the Bible invites and requires interpreting. In the last decade or two,
scholarship has come to show that the encounter between Judaism
and Christianity has been two way. Previously, it had generally been
assumed that Judaism influenced Christianity, but the possibility of the
ongoing influence of Christianity upon Judaism was ignored or even
dismissed. The research project which prompted this volume challenges
such presuppositions, demonstrating many examples from over nearly
a millennium when Jewish and Christian interpreters continued to
interact on the basis of scriptural interpretation.
By shedding light on the encounter between Jews and Christians
in the first millennium and challenging previously held assumptions,
The Exegetical Encounter between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity
will ensure that, henceforth, a study of the vigorous ongoing Jewish-
Christian encounter is essential in our understanding of Rabbinics
and Patristics. As Philip Alexander has stated in this volume ‘there is
a powerful intertextuality between the two exegetical traditions, which
students of each should always bear in mind. Broadly speaking, the
history of Christian Bible-exegesis cannot be properly understood with-
out taking into account the history of Jewish Bible-exegesis, and vice
versa: only when one is read against the other do many of the exegeti-
cal moves that each makes begin to make sense’ (Alexander 2009, 1).
This is a significant departure from traditional patristic and/or rabbinic