Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism

Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Compiled, edited, and introduced by Lawrence H: Schiffman. Hoboken: KTAV, 1988, 777 PP., $29.50 paper.

Teachers who have the great pleasure of guiding students through the Jewish literature of the second-temple period face a practical problem: how to provide affordable access to up-to-date editions of the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, Bar Kochba letters, and at least a digest of the immense corpus emanating from rabbinic Judaism. This is a formidable body of literature!

Schiffman has put all who teach in the area of second-temple Judaism (which, of course, includes the NT!1 in his debt by compiling, editing, and annotating selections from this material within the compass of approximately 750 pages. Schiffman is just the person to undertake such a task, being one of the premier scholars of second-temple and rabbinic Judaism. This reader is a nice complement to his earlier work dealing with the history of the period (From Text to Tradition: A History nf'6econd Temple and Rabbinic Judaism [KTAV, 1991.]).

Schiffman organizes his reader chronologically, beginning with the Biblical period and continuing through the Amoraic era of the early Middle Ages. Within each era, he illustrates certain aspects and topics that are essential for grasping the essence of the various "Judaisms." Each section is introduced with succinct summaries.

Only two works are remotely comparable: a compilation by G. W. E. Nickelsburg and M. E. Stone (Faith and Piety in Early Judaism: Texts and Documents [Fortress, 1983)) and the classic standard on NT backgrounds by C. K. Barrett (The New Testament Background: Selected Documents [Harper & Row, 1989)). For second-temple and rabbinic Judaism, however, neither provides the depth and comprehensiveness of Schiffman's reader.

This is such a valuable tool one feels embarrassment at raising quibbles. My main criticism concerns the section devoted to the rise of the early Church. It is obvious that this is the one area in which Schiffman is not an expert. He limits his selections from the NT to the Gospel according to Mark. The result is a quite restricted perspective on what the earliest Jewish Christians believed. How can one possibly leave the apostle Paul out of consideration? Embedded in Paul's letters (all of which are probably earlier than Mark) are traditional pieces and formulations that go back to the earliest phases of the Jesus movement, Schiffman's reader does not do justice to the variety and richness of NT thought, which is deeply indebted to its Jewish roots at point after point.

On the whole, however, Schiffman's selections are judiciously chosen, especially those from rabbinic Judaism, rarely an area of competence for NT specialists: This reader will long be a standard text for courses in both NT backgrounds and second-temple Judaism.

Larry R. Helyer

Taylor University; Upland, IN

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Mar 2000
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