A reader writes:
I have a question for you (who doesn’t). As a facilitator in the RCIA program at my parish I’ve realized that my biggest scriptural and historical weakness is the history of the Jewish people. I can tell you all about the Jewish people of the 1st century and the history of the Catholic Church but I fall surprisingly short when it comes to Old Testament history. I definitely need to learn more about this to be an effective evangelizer (is that a word? [yes, it is–Jimmy]) and teacher.
I plan to re-read Genesis and Exodus. I think that will be a good start to learn about the beginnings of our Jewish ancestors. Beyond that, I was curious if you know of any books (or anything else for that matter) that would help me in learning the history of the Jewish people. I’m also looking for something with as many references to scripture as possible. I was hoping that there is an equivalent to "Triumph" by H. W. Crocker III (which I thought was excelent by the way) but for the Old Testament Jewish people.
Of course I’m looking for something Orthodox, not something the Jesus Seminar would be happy with.
Do you know of anything that would help me in learning more in this area?
I’d recommend three things:
- Don’t stop at Genesis and Exodus. Read all of the historical books of the Old Testament. In fact, read the whole Old Testament. In fact, read the whole Bible. Four chapters a day will get it done in a year.
- If you’d like a book summarizing Old Testament history from a traditional perspective, I’d recommend A History of Israel: From the Bronze Age Through the Jewish Wars by the Evangelical scholar Walter Kaiser. (Though I see the one copy they have at Amazon at the moment is quite expensive. I’d check with other vendors to see if they have it.)
- I’d also recommend a book about the life and institutions of ancient Israel by the Dominican scholar Roland de Vaux. It will help you understand what’s going on in the history of Israel better. Since it’s about ancient Israel’s life and institutions, it’s called Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions. Good stuff!
Hope this helps, and God bless!
Jimmy,
You get several queries regarding book recomendations. I’d like to read some of them, but do to the very nature of Blogs they get buried fairly quickly. Might I suggest either a page of the things somewhere as permalink or a link out to an Amazon list/guide (I’d suggest using the guide feature since it probably fits much better).
If this has already been done, great. I just need to know where it is.
A bit off subject, but this entry reminded me of it:
[rant]While many Christians are interested in studying Old Testament Judaism (and which I agree is a valuable task), why are there so few who seem interested in modern Judaism? While modern Judaism is an incomplete religion (and is also internally fractured, similar to Protestantism), I have found study of modern Judaism to be enormously helpful in finding common ground with modern Jews.
I think it a shame that so many seek to evangelize Jews — itself a necessary task — without bothering to study the modern expressions of that religion in order to make that task easier. Study of the ancient Jewish religion helps us to understand Christianity better, but study of the modern Jewish religion helps us to better understand Jews, whom the Holy Father has called our elder brothers in the faith.[/rant]
There’s a great book search engine (it does movies and music too) that searches through dozens of online book retailers. It will show the price, availability, and it usually shows the cost and shipping times of a couple of shipping options. And of course there’s a link to the book on each site. Here is the engine: http://www.addall.com
Using this book as an example, it seems that it costs $118.83 on Amazon.com but there are a few other sites the sell it in the $20-$40 range. Looks like it’s out of stock at most one of those places but there are a couple that seem to have it at the good price.
c’mon, Jimmy, can’t I recommend “Veggie Tales” and any of Cecil B. D’Milles’ movies? That’s where I learned all the old testament stories!!
Eric: Apostasy, according to the Catechism (2089) is the “total repudiation of the Christian faith” and is usually applied to those who were once Christians and have now rejected the Christian faith. Modern Jews never “rejected the Christian faith” in the sense of knowing it true and spurning it. They simply do not agree that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. And, while I agree that contemporary Judaism is an incomplete religion, it is uncharitable in the extreme to label it a “false religion.”
As for finding authoritative contemporary Jewish sources, that is indeed a problem because there is no one Jewish authority that speaks for all Jews everywhere. As a rule of thumb, though, the more traditionally-inclined the resource is, the more likely it is to be closer to ancient Judaism. However, I have found pearls of wisdom in the more liberal sources, too. It just takes time and effort in study to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Mia,
Of course, in some sense Judaism is an “incomplete” religion. The same could be said about other religions. The problem is that Christians often think as if Christianity = Judaism + Jesus. It’s more complex than “simply” not believing in Jesus.
What bothers me is that so often we hear things such as “Jews don’t need to be converted, they only need to be completed.” The implication is that while you and I (as gentiles) need a conversion experience, Jews need something less or different. The Bible message of conversion is the same to everyone. Jesus told Nicodemus (who was Jewish) that he needed to be “born again.”
“Jews who were never Christians are mateiral apostates. Jews who once were Christian are formal apostates.”
Eric, based on that definition, any non-Christian of the Christian era could be considered a material apostate.
Jews who sincerely believe that God requires them to follow the covenant established with Abraham and the Law given to Moses, and are therefore doing so to the best of their ability, can in no way be termed “apostates,” materially or formally.
I strongly suggest reading Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate. The Church has developed greatly over the centuries its understanding of its relationship with non-Christians, including Jews.
Well, Eric, not to prolong this discussion overmuch, but so far I have cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church and referenced Nostra Aetate in support of my position, but have yet to see documentation from you to support your assertions that modern non-Christians are material apostates and that modern Judaism is a “false religion” (as distinguished from my assertion that it is incomplete). I also see no support of your assertions of material and formal apostasy (which you did not define, by the way).
Without such documentation, you have not proved your points, you’ve only stated them; and, as unsupported statements, they can only be considered your opinion.
“I for one do not consider modern Jews to be my ‘elder brothers in the faith’.” Pope John Paul II did; think I’ll stand with him.
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