The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination: A Study in Modern Jewish-Christian Relations

320 Pages·2010·2.34 MB·English

by  Daniel R. Langton

theapostlepaulinthejewishimagination
TheApostlePaulintheJewishImaginationisapioneeringmultidisciplinaryexamination
ofJewishperspectivesonPaulofTarsus.Here,theviewsofindividualJewishtheolo-
gians,religiousleaders,andbiblicalscholarsofthepast150years,togetherwithartistic,
literary,philosophical,andpsychoanalyticalapproaches,aresetalongsidepopularcul-
tural attitudes. Few Jews, historically speaking, have engaged with the first-century
Apostle to the Gentiles. The modern period has witnessed a burgeoning interest in
this topic, however, with treatments reflecting profound concerns about the nature
of Jewish authenticity and the developing intercourse between Jews and Christians.
Inexploringtheseissues,JewishcommentatorshavepresentedPaulinanumberof
apparentlycontradictoryways.Amongotherthings,heisbothabridgeandabarrier
tointerfaithharmony;boththefounderofChristianityandaconverttoit;bothan
anti-JewishapostateandafellowtravelleronthepathtoJewishself-understanding;and
boththechiefarchitectofthereligiousfoundationsofWesternthoughtandtheirdes-
troyer.TheApostlePaulintheJewishImaginationrepresentsanimportantcontribution
toJewishculturalstudiesandtothestudyofJewish–Christianrelations.
Daniel R. Langton is Senior Lecturer in Modern Jewish–Christian Relations at the
UniversityofManchester.HeistheauthorofClaudeMontefiore:HisLifeandThought
(2002),abiographyofthefounderofAnglo-LiberalJudaism.

The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination
A Study in Modern Jewish–Christian Relations
.
DANIEL R LANGTON
UniversityofManchester
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Firstpublished2010
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
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Langton,DanielR.
TheApostlePaulintheJewishimagination:astudyinmodern
Jewish-Christianrelations/DanielR.Langton.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Summary:“DanielR.LangtonexploresawidevarietyofJewish
attitudestowardtheApostlePaulinthecontextofmodernJewish
thought,payingparticularattentiontotheroleofJewishidentity
andideology”–Providedbypublisher.
isbn978-0-521-51740-9(hardback)
1.Paul,theApostle,Saint–Jewishinterpretations. 2.Bible.N.T.–
Criticism,interpretation,etc.,Jewish. 3.Bible.N.T.EpistlesofPaul–
Criticism,interpretation,etc. 4.Paul,theApostle,Saint–Relations
withJews. 5.Paul,theApostle,Saint–Influence. 6.Jews–Identity.
7.Jews–Civilization. 8.Christianityandotherreligions–Judaism.
9.Judaism–Relations–Christianity. I.Title.
bs2506.3.l37 2010
225.9(cid:2)2–dc22 2009042400
isbn978-0-521-51740-9Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofurlsforexternalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtoin
thispublicationanddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,
orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgments pagevii
Introduction 1
parti. theapostlepaulandpopularjewish
culturalidentity
1 PaulinthePopularJewishImagination 23
partii. theapostlepaulandjewishidentity:newtestament
studiesandtheologicalapproaches
2 ConstructionsofPaulandInterfaithRelations:BuildingBarriersor
BridgesbetweenJudaismandChristianity 57
3 ConstructionsofPaulinIntra-JewishDebate:EstablishingJewish
Authenticity 97
4 ConstructionsofPaulasaDialogicalPartner:Transformative
ApproachestoJewishSelf-Understanding 154
partiii. theapostlepaulandjewishinterest
inthejudeo-christiantradition:artistic
andliteraryapproaches 175
5 AnOratoriobyFelixMendelssohn,aPaintingbyLudwigMeidner,
andaPlaybyFranzWerfel 178
6 TheNovelsofShalomAschandSamuelSandmel 210
partiv. theapostlepaulandjewishcritiques
oftheplaceofreligioninsociety:philosophical
andpsychoanalyticalapproaches 231
7 ThePhilosophicalWritingsofBaruchSpinoza,LevShestov,andJacob
Taubes 234
v
vi CONTENTS
8 ThePsychoanalyticalWritingsofSigmundFreudandHannsSachs 263
Conclusion 279
Appendix:TheStoryofAbbuGulishinTheBookofTales 287
Bibliography 289
ScriptureandOtherAncientWritingsIndex 303
GeneralIndex 305
Acknowledgments
ThisworkspringsnaturallyenoughfrommyearlierresearchonClaudeMonte-
fiore,thebiblicalscholarandfounderofAnglo-LiberalJudaism.Prominentamong
hislifelonginterestshadbeenthelifeandthoughtoftheApostletotheGentiles
and, in seeking to contextualize this particular interest, I was led to discover a
surprising variety of colourful and imaginative readings of Paul by other Jewish
thinkers.IthankmyfriendanddoctoralsupervisorTonyKushnerforhavingori-
ginallysuggestedMontefioreasasubjectforstudy,andthusforhavingstartedme
offalongthispath.JustasimportanthasbeentheresearchcultureIhaveenjoyed
attheCentreforJewishStudiesandinthedepartmentofReligionsandTheology
at the University of Manchester, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to
thank my colleagues for their support, encouragement, and friendship over the
lastfewyears,particularlyPhilipAlexander,BernardJackson,andBillWilliams.
One of the pleasures of writing a book is stumbling across individuals who
actuallyappearinterestedinwhatoneisdoing.InthisregardIwouldparticularly
liketomentionAlanSegalandMarkNanos,whosestimulatingcorrespondence
has been of enormous benefit to me. I would like to thank the following most
warmly for their suggestions or help in one way or another: Glenda Abramson,
RoccoBernasconi,MarcCaplan,JohnDavies,DaveFranks,MichaelHoelzl,Brian
Horowitz,DanielLasker,DavidLaw,HyamMaccoby,ZivaMaisels,StefanMeissner,
PeterOakes,AlexSamely,ReuvenSilverman,RenateSmithius,andTimStanley.
Special thanks go to my brother Michael for proofreading, and to Mirjam Belz
and Noam Livne for their help with translation. I have been greatly assisted by
the generosity of Kevin Proffitt and the staff of the American Jewish Archives,
Cincinnati;GregoryMorrisandthestaffofStDeiniol’sLibrary,Harwarden;the
staffoftheParkesLibraryattheUniversityofSouthampton;andthestaffatthe
RobertGoreRifkindCenterforGermanExpressionistStudies,LosAngeles.
I gratefully acknowledge the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
research leave scheme, which made possible a sabbatical in which I was able to
write up most of this work. Much of the material was published previously in
slightlydifferentformsandhasbenefittedgreatlyfromthecommentsofferedby
theanonymouspeerreviewersforJournalofJewishIdentities,JournalforModern
Jewish Studies, Journal of Religion and Society, Journal for the Study of the New
Testament, Melilah, Mishkan, Modern Judaism, and Studies in Christian–Jewish
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Relations. The anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press also made a
goodmanyusefulsuggestionsforwhichIamalsoverygrateful.
Finally,IwouldliketoacknowledgethekindpermissionofHauswedell&Nolte,
Hamburg, to reproduce a rare example of a representation of the Apostle Paul
byaJewishartist,andonewhichisafocusfordiscussioninChapter5:‘Paulus-
predigt’ [Paul’s Sermon] (1919) by Ludwig Meidner, watercolour, 68 × 49 cm,
BullerCollection,Duisberg.
Idedicatethisstudytothemostimportantwomeninmylife:mymother,my
wife,andmydaughter.
Introduction
Few Jews, historically speaking, have engaged with the first-century Apostle to
the Gentiles. The modern period has witnessed a burgeoning interest, how-
ever, with treatments reflecting profound concerns about the nature of Jewish
authenticity and the developing intercourse between Jews and Christians. In
exploring these issues, Jewish commentators have presented Paul in a number
ofapparentlycontradictoryways.Heisbothabridgeandabarriertointerfaith
harmony; both the founder of Christianity and a convert to it; both an anti-
Jewish apostate and a fellow traveller on the path to Jewish self-understanding;
and both the chief architect of the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western
thought and their destroyer. The goal of the present volume is to outline and
explain these aspects of the Jewish debate about Paul, as represented in the
worksofindividualJewishtheologians,religiousleaders,biblicalscholars,artists,
musicians, playwrights, novelists, philosophers, and psychoanalysts of the last
150years.
We will begin with an account of the popular Jewish view of Paul, which is
oftenunderstoodtobederivedfromapremoderntraditionofhostilitytowards
theapostleandwhichregardshimasthedamnableinventorofChristianityand
the ultimate cause of centuries of Jewish suffering.1 Here it will be argued that
claims for an ancient origin of this hostility have been exaggerated and that the
realrootsofmodernpopularJewishantipathylieintheapostle’sassociationwith
muchmorerecentsocioculturaldevelopments(Chapterone).Attheheartofthe
studyisanexaminationofthewayinwhichJewishreligiousleaders,theologians,
and New Testament scholars have treated Paul, and in particular their focus on
hisbackground,hisattitudetowardstheLaw,thequestionofhisoriginality,and
hisrelationshiptotheJewishJesus.Thiswillinvolveconsiderationoftheapostle’s
placeinthecontextofinterfaithdialogue,whereheisusedbothtoencourageandto
setthelimitsofunderstandingbetweenJewsandChristians(Chaptertwo).2Itwill
1 The brief survey of premodern contributors in Chapter one includes al-Mukammis, Kirkisani,
Hadassi,IbnKammuna,ProfiatDuran,andIsaacTroki,alongwiththenotoriousToledotYeshu
(StoryofJesus).
2 ChaptertwoincludesHeinrichGraetz,ElijahBenamozegh,KaufmannKohler,MartinBuber,Leo
Baeck,AbbaHillelSilver,HyamMaccoby,IsaacMayerWise,JosephKrauskopf,ClaudeMontefiore,
PinchasLapide,andMarkNanos.
1