This collection of articles ranges from short pieces, such as an essay on a sentence of the Epistle of Barnabas, to detailed surveys of literature on the question of definitions and identities. Nine of these essays have been recently published, but three are published for the first time in this volume, along with an introduction (chapter 1).
In this introduction, Carleton Paget notes the challenge of Boyarin's Border Lines (2004), and overall as one reads this collection, one cannot be unaware of Boyarin's hypothesis looming over Paget's industries of the past two decades. In fact, it sometimes seems that the unifying theme of the volume is that the essays all in some way may bear upon Boyarin.
For example, it is quite striking that in section 1, ‘Jewish–Christian relations’, Carleton Paget includes a review article (from 1997) which heavily critiques Miriam Taylor's Anti Judaism and Early Christian Identity (1995). Her book, which deals with Christian texts of 150–312, considers the theological and identity-formation issues for Christian writers and readers. In fact, what Carleton Paget's essay does is remind the reader that some important observations now attributed to Boyarin were explored first by Taylor (in a curious omission, Boyarin never refers to her in Border Lines, even though in his Dying for God (1999) he cites her work as ‘generally convincing’). Carleton Paget's negative critique of Taylor tends then to function in the context of this collection as an allusive response to Boyarin, as Carleton Paget defends the historical actualities of different communities in conflict.
In chapter 3 (from 1991) we have a neat exploration of Ep. Barn. 9:4, a text which rejects the need for circumcision, the deceit of an ‘evil angel’ which led to literal interpretation of the law, in favour of allegorical circumcision ‘not of the flesh’.
In chapter 4, on Clement of Alexandria and the Jews (from 1998), we discover how little Clement in fact engaged with Jews and Judaism. Carleton Paget looks to the historical situation to explain this: at the time he wrote, in the later second century, the Jewish population had been decimated. This suggests that ‘the expression of anti-Jewish polemic by Christians may have been closely related to the presence of Jews in the areas in which they lived’ (p. 101). Likewise we feel here a response to Boyarin: historical actualities of defined communities result in textual expressions.
Chapter 5, concerning messianism and resistance among Jews and Christians in Egypt (from 2007), notes concepts of the Messiah and millennialism by reference to a wide range of texts, from Philo and the Sibylline Oracles 3 and 5 (on the Jewish side) and the Epistle of Barnabas to the Apocalypse of Elijah (on the Christian), seen as reflective of Egypt in the years leading to the revolt of 115–17. Carleton Paget's contextualised classification of these texts does rely on agreement in terms of their provenance, but this thematic review of texts is subtly helpful in terms of a wider appreciation of neglected pockets of eschatological thinking in the first and second centuries.
Chapter 6, ‘Jews and Christians in ancient Alexandria – from the Ptolemies to Caracalla’ (from 2004), is a solid historical piece which begins by considering sources, and explores the city of Alexandria and the Jewish and Christian population within it in an essay which is succinct, careful and well-informed.
In chapter 7, on Jewish proselytism at the time of Christian origins (from 1996) Carleton Paget judiciously finds a middle way through the maximalist portrayal of Jewish proselytising activity and the minimalist position which would remove this from Second Temple Judaism. This determining of a moderated position is, overall, an admirable feature of Carleton Paget's book.
Then, in chapter 8, (from 2001) Carleton Paget explores Josephus’ Testimonium Flavianum (Ant. 18.63–4, and the death of James Ant. 20.199–200) in a textual study which should be read by all those who wish to use these for studies of the historical Jesus and the earliest church, in its careful awareness of tendentious reasoning. Carleton Paget presents a case for the (emended) authenticity of Testimonium Flavianum, connected with a surprising notion that Josephus was relatively indifferent to Christianity.
The next essay, chapter 9 (from 2005), provides evidence for the four canonical Gospels being known among the Jews. Carleton Paget agrees that Matt 5:17 is in b. Shabb. 116a-b, though he rightly notes that the expression ‘at the end of “awon gilyon” [ = ευ)αγγε/λιον)’ may indicate a collection of Aramaic sayings of Jesus rather than the canonical Gospel. Later evidence is indeed more fruitful, in terms of Joseph of Tiberias as related by Epiphanius (Pan. 30) who read the Gospels in Hebrew, and also the Martyrdom of Conon.
The next division of the book (section 2) contains Carleton Paget's useful article on the definition of ‘Jewish Christianity’ (from 2007) in chapter 10. Here he provides an excellent literature review and assessment of the question, and concludes by emphasising the necessity of a praxis-based definition (as Marcel Simon tentatively suggested), though Carleton Paget ends with a certain amount of justifiable hand wringing that, though we may try our hardest, we are stuck with a modern category of analysis (as I also reflected upon in an article in 1990, where I argued for the importance of a praxis-based definition). He wonders then whether ‘Torah observant Christian’ may be appropriate, which is definitely a step forward and helpful.
In chapter 11, concerning the Ebionites in recent research, we have a new piece. This is likewise a very useful literature review with balanced and well-judged assessments, presenting in detail the sources, name and beliefs of this mysterious group, with a sensitive appreciation of varieties of adoptionist thought, and a healthy scepticism about the Ebionites’ hypothetical relationship with either the Essenes or the Jerusalem church. But the actuality of the Ebionites is nevertheless affirmed against Boyarin's analysis which would create, ultimately, only a theoretical group useful in Christian identity-formation discourse.
Finally, in section 3, the new work continues in a division titled ‘Judaism in the Second Century’. Chapter 12, a historical chapter, addresses the ‘enigma’ of the second century by critiquing the notion that Hellenistic Judaism crumbled at this time, to be superseded by isolationism and rabbinic hegemony. After all, the second and early third centuries produced three major Greek versions of the Bible (Aquila, Theodotion and Symmachus), and the Sibylline Oracles, at least. In fact, Carleton Paget rightly questions the criteria by which scholars date Jewish Greek writings earlier than 70, or before 135.
With such astute queries, chapter 12 is one of the most interesting chapters of this book. Carleton Paget negotiates the contrary opinions of Millar and Schwartz, siding firmly with the former. He argues convincingly that the picture of a shattered Judaism in the second century is not quite right. There are regional variations. Here one feels there is room for much further study: for example, the material of anti-Jewish Christian martyrdom stories discussed in chapter 2, in which Jews are a potent reality in the Graeco-Roman world.
In the final essay, chapter 13, also new, the categorisation of the Pseudo-Clementine literature within Judaism in the second century is discussed. This springs from Carleton Paget's agreement with the thesis of Heintze and Bousset that Hom. 4–6 (and possibly Rec. 8–10) come from a Jewish-Hellenistic source (with much in common with themes of Philo and Josephus), in which a certain Jewish convert (Clement) engages in dispute with the famous anti-Jewish grammarian Apion. The question is how we can date this source and find its provenance. It is generally assumed to post-date Josephus’ Contra Apionem (c.93–6), but Carleton Paget suggests a date long after Josephus when the figure of Apion is significantly developed, because of the statement that Apion wrote ‘many books’ against the Jews, which he did not. We then are led into the second century. As for provenance, Carleton Paget concludes that Syria cannot be excluded, though one wonders if Alexandria, predating the years 115–17, might be a better possibility, or perhaps Rome. That the author participated intellectually in the Second Sophistic does not necessarily take us very far into the second century. This is not to argue against Carleton Paget's overarching purpose, however, to restore vibrancy to the Diaspora Judaism of a later era.
Carleton Paget has explained his collection of articles into one volume for reasons of both practicality and currency. In terms of practicality, having them available in a single book, rather than in disparate journals and volumes, is indeed very useful. The currency of the subject in terms of the intensity of scholarly discussion makes this particularly welcome. Carleton Paget generally provides a balanced and reliable assessment of critical questions. Given the present academic climate, it is refreshing to read a corpus of essays in which the author is not attempting to impress by a dashing new theory of high impact, but rather aiming to assess, with much studious care and erudition, a vast range of scholarly work, often arriving at cautious, informed and moderating positions. As he states at the outset, ‘the fragmentary and sometimes vague evidence at our disposal does not sit easily with definite conclusions’ (p. 36).
