Doug Mason: fulltimestudent,
Boyarin’s book “The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ” poses challenges and each needs to be tested.
I agree, Doug. And I'll comment further on that in a moment.
My first thought was, Who is this guy, what is his standing in scholarly circles? In the foreword to the book we are discussing, another scholar, Jack Miles tells that a 'prominent, conservative rabbi," thought that Boyarin 'may' be the greatest rabbinic scholar in the world. That opinion sent me scurrying to google to search Jack Miles. Who is he? He turns out to have something of an academic record also.
Reference: http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5508
Of course, that may not mean much, but at this moment, I have not spent much time researching Judaism, so for a little while scholarly reputations are of some importance.
And what of Boyarin? His University of California bio is at: http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_Boyarin/BoyarinHomePage.html
Education: Professor Boyarin began his education at Goddard College and received his Masters of Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His Education continued with a Masters of Semitic Languages at Columbia University where he did his thesis on The Babylonian Aramaic Verb According to Codex Hamburg. He was awarded with a Doctorate Degree in 1975 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America upon completion of his dissertation on A Critical Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Nazir.
Present Appointment: Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley, Affiliated Member Department of Women's Studies, Member of core faculty in the minor in Gay and Lesbian Studies and of the graduate group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology, and the designated emphasis in Women, Sexuality, Gender Studies, as well as the core faculty of the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture.
Some interestingaspects to his Berkeley appointment in Gender studies. An interesting range of studies.
There is more detail at:
http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_Boyarin/boyarin_cv.html#publications
including his publications.
And again, its not so much what the man is, but how he can arrange his arguments that matters. But his background gives some reason for confidence in spending time on his thougts
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You further posted:
fulltimestudent,
Boyarin’s book “The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ” poses challenges and each needs to be tested.
His dominant themes, as far as I can make out, are that the term “Son of God” comes from the anointing (Messiah/Christ) of King David, whereas the term “Son of Man” derives from the divine figure at Daniel 7. For Boyarin, therefore, “Son of God” refers to Jesus’ humanity whereas “Son of Man” refers to his perceived divinity.
Agreement again, but my interest was sparked by the thought that second temple Judaism may not have been as monotheistic as I/we have thought. Here, in his discussion of Daniel Ch. 7, I agree with Boyarin that this is prima fascie evidence that some/someone in the Judaism of the time had thoughts of 'God' being more than one, or at least two gods, (need to look at that further). So why? Was it more Greek tradition intermixing with Jewish tradition?
There are at present a helter-skelter of ideas in my mind. We know that Greek philosophy was moving to a concept of a 'chief God, and we have sudden appearances of a monotheistic outlook at earlier times (thinking of Aten). Iranian Zoroastrianism was also monotheistic and some Indian thought may have been.
So when anyone says the first followers of Jesus were monotheistic, were they really understanding what we understand as monotheism? Did that vision of Daniel ch. 7, have something to do with the way the first followers of Jesus conceived of Jesus?
After all that, I think you will understand that it may be some months before I can make a sensible responce to Boyarin's arguments. (Not least, because the academics that I talk to will be scattered far and wide for (our) summer holidays. University does not resume until last week of February.
Thank you again for bring his book to our attention.
PS: I will contact you shortly to obtain your kind offer of a summary.
