The Jewish Jesus [review] / Aron, Robert.

64 SEMINARY STUDIES of crucial passages. T h e thesis that Judaism purged from its racial memory all traces of its pristine mushroom beginnings goes unattested and unproved and flies in the face of the biblical taboo against idolatry and Canaanite Baalism. T o cite oneself in support of a number of hastily executed statements is indeed speculative and amateurish. This study by Allegro, who was until recently a lecturer in Old Testament and Inter-Testamental Studies at the University of Manchester, will be criticized as verbose and over-generalized, but it is not without its redeeming features. His theory that there were serious doubts in Jewish attitudes of the time, contra Jewish tradition, towards Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers deserves further consideration. His chapters on John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus represent a convincing description of Jewish despotism. Especially illuminating is his survey of the Herodian period and its plots and counterplots. There is a generous sprinkling of source material from Josephus, adequate plates, a good but limited bibliography, and no indices of subjects, names, and references. Our objection to Allegro's findings may be due to innate conservatism which screams at scholarship that attempts to evaluate the ancient Jewish psyche without an honest and accurate understanding of the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and the oral traditions of the Mishnaic period, the chronology of which is the time span of the book under review. Allegro has a right to his opinion, and he has stated fully in a circular manner the grounds on which that judgment rests. But we suspect that a diet of mushrooms is necessary to satisfy the scholarly palate. Los Angeles Valley College, Van Nuys, California ZEV GARBER Aron, Robert. T h e Jewish Jesus. Transl. by A. H. Forsyth and A.-M. de Commaile, and in collaboration with H. T . Allen, Jr. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1971. vii + 183 pp. $4.95. Robert Aron, the decorated French writer of history and politics and the author of Jesus of Nazareth: T h e Hidden Years (1960; English ed., 1962), writes on the Jewishness of Jesus as reflected in the Jewish customs, prayers, and rituals he knew in his home, in the synagogue, and in the Temple. Written in a brisk, translucent, and absorbing style that often characterizes a good historical novel, this work could appeal to an audience with little knowledge of Jewish liturgy or with an ignorance of the cultural and religious world of Palestinian Judaism in the time of Jesus. The knowledgeable student and scholar, however, will find the work a gross disappointment. There is no attempt to grasp the origin and history of the noble ideas of liturgy presented. A critical appreciation of the structure and content of the liturgical cycle for the Sabbath, holidays, and weekdays is noticeably lacking. The reader is not exposed to the sources used in the author's recording of historical events in the life of Jesus and of Palestinian Jewry. A summary of the content of a prayer and often its relevance to the contemporary man of faith are given, but technical and scholarly comments are a scarcity. The book abounds in misinterpreted rabbinic sources, mistransliterated Hebrew, anachronisms, and popular ignorance of Jewish religious customs and observances. BOOK REVIEWS It is highly questionable if the tradition of Elijah at the Passover meal, the Bar Mitzvah ritual, and the obligatory daily wearing of a tallit katan are found in first-century Judaism. The language of the Kaddish is not literary Aramaic (p. 62) but Hebrew-Aramaic, the vernacular of the Jews during the period of the Second Temple. The Kaddish in the Jewish service occurs in four different forms (five if one includes the Kaddish of Renewal recited at the graveside by the mourner after interment of the deceased), each with a different function, and not one as implied in the text. The author's selection of the Mourner's Kaddish as having been recited by Jesus (p. 62) is unfortunate since the original Kaddish was a doxology of the messianic hope whose language was derived from the prophets and psalmists and was recited by the teacher at the end of a religious discourse. It had no relation to the prayers and still less to the dead. In asserting that a 1st-century congregational service ended with the Aleynu, a prayer proclaiming God as supreme king of the universe and Israel's hope that humanity "on that day" (cf. Ex 15:18; Zec 14:9) will recognize the one God of Israel, the author shows his ignorance of the history of Jewish prayer. It is only since the 14th century that the Aleynu was selected to close all public services on weekdays, Sabbaths, and festivals. The version of the Aleynu cited (p. 63) is from the 14th century and it is essentially the Aleynu adoration edited by the Babylonian Amora Rabh in the New Year Mussaf Amidah but minus "For they bow down to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god who saves not." Granted that the ideas of the Aleynu (nota bene there is no reference to the destruction of the Second Temple) are very old, this does not mean that the poem was recited in 1st-century Judea since its composition as acknowledged by most scholars was 3rd-century Babylonia. On p. 133 the author states, "The Seder itself is followed by readings from the Bible, and by songs, the most popular of which is the 'Song of the Kid,' the Had Gadya. It was composed in Aramaic . . . but only written down long after the time of the Second Temple." This may be taken as a typical "factual" understatement made often by Aron. In actuality, the "Song of the Kid" is written in poor Aramaic with a smattering of Hebrew words by an anonymous author of no earlier than the 15th century who modeled his poem after certain types of medieval European folksongs. One is not at a loss to cite other errors and anachronisms. Tishri was not originally the first month of the Jewish year but the seventh. The earliest traditions of Kabbalat Shabbat may have begun with Ps 92 (p. 52) but this is not the situation today as claimed by the author. Since the beginning of the 17th century the Inauguration of the Sabbath has begun with Ps 95-99, and 29. These six Psalms, first introduced by Moses Cordovero of Safed, represent the six days of work. The Amidah of the Second Temple period consisted of more than six blessings (p. 60). The Zaddikim blessing (cf. b. Meg. 17b; benediction number 13 in the Amidah of every day) was composed at the start of the 2nd century and could not have been known by Jesus. The Havdalah ceremony, parts of the Grace after Meals (birkat hamazon), and Blessings on Various Occasions (birkoth hanehenin) described in the work were composed later than the period of Jesus and not during or before. On more than one occasion the author instructs with half a truth; this is 66 SEMINARY STUDIES a dangerous thing. For example, he mentions that Ps 126 is chanted before the Grace after Meals, but he fails to state that th (...truncated)