| Popis: |
This essay reviews and assesses current theories concerning the origins of “Jew(s)” and their relation to “Judaean(s)” and “Judaism.” It is organized around the works of four scholars – Shaye Cohen, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Steve Mason – that epitomize current contending schools of thought on these matters. While there is much of value in each scholar’s arguments, all suffer from problems associated with reserving the category “Jew(s)” exclusively for purported adherents of a system of theological belief termed “Judaism” as well as with historicized evolutionary narratives that find “ethnic Judaeans” superseded by “religious Jews” (Cohen, Blenkinsopp, Mason) or that find “Judaism and Jews” to be subjects of biblical accounts of the earliest Israelites (Brettler). |
