By
– March 26, 2012
Peter Shäfer, professor of Judaic studies at Princeton, provides a sophisticated treatment of the subject of Jesus and other figures in the New Testament in Talmudic literature. This subject has a long history, but has never been undertaken with the kind of rigor and sensitivity to contextual factors, including the differences between the evidence available in the Babylonian versus Jerusalem versions. Shäfer discusses the many deletions of this material under Christian censure during the Middle Ages, offering convincing reconstructions of the original texts and contexts. Clear and accessible reading for the non-specialist, this is a careful, scholarly treatment that sets the agenda for future studies. Bibliography and index.
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D., University of Kansas, is the author of Mysteryof Romans, winner of the 1996 National Jewish Book Award, Charles H. RevsonAward in Jewish-Christian Relations.