The Broken Staff: Judaism Through Christian Eyes (review)

136 SHOFAR Winter 1994 Vol. 12, No.2 The Broken Staff:Judaism Through Christian Eyes, by Frank E. Manuel. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. 363 pp. $34.95. Cardinal Carlo Martini, formerly Rector of the Biblicum in Rome and presently serving as Archbishop of Milan, once remarked that the most devastating schism experienced by the Christian Church was not the split between its Eastern and Western branches nor subsequent separation among Western Christians, but its first-century rupture from Judaism and the Jewish people. This split eventually led to the growth ofthe "adversus Judaeos" tradition among the Church Fathers, a theological outlook which argued that Christianity had totally replaced the Jewish people in the covenantal relationship with God. The creation of this deep theological chasm between Jews and Christians resulted in a severing of the Church's initial rooting in Judaism. The knowledge of Hebrew faded in Christian circles, and it was not until the early fifth century that Saint Jerome was able to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin. During the Middle Ages understanding of the Hebrew language and the Jewish tradition was rare, though not totally absent. A few scholars of the period such as Andrew of St. Victor, Roger Bacon, and Nicholas of lyra emerged as prominent Hebraists. It was not until the coming of the Renaissance that Hebrew scholarship emerged as an important discipline within Christian intellectual circles. The early modern period and its considerable scholarship on the Jewish tradition by Christians has been little known or studied by contemporary scholars. Hence we must be grateful for this new volume by Frank Manuel, University Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University and Kenan Professor of History Emeritus at New York University, which provides a comprehensive and critical account of Christian scholarship on Jews and Judaism from the Renaissance to the present time. Manuel's principal focus is on the pre-twentieth-century literature. But in the final chapter, entitled "The Aftermath of liberation," he briefly considers "higher criticism," David Strauss and the lives ofJesus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ending with a final reflection, "In Search of a Common Ground," in which in a few paragraphs he outlines future directions as he sees them. From Manuel's account we learn that even the most sophisticated scholars, well versed in Greek, latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic (and even on occasion Arabic and Syriac), people who were well-trained and in touch with the latest intellectual currents, displayed attitudes towards Jews and Judaism that were deeply affected by the antisemitic legacy of Christian piety. Despite their knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic, they found great Book Reviews 137 difficulty seeingJudaism as anything more than an inferior predecessor to Christianity. They often held highly exaggerated views ofJewish belief and practice, as Manuel clearly demonstrates through his careful analysis of their actual writings. Their primary goal in studying Judaism was not to probe its spiritual and intellectual richness as a tradition, but to expose supposed Jewish errors and ultimately demonstrate the superiority of Christianity. In a word, they were engaging in apologetics far more than true scholarship. Yet, as Manuel himselfadmits, apologetics are not the full story of the period, even though it represented the dominant orientation. What began with polemics in mind sometimes went beyond this narrow goal to genuine breakthroughs in new understandings of the Jewish religiOUS tradition. After a brief overview of previous centuries, Manuel's actual narrative begins in the fIfteenth century with an examination of the writings of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin. Both were humanists who were fluent in Hebrew and Aramaic. They used these language skills to deplore at length Jewish Kabbala, whose insights they applied to their reflections on Christian philosophy and mysticism. In order to learn Hebrew and to gain access to Jewish religious texts, whether to illumine Christian piety or, as in the case of French humanist Joseph Scalige, merely to recover an ancient tradition, Christian scholars had to establish personal contacts with their Jewish peers and with Jewish = publishers. This personal contact with Jews and the inevitable window to concrete Jewish life that it produced also helped to modifY some of the traditional attitudes regarding Jewish beliefs and practices. It was...