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“Opening with a summary of anti-Judaism in Christian scholarship, exemplified by
Ferdinand Weber, Wellhausen, Bousset, Schurer, and Bultmann, Tyson confirms the sociology of knowledge perspective that commentary is influenced by the culture in which it develops. He compellingly shows how late- nineteenth- and early-twentiethcentury exposition recapitulated the prevailing negative views—derived from confessional apologetic, prejudice, and ignorance coupled with uncritical historiography and lack of access to primary Jewish sources—of ‘late Judaism’s’ practice and theology, despite alternative constructions offered by Abraham Geiger and other Jewish scholars. This prevailing fabrication is then traced in the studies of the three major early scholars of Luke-Acts: Baur, Harnack, and Schlatter. . . . Tyson’s work appears to show that any attempt to read Luke-Acts as ‘pro-Jewish’ is doomed. The question is thus not finally whether Luke-Acts is ‘anti-Jewish’ but rather first, how it displays its anti-Judaism, and second, how Christians come to terms with this depiction. For these issues, Tyson’s publications are required reading.”— Jewish Quarterly Review
“Tyson has produced an important book that many scholars, teachers, students, researchers, and non-specialists can use effectively and productively.”—
Literature
In Luke, Judaism, and the Scholars, Joseph B. Tyson surveys the history of critical scholarship on the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles over the past two centuries and draws particular attention to the interpretation of Luke’s treatment of
Jews and Judaism. Noting that the Holocaust was a major turning point in the history of New Testament scholarship, Tyson demonstrates that the events of 1933–1945 have similarly influenced the study of Luke’s writings. He suggests that, as the most perplexing of New Testament texts in its ambivalence toward Judaism, Luke-Acts has left scholars ample room for interpreting the question of how Luke meant to portray first-century Jews.
Review of Biblical
Joseph B. Tyson is a professor emeritus of religious studies at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. He received his Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary and taught at SMU for forty years. He is a Fellow of the Westar
Institute’s Acts Seminar, and he has served as chair of the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations, sponsored by Boston College.
Tyson’s many books include Images of Judaism in Luke-Acts; Luke, Judaism, and the Scholars: Critical Approaches to
Luke-Acts; and Marcion and Luke-Acts: A
Defining Struggle.
October 2010, 208 pages
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