A History of the Jews

From time to time I teach theology to church school teachers, parish ministers and volunteers. And I usually preface my remarks with the advice that if one has not embraced the Hebrew Scriptures, one does not know Christ. Jesus was a Jew till he drew his last tortured breath [not a "marginal Jew," pace John Meier.] However, having read Paul Johnson's sweeping history of Judaism, I would go one step further and say that whatever one's faith, even in the absence of faith, we cannot understand the human experience without a long and reflective immersion into the historical experience of the children of Abraham.There were 2.2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide as of 2010. Jews number 13.5 million at this juncture, but a major thesis of this work is precisely that what has always been a tiny religious community numerically has exerted influence far beyond its numbers. One reason, of course, is that all three traditions look to Abraham as a type of father in faith. A more nuanced reason is that the identities of Christianity and Islam have been [and continue to be] shaped by Jewish example, in ways that both are reluctant to acknowledge and have at times actually fought to suppress.Johnson explains the demographics of the Middle East that produced Abraham, a historical being whose unique insight into the all powerful and single nature of one supreme deity begot the dominant structure of faith for much of the world. His brief analysis of the Hebrew Scripture canon is brilliant, and he underscores two critical points usually overlooked. The first is his observation that the "Diaspora" or scattering of the Jews began much earlier than the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. It began, in fact, in 538 B.C.E when Cyrus released the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. Not everyone went home, and many went elsewhere to cultivate a synagogue model of faith life instead of the temple/priesthood.Why this division? The answer rests in Johnson's analysis of Isaiah, specifically the third portion or "Trito-Isaiah" written during and after the Babylonian exile. Isaiah, in this treatment, becomes the father of the modern individual conscience. Practically speaking, Trito-Isaiah marked the end of kingly political identity and priestly power. The observance of the Torah or Law was no longer "everybody's responsibility" but became "my responsibility." Such a theology inspired "The Suffering Servant" [Isaiah 53] and the consequent belief that exemplary holiness and humility was Israel's gift toward which the world would eventually come and receive. [Isaiah 60, proclaimed in Christian Churches on the Feast of the Epiphany]The destruction of Jerusalem finally rendered the Jewish people to a state of absolute homelessness that in many ways survives to this day. As people of the Book, Jews maintained throughout their history a religious cosmology that made isolation a virtue as they maintained small community/synagogue based life around much of the known world. Pagans, as a rule, saw Jewish separateness as a type of snobbery that invited antagonism. The enmity of Christians was of a different sort, the hatred of men for those who were who were once dear brothers and shared a common faith bloodline.Johnson observes that Jews have had to live at the whim or mercy of local or regional governments, which of necessity facilitated the skill of accommodation and the ability to transfer belongings quickly in the face of persecution and exile, often in the form of jewelry, precious metals, and later in cash and commodities; hence the association of Jews with "money changing." Thus the genesis of slurs of dissembling and money-lending took root, among countless others. Always a numerical and religious minority, and cursed in the Christian scriptures, so to speak, Jews became convenient scapegoats during times of plagues and disasters. With the notable exception of England, and later the American colonies, life for Jews was hard and demeaning. Johnson traces the development of the Jewish ghetto, the extreme segregation from Christian life in Europe's major cities.Given its reverence of sacred books and orthodox commentary, Judaism was for much of its history unscientific and did not seek major philosophical exchanges with its neighbors. Only Moses Maimonides [1135-1204] attempted to engage Judaism in any sort of extracurricular dialogue. This isolation would be harder to maintain with the advent of the Enlightenment, which prompted the one true schism of Jewish theology: the struggle to maintain historical continuity and purity [the Orthodox way] versus the logic of dialogue and expansive exchange with the modern world [the Reformed way]. The eruption of Jewish genius into modern day business [e.g., the House of Rothschild] and scholarship [Leibniz, Marx, Freud, Einstein] was a mixed blessing for Jews, as anti-Semitic paranoia over supposed Jewish dominance fueled the European atmosphere for the horror of Hitler's Final Solution.Despite his professional objectivity, Johnson himself marvels at the depth of personal faith in the countless victims of Nazi death camps. They died, he reports, in the confidence that their grim fates were in some mysterious way God's plan for his chosen ones to become that "light to the nations" proclaimed in Isaiah 60. The post-War response of intensified Zionism and the establishment of modern day Israel have created new sufferings for the Jewish conscience. Having lived for over two millennia as suffering servants, the demands of statehood and national security--including responsibility for an atomic arsenal--have sorely tested Isaiah's vision of faith with the previously discarded Davidic-Solomon paradigm of strength.It is most unfortunate that present Arab-Israeli political conflicts have distracted outsiders from the majestic history of Jewish faith. In a curious way Jews have lived what Christians profess: Christ's model of the Suffering Servant bearing the sins of the world. Is it this embarrassing fact that has poisoned Christianity to the degree that as late as the 1960's the Catholic liturgy referred to Jews as "perfidious?" Is Christian-Jewish dialogue today a matter of redressing old wrongs, or a matter of Christianity finding itself?

I have to say that I honestly don't know how I managed to live in the 20-21st century, and NOT know that the Jews have ALWAYS been persecuted, no matter where they settled. And I did NOT know that they were widely persecuted and tossed out of Spain, as a sort of "warming up" I supposed for the Spanish Inquisition. I also was unaware that long before things heated up for the Jews in Germany, they were given, pretty much the same treatment, in Russia; herded into ever smaller "ghettos", and limited by endless "Jewish restrictions"; laws that constituted such an onslaught, that they were forced to make it a full time occupation just to try to figure out and be careful not to break any of the horribly constraining laws that were passed against them. These laws limited any hope of them ever betting themselves or getting ahead, and neither were they allowed to emigrate out of Russia. And later, in the 1920's, there was an incidence of anti-Semitism in France, that was so severe, and remarkable, that it's just shocking in it's scope, and it's wide national tolerance and participation, in such an event. In finally coming to grips with the subject of the Holocaust, this writer, choose to give this grave chapter of the Jewish history a less than comprehensive handling, which was something I didn't fully understand. Perhaps it was because the subject has already been covered extensively by other writers in other histories. But I was a bit insulted by his matter of fact, by the numbers treatment, somewhat cold, and factual treatment of the attempted annihilation of 7 million Jews. But on the other hand, I did find it oddly riveting that it wasn't just Germany who was guilty. All of Europe participated in The Holocaust, and almost no one in power tried to shield or defend the Jews "officially". Even more shocking is the conclusion that I have drawn, that the Jew's major crime that they seem to have consistently commited, was simply that they were smarter, on the whole, than other people. Other people's "take" on Jewish History may be something different than what I have gotten. But if so, you might want to take a good long look in the mirror, and consider, that you might just be looking at a racist, if your heart is not wounded by how The Jews have been kicked around on this planet. This book certainly has fueled my interest in further studies of Judaic study. This book is well written, but I can't wait for Schama's take on Jewish "modern" history 1400's - now, due out in October.

How much a reader likes this book is going to depend on what he/she expects from it. I was looking for something to give me some perspective on the tensions in the Middle East and how they came about. Having read Johnson's superb and concise biography of Winston Churchill, I was hoping this book would offer an equally efficient education on Israel/the Middle East.As with the Churchill bio, this book is very readable. Unlike the Churchill book, it is NOT CONCISE. In fact, the author tends to ramble on at times. Johnson starts with Abraham and marches forward covering virtually every event and notable leader in Jewish history. Good material, though. A refresher on Biblical history, antiquity, the diasporas, the Holocost and a host of other topics. But a lot more detail than I was looking for.In the end, I did get what I came for--a better understanding of Israel and the Middle East troubles plus the bonus of reviewing both Jewish history and Western civilization. I just wish that Johnson had streamlined it as he did with the Churchill book.He really could have done it, and the book would have been better for it!!!