Flusser

Judaism of the Second Temple Period: The Jewish Sages and Their Literature by David Flusser Reviewed by Jim West

Flusser's second volume of Judaism of the Second Temple Period, like the first, is a collection of essays published over a lifetime of scholarship. The present volume contains twenty-six intriguing selections in 353 pages). Topics include but are not limited to Daniel, Hanukkah, The Decalogue and the New Testament, Hillel, Philo, Jewish Messianism, and Anti-Jewish sentiment in the Gospel of Matthew. Such a collection can only be read to be appreciated. Flusser's pieces are always provocative and well deserving of meticulous attention. And these are no different. I've chosen two particular essays because I found them incredibly interesting and think readers here will as well. The first, 'The Image of the Masada Martyrs in Their Own eyes and in the Eyes of Their Contemporaries' (pp. 76-112). It first must be said that Flusser obviously lived and worked before the current disposition towards the Masada tale as a myth developed. Hence, he takes Josephus at face value. For that, he must not be harshly criticized. What he says about the incident, and the incredible learning and familiarity with the source material he brings to bear, means that his interpretation can still be appreciated as essentially correct. So, in the present essay he '... examines how the Masada warriors' contemporaries understood their actions, paying close attention to the psychological link between Second Temple zeal and the suicide of these zealots...' but before he does he spends a good deal of ink to '... deal briefly with the Second Temple concept of liberty' (p. 77). He doesn't really deal with the concept of liberty briefly though. A good portion of the essay is in fact devoted to the topic. And what does he conclude after a thoroughgoing examination of the material? 'Not only does liberty come to be understood as an individual quality, it undergoes a radical interiorization, largely due to the close link between the acceptance of the yoke of Torah and the notion of internal liberty' (p' 86). This has serious consequences, as Flusser demonstrates brilliantly in the second part of the paper. He opines 'I suggest that the death of the defenders of Masada was understood as an act of atonement for their sins' (p. 98). Further, '... in late Second Temple Judaism, carrying out a divine death sentence by suicide was seen as consistent and positive, since it was assumed that the act was a form of atonement' (p. 99). This will certainly give pause to many! Can he be right? If the evidence he proffers is accepted, he may be. He goes on to say that the Masada Martyrs interpreted their act as 'their taking their lives to atone for their sins, the many sins they committed against their fellow Jews' (p. 105). But what sins would those be? If they were Zealots, weren't they merely defenders of the faith and homeland? Not according to Flusser, who writes '... the zealots, including those at Masada, were considered by most Jews as sinners whose deeds had caused a great deal of suffering' (p. 106), so they killed themselves as an act of penance and atonement. If that particular essay isn't provocative enough then the final one certainly will be. 'AntiJewish Sentiment in the Gospel of Matthew' (pp. 351-354) is short, but profound. In it Flusser argues that the final editor of the Gospel, whom he calls the forger and falsifier, intentionally distorted the Gospel in order to paint the Jews in a bad light. And he himself was a Jew! 'In summary, Christian Anti-Semitism passed through two main conduits: the Pauline conception of grace in opposition to acts and all that entails. And the vulgar Anti-Semitism of the final, falsifying editor of Matthew, who lived after the destruction of the Second Temple' (p. 353). Love him or hate him, agree with him or find him distasteful, one can never put Flusser down

without having been forced to examine long held and sometimes sacred opinions. And that's a good thing, even if the reader's mind is not changed. This is an extraordinary volume. Get a copy and read it all.