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  • From: Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>
  • To: 'Corpus-paul' <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The blood of the covenant
  • Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 18:52:36 -0700


Dear Mark

Thanks for your pointer to Lawrence Hoffman's treatise, The Blood of the
Covenant, Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism. In his description
and analysis of the rite of circumcision as practiced in Rabbinic Judaism, I
am seeing a deep and consistent imagery in the thoughts of first century
Christians and the practice and imagery of Judaism. This is also a very
suggestive counter to the thesis that Paul was unduly influenced by pagan
rites.

In particular, I quote Hoffman on page 91 in which he clearly speaks of the
'now dubious hypothesis that Christianity developed its symbolism out of its
pagan milieu, not from its parental Jewish past. I call this,' Hoffman
continues, 'the Radical Disjuncture Hypothesis - the idea that Christianity
took aim at all things Jewish and drew its sustenance from without, never
from within. Given the state of our current scholarship which has clearly
and abundantly demonstrated the reverse, it should hardly be necessary to
point out again that Judaism and Christianity were exceptionally close in
their symbolic structure.'

In particular he notes within Judaism that wine is an icon of blood and
particularly of the blood of the circumcised. Given the deutero Pauline
Colossians 2:11, I had asked earlier in a draft of my note a month ago, one
which I did not send, "Is the Church playing the role of mohel?" This
remains my thesis in the last pericope of my stories. (Written a year ago).
It now seems to me to be confirmable historically as well as symbolically in
many centuries.

Many thanks - this is a truly remarkable book.

Bob

mailto::BobMacDonald AT shaw.ca
+ + + Victoria, B.C., Canada + + +

Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in flower. (Song 2.15)
http://bobmacdonald.gx.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark D. Nanos [mailto:nanosmd AT comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 4:00 PM
To: Corpus-paul
Subject: [corpus-paul] Re: The blood of the covenant


on 9/1/02 4:18 PM, Bob MacDonald at bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca wrote:

> Somewhere in the Talmud is a phrase something like this: the blood of the
> covenant creates the world. (Anyone know where this is and what its
history
> is in Rabbinic thought?)

Mishna Nedarim 3:11 (Neusner transl): "Great is circumcision, for if it were
not for that, the Holy One, blessed be he, would not have created the world,
since it says, 'Thus says the Lord: But for my covenant day and night, I
should not have set forth the ordinances of heaven and earth' (Jer. 33:25)."

For an excellent discussion of the texts and issues, see Lawrence A.
Hoffman, Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism.
Univ. of Chicago, 1996.

> Is it also a source of
> division within Judaism or not (for example between James and Paul)?

What division between James and Paul? he asked rhetorically.

Regards,
Mark
--
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
313 NE Landings Dr.
Lee's Summit, MO 64064
USA
nanosmd AT comcast.net



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