Blood and belief [electronic resource] : the circulation of a symbol between Jews and Christians / David Biale.

ISBN:

9780520934238

9781433708985

9781435611474

Title:

Blood and belief [electronic resource] : the circulation of a symbol between Jews and Christians / David Biale.

Author:

Biale, David, 1949-

Personal Author:

Biale, David, 1949-

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 299 pages).

Series:

The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies

Contents:

Introduction : writing with blood -- Pollution and power : blood in the Hebrew Bible -- Blood and the covenant : the Jewish and Christian careers of a biblical verse -- God's blood : medieval Jews and Christians debate the body -- Power in the blood : the medieval and the modern in Nazi anti-semitism -- From blood to libel to blood community : self-defense and self-assertion in modern Jewish culture -- Epilogue : blood and belief.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Blood -- Religious aspects -- Judaism.

Blood -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.

Blood in the Bible.

Blood accusation -- History.

Antisemitism -- History.

Christianity and antisemitism.

Judaism -- Relations -- Christianity.

Christianity and other religions -- Judaism.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2007

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
296.396 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Blood contains extraordinary symbolic power in both Judaism and Christianity--as the blood of sacrifice, of Jesus, of the Jewish martyrs, of menstruation, and more. Yet, though they share the same literary, cultural, and religious origins, on the question of blood the two religions have followed quite different trajectories. For instance, while Judaism rejects the eating or drinking of blood, Christianity mandates its symbolic consumption as a central sacrament. How did these two traditions, both originating in the Hebrew Bible's cult of blood sacrifices, veer off in such different directions? With his characteristic wit and erudition, David Biale traces the continuing, changing, and often clashing roles of blood as both symbol and substance through the entire sweep of Jewish and Christian history from Biblical times to the present.

Author Notes

David Biale is the Emmanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

In Blood and Belief, Biale (Univ. of California, Davis) demonstrates that, in spite of the Jewish abhorrence of blood, the symbol of blood plays a crucial role in Judaism and Christianity. From the ancient Near East through the Middle Ages to Nazi anti-semitism in the modern period, the author examines cultural influences on the Jewish and Christian views of blood. For both Judaism and Christianity, blood was necessary for atonement but also for initiation and redemption. Though in the Hebrew Bible the blood of circumcision became the mark of the covenant with God, drinking blood was anathema. In the Gospels, however, the blood of Jesus, the mark of the new covenant, became a core element of the Eucharist. The medieval period brought the curious blood libel against the Jews, who were charged, ironically, with ingesting Christian blood. In the modern period, Jews were attacked for sucking the lifeblood from the German nation as they were condemned for contaminating the blood of the Aryan people. In response to these discourses against them, Jews incorporated the language of blood in the form of Jewish nationalism. As Biale concludes, the shifting meanings of blood throughout Jewish history demonstrate that, in the final analysis, identity transcends symbolism. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above. M. F. Nefsky emerita, University of Lethbridge