In post-modern discourse, especially as this manifests itself in the academy, discussion of the other, often related to specific concerns bound up with identity, has become omnipresent. The volume under review, the direct result of conferences held in two different venues in Israel, tackles the issue from a number of perspectives.

Even though ancient Judaism appears as the lead word in the volume's title, Christian texts are the opening concern. Albert Baumgarten, in a suggestive contribution, attempts to discover the kind of polemic followers of John the Baptist used against the Jesus movement. Matthew Thiessen draws attention to the harsh language used by some Christian authors about Gentiles, noting that though they were keen to include the latter in the new Christian movement, such inclusion involved the retention of their Gentile identity. Nathan Eubank elucidates the related, but slightly different ways, in which Matthew and Paul presented the possibility that members of the Christian body could themselves become outsiders. Tobias Nicklas takes yet another look at the Jews in John's Gospel, presenting the reader with a useful review of the history of the discussion, and arguing for the thesis that John's use of the term is bound up with creating a boundary between groups where they did not clearly exist, at least for some (in this context Nicklas is in part indebted to the work of Daniel Boyarin). Wolfgang Grünstäudl examines the harsh, if opaque, polemic of the Epistle of Jude, as well as its ‘intensive’ reuse in some New Testament books and Clement of Alexandria, concluding with some brief remarks on how polemical texts like Jude can be used today. Patricia Duncan takes another look at the much commented upon passage in Pseudo-Clementine Homilies 8.5-6 which, in assuming that there is one teaching evident in Moses and Christ, appears to allow for two legitimate routes for salvation (here in contrast to the parallel passage in Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 4). Duncan argues correctly that in both passages parting between Jew and Christian is assumed but that Pseudo-Clementine Homilies takes a more tolerant view of the entity from which Christians have parted, a view which he sees as redactional rather than evidence of an early, possibly, second-century, position. The section devoted to Jewish sources begins with a fascinating piece by Katell Bertholet in which she tackles the issue of why the Roman Empire is likened to Esau in some Rabbinic sources. Her answer builds on the idea that, for various reasons, the rabbis saw Israel and Rome as similar in their aspirations, though obviously different in other respects. That sense of the other as like and unlike is captured in the figure of Esau, Jacob's brother. Isaiah Gaphni looks at different presentations of Elisha in the Bavli and the Yerushalmi, and seeks to explain their presentations by reference to variant positions in relation to the outside world (Bavli is clearer in its assertion of difference because the rabbis are well established in Babylon; Yerushalmi less clear because their place in the Roman Empire is weaker). Haim Weiss examines the different ways in which Bar Kosiba's Messianism is presented in a number of rabbinic texts. Michal Bar-Ashar Siegal, in another suggestive piece, argues that if one is to understand passages in which ‘minim’ (sometimes translated as ‘hereticvs’) are presented as false interpreters of Scripture, we need to take seriously Christian interpretations of the same texts, especially as these relate to LXX readings. In the final contribution, Christina Hayes argues against the view that Jewish perceptions of the goy or Gentile as ontologically different are not the invention of the Rabbis, and equally the Rabbis, when presenting Gentile encounters, did not always adopt a view of absolute difference between themselves and their Gentile neighbours (a position often seen as much more typical of the pre-Rabbinic era). Macro-level claims of difference are persistently displaced and destabilised by micro-level representations, and this ‘reality’ is a persistent presence in Jewish literature, both scriptural and later, and so should not, as is sometimes the case, be explained chronologically, as one idea succeeding another.

This is a stimulating collection, with each essay presenting the reader with food for thought and much learning. For assembling such a collection the editors, proud winners of the Manfred Lautenschläger prize for theological promise, are to be congratulated. If I have a criticism, it lies in arriving at any kind of a conclusion or even set of conclusions after reading such a diffuse collection. While all are vaguely linked by a concern with the other, this is often from different angles – the other as within, the other as outside, the other as betwixt and between, the other as a generalised entity (the Roman Empire), or the other as a person (Bar Kosiba). Some essays are studies in polemic in which the concept of the other is incidental; others focus more clearly on the issue of the presentation of ‘otherness’. This sense of diffuseness could have been allayed, at least partially, by an introduction which set out some of the theoretical issues bound up with the idea of the other (these are only intermittently covered), the state of research in this area in the study of early Christianity and Judaism, and the kind of contribution that the volume makes to this ongoing discussion. This would have made the volume a little longer but it would have enhanced its value as an integrated collection rather than a somewhat disparate amalgam of loosely connected, if often rewarding, pieces of scholarship.