Bound by the Bible: Jews, Christians and the Sacrifice

The Bryn Mawr Book Review service has posted another review related to the Judaism of the time of interest for this blog., this time it is about various interpretations of the Aqedah Isaac, and what they can tell us about the relations between Jews and Christians in late antiquity.Edward Kessler,
Bound by the Bible: Jews, Christians and the Sacrifice
of Isaac.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xii, 222.
ISBN 0-521-83542-9. $75.00.
Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst, Utrecht University.
Introduction:
"In this book Kessler, director of the Cambridge Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, examines whether there was an 'exegetical encounter' between Jewish and Christian interpreters of the Bible during the first six centuries CE and, if so, what this may tell us about relations between Jews and Christians in late antiquity. He focuses on the interpretations of the story of Genesis 22 (the 'binding [or: sacrifice] of Isaac,' also known as the Aqedah, 'binding'), an obvious choice since Jewish tradition increasingly attributed atoning value to the 'sacrifice' of Isaac whereas Christians attributed such value only to Jesus' death. K. argues that there was a two-way encounter and that neither Jewish nor Christian interpretations of the Aqedah can be understood properly without reference to the other. This encounter (to be distinguished from shared interpretation), K. says, was probably more than just a literary one, as happens when one or more of the following criteria are met: an explicit reference to a source (of the opposite party), the same scriptural quotations, the same literary form, and the same or opposite conclusions. The more criteria are fulfilled, the greater the chance of hitting upon an exegetical encounter in which the interpreters reacted to each other's work."

The rest of the review can be read here.