Cast Out of the Covenant

Reviews / Votes

Reinhartz's final foray into the rhetorical world of the Fourth Gospel is as incisive as ever . . . Her willingness to, at times, lay herself bare-emphasizing her identity and social location-make Reinhartz's analysis crucial reading, and offers a helpful model for readers to follow. * Reading Religion * In Cast out of the Covenant, Adele Reinhartz combines the insights of long engagement in the debate with a clear-sighted analysis of locating these various perspectives in presenting a sustained account of the problem and of what is at stake. . . . .This is a both scholarly and readable, engaging book on what remains an important topic for exegesis and for hermeneutics. * The Catholic Biblical Quarterly * [W]hat the reader finds is a fresh argument based upon rhetorical analysis that builds upon Reinhartz's previous work and is likely to persuade many to her position that anti-Judaism is part of the constitutive fabric of the Gospel. . . . I approached reading this work as both a compliant reader, insofar as I have great respect for Adele Reinhartz's work, and a resistant reader, insofar as I was not ready to let go of the hope that John's anti-Jewish tenor could be defused. I must, however, concede that Reinhartz's analysis of Johannine rhetoric and her propulsion theory makes sense, not just of bits and pieces of the Gospel, but of the entire fabric of it. I can find no loose threads with which to unravel it. The task at hand now is to acknowledge this anti-Judaism forthrightly when I study, preach, and teach from this Gospel. * Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology * Cast Out of the Covenant is a devastatingly compelling book. . . . meticulously argued, coherently structured, and written with clarity. Indeed, the overall presentation of this book is delightful. Even my students who are not familiar with the style of academic monographs found the book engaging. This book serves as a useful introduction to anti-Jewish rhetoric, several important Johannine themes and passages, and the complexities of translating Ioudaioi. It is a superb introduction to Christian supersessionism and the so-called "parting of the ways." Importantly, it meets readers in the present as it continues an important thread in Jewish-Christian dialogue. . . . Cast Out of the Covenant showcases a rare honesty in both voice and approach. Reinhartz bridges (in a few crucial ways) the usual distance between scholar and scholarship. She invites the reader toward her research with determined vulnerability. * JJMJS: Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting * The present book marks a concluding step on this brilliant Jewish scholar's long journey of befriending the author of the Fourth Gospel. Reinhartz is not willing to follow the apologetic moves of many of her Christian fellow-exegetes to explain away John's anti-Jewish polemics as a still inner-Jewish dispute or a merely marginal element of the gospel text. In her view, the anti-Jewish stance is at the core of its rhetorical construction, and thus more closely linked to the tragedies of later Christian anti-Judaism than most exegetes care to admit. -- Joerg Frey, University of Zurich With historical-critical precision and literary-critical acuity, Reinhartz dismisses popular reconstructions of a pre-gospel Johannine community, demolishes standard apologetics for John's vituperations, and convincingly indicts the Gospel for anti-Jewish rhetoric. The volume represents not only the culmination of decades of Johannine studies, it portends a paradigm shift in the field. -- Amy-Jill Levine, Vanderbilt University Regular Reinhartz readers will not be surprised that she has published another book on John that challenges widely held views of its origin and purpose. She is no "compliant reader" of the Gospel, but she presents "Alexandra," who is. This engaging exploration of John's rhetoric and its effects almost assures that conversations about John will now be using new terms, such as "affiliation," "disaffiliation," "expropriation," "propulsion theory," and, yes, "Alexandra." -- R. Alan Culpepper, Mercer University In this book Adele Reinhartz presents a fresh synthesis of her many years of diligent scholarship on the way the gospel of John relates to Judaism. Guided by historical imagination, the six chapters of this book offer a comprehensive approach to the central question of Johannine exegesis: how do Jewishness and anti-Judaism relate to one another in the fourth gospel? Creative thinking outside the box has long been Reinhartz's trademark, and this new book is no exception. Reinhartz is not afraid of challenging scholars who become too self-assured of their convenient convictions. She sketches the different dimensions of rhetoric which are at play in John's narrative presentation of the Jews. Marked by a disarming honesty, this book confronts us with an 'inconvenient truth', or at least Reinhartz's 'inconvenient truth' with regard to a research topic of greatest importance, both in historical and in contemporary perspective. A vintage Adele Reinhartz book which is a must for every student of the gospel of John, especially those of us who will not be inclined to agree with her central thesis. -- Reimund Bieringer, KU Leuven