Carnal Isræl: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture

The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics

by Daniel Boyarin

Beginning with a startling endorsement of the patristic view of Judaism―that it was a "carnal" religion, in contrast to the spiritual vision of the Church―Daniel Boyarin argues that rabbinic Judaism was based on a set of assumptions about the human body that were profoundly different from those of Christianity. The body―specifically, the sexualized body―could not be renounced, for the Rabbis believed as a religious principle in the generation of offspring and hence in intercourse sanctioned by marriage.

This belief bound men and women together and made impossible the various modes of gender separation practiced by early Christians. The commitment to coupling did not imply a resolution of the unequal distribution of power that characterized relations between the sexes in all late-antique societies. But Boyarin argues strenuously that the male construction and treatment of women in rabbinic Judaism did not rest on a loathing of the female body. Thus, without ignoring the currents of sexual domination that course through the Talmudic texts, Boyarin insists that the rabbinic account of human sexuality, different from that of the Hellenistic Judaisms and Pauline Christianity, has something important and empowering to teach us today.

Genres: Judaism, Jewish, Theology, Religion, Nonfiction, Queer, Academic

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. His books include A Radical Jew, Border Lines, and Socrates and the Fat Rabbis. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Peter Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

No doubt I am not in a great position to judge this book, since its topic is well outside my area of expertise, but I nonetheless found it fascinating in parts and dull in others. The fascinating elements of the book were twofold.

The first lies in the book's central thesis, which looks at how the Jewish/Christian strand of thought which borrow from the Greek, platonic tradition led to a privilege of mind over body, whereas the Rabbinical tradition of late antiquity, as both a philosophical and political move, tended to maintain the importance of the body and sexuality.

In part, Boyarin admits, there were for tribal, even xenophobic reasons, for this emphasis on carnality, but they nonetheless formed an important point of difference and an implicit critique of the Christian view that became dominant. In subsequent chapters, therefore, he traces how this focus on the body played out in questions of theology, sexuality, gender, and even the study of the Talmud (since the last was explicitly forbidden to women).

The second aspect of this book that I liked was Boyarin's nuanced historical approach. He is very precise and balanced in how he presents his topic, pointing out at various points the temptation to simplify into black and white discourses of "good" and "bad," especially in line with modern political values about the body and feminism.

For me, the book started out strongly, but the argument in the second half seemed to get wrapped up in technicalities that are only importance or relevant to scholars of Jewish history. Then again, perhaps that is to be expected - after all, as I said at the beginning, I am no expert in this area.

[Jordon Gyarmathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Boyarin writes an intriguing and nuanced analysis of gender and sexuality in the Talmud. Boyarin compares Judaism of the talmudic era with hellenistic, Greek-influenced Judaism and early Christianity. He also points to this era of Judaism as patriarchal but not founded on hyper-misogyny, while still admitting to the male dominance. A lot is discussed on the role of creating progeny in male leaning power imbalance. Another really curious analysis by Boyarin.

[Marcas · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far so good. He doesn't understand key Christian Dogmas at times but it's okay, I wouldnt expect him to entirely, and still welcome many of his great critiques. (Fr Behr, Patricia Jung, Philip LeMasters, Dr Guroian, Thatcher, Richard Davidson, Frederickson and co offer correctives to his writing-off of the Christian Tradition, St Paul and the Incarnation.)

However, there is much good in the Rabbinic Tradition, that we Christians could and should benefit from, as Boyarin shows. This could and should be juxtaposed with a more well-rounded look at the place of Marriage and sexuality in Christian Tradition up to and including our time.

This work certainly helps in rooting ideas we take for granted about sexuality, in historical context.
By doing so, this could help Christians correct those in our tradition who erroneously put celibacy over and against Marriage and Sex, in ultimate ways. To continue to do this would be a failure to the Scriptures, the Church and the Kingdom of God.

A key insight from reading Boyarin, is that we need to move beyond the crudely dualist and allegorical reading of scripture which has indeed had an unfortunate impact on our exegesis. (This doesnt fit with the nature of the Liturgical life as Schmemann shows, with Scripture as Eugene Peterson expresses, Perichoresis as Leithart illuminated, or with the Transfiguring thrust of Orthodox Christian Trinitarian Theology, as Fr Behr, Louth or Staniloae show.)

...Intelligent and enjoyable reading on an important yet grossly underdeveloped aspect of Judeo-Christian life. Patricia Jung has recently written a book which places some of these important issues into the context of Eschatology. This is both fantastic and necessary. Christianity needs a typological and Liturgical approach to sexuality, to avoid the twisted abstractness of 'allegory'. Books like this one can help us alongside those others mentioned, thank God.

[Ghoti]

I loved this book. It's densely packed but accessible, with stories to read on a surface level and more information and nuances at a deeper level. As a Christian I find it accessible and filled with new ideas: I imagine Jewish readers will find it more familiar and get a deeper meaning from it.

[Ethan Witkovsky]

He is so positive. I really like the way he uses his intellect and I love that he cites students in his footnotes.

[Paola Yocheved · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questo libro ti apre gli occhi!!! Boyarin ha una scrittura accessibilissima, che rende la lettura davvero piacevole.