Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and ChristiansBlood 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. |
Contents
1 | |
Pollution and Power Blood in the Hebrew Bible | 9 |
Blood and the Covenant The Jewish and Christian Careers of a Biblical Verse | 44 |
Gods Blood Medieval Jews and Christians Debate the Body | 81 |
Power in the Blood The Medieval and the Modern in Nazi AntiSemitism | 123 |
From Blood Libel to Blood Community SelfDefense and SelfAssertion in Modern Jewish Culture | 162 |
Blood and Belief | 207 |
Notes | 215 |
261 | |
281 | |
Other editions - View all
Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians David Biale Limited preview - 2008 |
Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians David Biale Limited preview - 2007 |
Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and Christians David Biale Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
accusation altar ancient animal anti-Semitism argued argument Aryan atonement baptism belief Beta Israel Bible biblical Bischoff blood community blood libel blood of Christ blood of circumcision Blood Ritual Blut body century Christian circumcision claim covenant of blood cult culture death defilement demonic Der Stürmer Dinter discourse divine eating blood Eucharist Exodus 24 Ezekiel female genetic German God's Greek Greenberg Hebrew Hermann Strack Hess holy Ibid idea impurity interpretation Israel Israelites Jesus Jewish Jewish blood Jews and Christians Jubilees Judaism Kabbalah Kabbalistic land language of blood Leviticus literal martyrdom martyrs medieval menstrual blood Middle Ages midrash Milgrom modern Moses Moses Hess mystical Nahman nation Nazi polemic pollution priestly priests prohibition purity rabbinic race racial religion ritual murder ritual-murder Rome and Jerusalem Rosenzweig sacrifice Sefer semen sexual shed shekhinah spilled spiritual Strack Stürmer symbolic Talmud taurobolium temple theology tion tradition trans translation women York Zionism Zionist Zohar