The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age

by Steven Weitzman

Overview

The first major history of the scholarly quest to answer the question of Jewish origins

The Jews have one of the longest continuously recorded histories of any people in the world, but what do we actually know about their origins? While many think the answer to this question can be found in the Bible, others look to archaeology or genetics. Some skeptics have even sought to debunk the very idea that the Jews have a common origin. In this book, Steven Weitzman takes a learned and lively look at what we know—or think we know—about where the Jews came from, when they arose, and how they came to be.

Scholars have written hundreds of books on the topic and have come up with scores of explanations, theories, and historical reconstructions, but this is the first book to trace the history of the different approaches that have been applied to the question, including genealogy, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and genetics. Weitzman shows how this quest has been fraught since its inception with religious and political agendas, how anti-Semitism cast its long shadow over generations of learning, and how recent claims about Jewish origins have been difficult to disentangle from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He does not offer neatly packaged conclusions but invites readers on an intellectual adventure, shedding new light on the assumptions and biases of those seeking answers—and the challenges that have made finding answers so elusive.

Spanning more than two centuries and drawing on the latest findings, The Origin of the Jews brings needed clarity and historical context to this enduring and often divisive topic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691174600
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/30/2017
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Steven Weitzman is the Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures and Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom and Surviving Sacrilege: Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction 1

1 Genealogical Bewilderment: Lost Ancestors and Elusive Lineages 25

2 Roots and Rootlessness: Paleolinguistics and the Prehistory of the Jews 63

3 Histories Natural and Unnatural: The Documentary Hypothesis and Other Developmental Theories 101

4 A Thrice-Told Tel: The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis 139

5 Thought Fossils: Psychoanalytic Approaches 174

6 Hellenism and Hybridity: Did the Jews Learn How to be Jewish from the Greeks? 207

7 Disruptive Innovation: The Jewish People as a Modern Invention 245

8 Source Codes: The Genetic Search for Founders 274

Conclusion 317

Acknowledgments 329

Bibliographical Commentary 333

Index 383

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Positioning himself between those who seek origins and those who regard such quests with postmodern skepticism, Weitzman sheds light on variegated accounts of Jewish origins in different realms—from genealogical research and biblical scholarship to archaeology, psychoanalysis, and genetic research. A brilliant book—profoundly original and engaging, exhibiting a rare spirit of exploration. We will all be learning from it for a long time."—Ilana Pardes, author of Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers

"Weitzman is a spirited and empathetic guide on an expedition through the quest to understand Jewish origins, from biblical studies to the latest investigations in population genetics. He unfailingly confronts the challenges of his inquiry with candor and erudition. The book gathers a remarkable exchange among diverse lines of scholarship in a single captivating conversation."—Noah Rosenberg, professor of biology, Stanford University

"The long duration of the history of the Jews is paralleled by an almost equally long tradition of searching after their roots. This quest is masterfully narrated and keenly analyzed by Weitzman, who enlists a rich array of disciplines ranging from biblical philology and archeology to psychoanalysis and genetic science. His elegantly accessible prose and imaginative scholarly thinking combine to make this immensely informative book a pleasure to read."—Galit Hasan-Rokem, professor emerita, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Compellingly argued and very original. Only a scholar whose mind is as fertile as Weitzman's and whose curiosity is as intense as his could have pulled off a book like this with such success."—Saul M. Olyan, author of Disability in the Hebrew Bible: Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences

"Weitzman's scholarship is sound and informative."—Ronald Hendel, author of The Book of "Genesis": A Biography

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2017
In this multicourse intellectual feast, Weitzman, a professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, tries to explain how the Jewish people began while exploring various approaches to the question. Given that the Bible is no longer regarded as a reliable historical record, Weitzman tries to determine what can be ascertained with any certainty about the first Jews, noting that the issue is complicated by the lack of consensus as to how the Jewish people is defined: “a nation, a race, a religion, an ethnicity.” He then approaches the mystery through genealogy, paleolinguistics, psychoanalysis, and genetics. He concludes that the “history of the Jews has to start somewhere, but it is not clear whether, after many centuries of trying and failing to establish that starting point, scholarship has developed or will ever develop the ability to do so.” Weitzman’s facility with making complex points accessible to the lay reader, and his ease with synthesizing a wide range of research and prior analyses, make this an invaluable resource for both novice and scholar. His rigorous critiques will resonate even for those readers with little or no prior interest in the book’s central questions. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Readers looking for a simple answer will not find one. Instead, they will find a layered, complex panoply of significant approaches to the origins of Judaism, what Judaism is all about, and how to look at questions of human origins in general."

Choice

"A remarkable model of intellectual curiosity, breadth and depth of knowledge, rigor and candor, [Weitzman's] book is a tour de force."

The Jerusalem Post

05/15/2017
How did the Jews come into being? What is their origin? These are questions that Weitzman (director, Ctr. for Advanced Judaic Studies, Univ. of Pennsylvania) addresses in this new book. One immediate answer might be that the Jews originated from the Hebrew people, as described in the Old Testament. However, scholars have found that the question of Jewish origins is complex and have approached the matter from a variety of perspectives. Weitzman carefully considers many of these approaches, noting their limitations and underlying assumptions and biases. He considers the origins discussion in terms of the Old Testament and source criticism, paleolinguistics, genealogy, archaeology, ethnology, psychohistory, constructivism, and genetics. Weitzman ultimately finds no solid answers, and in fact, one of the reasons he writes this book is to challenge the idea that this kind of exploration of Jewish heritage is effective. Thus, readers may feel as if they have traveled on an intellectual journey without ever reaching the final destination, but they will have learned a great deal as well. VERDICT Those interested in Jewish scripture, history, and culture will find this work informative and useful.—John Jaeger, Arlington, TX

Library Journal

2017-04-04
Where did the Jews come from, and what does that question really mean?Weitzman (Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Judaic Studies/Univ. of Pennsylvania; Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom, 2011, etc.) explores the question of Jewish origins in almost tortuous detail, demonstrating that what seems like a basic inquiry is in fact a tangle of theories, approaches, and prejudices. The author explains that three viewpoints prevail in the search for Jewish origins. The first is that simple "sleuthing" will lead to a single, obvious answer to the question, "where do Jews come from?" The second is constructivism, a view that origins must be seen as a story or narrative. The third is a postmodern view that is critical of the very search for origins at all. Weitzman begins with genealogy, which may seem an obvious tool but which the author soon discounts. From there, he explores linguistic and source document theories for the origin of Jews from Near Eastern ancestors. Alternatively, he looks at theories that emphasize the origin of Jews as a people distinct from the biblical Israelites. Weitzman goes on to explore ideas of Jewish origins as espoused by Darwinists and by Freud, the archaeological evidence for Jewish origins, and ideas on Hellenism's effect on Jewish identity. Finally, he examines the role of DNA testing in understanding ethnic origins, a practice filled with promises and pitfalls. In the end, readers may be disappointed by Weitzman's anticlimactic (though perhaps inevitable) conclusion: "The history of the Jews has to start somewhere, but it is not clear whether, after many centuries of trying and failing to establish that starting point, scholarship has developed or will ever develop the ability to do so." The author is comprehensive, erudite, and honest, but the book is too academic and theoretical to assist general readers with questions about what it means to be Jewish. An accomplishment for the academy. Readers seeking a less theoretical approach would do well to try Jon Entine's Abraham's Children (2007).

Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity (In Memory of Dorothy Kripke)

From the Publisher