Book Review :(English text of Alina Patru Review of The Covenant...

Revista Teologica 1/2011
 Tiberiu Weisz, The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven. An In-Depth Comparative Cultural Study of Judaism and China [Legământul şi Mandatul cerului. O analiză comparativă de profunzimi a iudaismului şi a Chinei], Ed. iUniverse, New York, 2008, 243 p., ISBN 978-0-595-44450-2.

Reviewed by Dr. Alina Patru, University Lecturer .
Translated from Romanian.

Tiberiu Weisz is a Romanian born Jewish author and a trained Sinologue. His scientific orientation led him to the connection between Jews and China, a topic that was published in 2006, his work “The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions” a reference work that established him as a specialist researcher. This work has similar orientation, continues to compare the principal tenets of Judaism and Chinese culture by not only juxtaposing primary sources of the sacred texts of both cultures but also by merging historical sources and critical data with more recent and updated material. There were studies that reflected on the similarities and differences of some cultures that had survived uninterrupted until today. But Tiberiu Weisz was the first to provide a comprehensive and fundamental comparison based on primary sources and on 10 years of difficult research of both cultures. The author is credited with knowing Judaism from the inside out and at the same time he is very familiar with the Chinese culture understanding its subtleties almost as a native. As he tells in the Introduction: “My goal is to treat readers to a unique way of looking at China and Judaism, from inside out as experienced by those within the culture” (pg. xviii). Moreover, Tiberiu Weisz went further to propose an idea that of the origin of these two cultures derived from one (theological) source “On a personal level, writing this book constantly challenged me with implied link between these two cultures. I could not look at Judaism from purely Jewish point of view, nor could I look at Chinese belief from a purely Chinese point of view. Somewhere and sometime in the distant past, these two cultures emanated from one source” (pg. xvii) The result of the comparative approach is a synthetic work that focuses on several central elements of the two religions and cultures. To attain this, he examines the sources in great depth, discovers the less obvious clues of evidence and establishes realistic connections at this level of understanding. Utilizing good skills of linguistic tools, Tiberiu Weisz retranslates, where necessary, the terms in English or he chooses the most appropriate interpretations in secondary literature that is most suitable to the [textual] meaning of the primary sources. The book follows an approximate timeline treating the topics in same order as the religion evolved. First, topics of general content are addressed: The formation of the Divinities, the Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven and the Divine connection. Then it is categorized according to topics in this order, external challenges posed by other religions, the golden age of rationalism, rise of mysticism, reformers and the reformation, the challenges of modern times and finally the establishment of Statehood [Israel and China]. Apart from the obvious parallels that could have been simply established by any researcher (Elohim- Shangdi; Covenant–Mandate of Heaven; Torah- Liji), Weisz launches a revolutionary theory such as, for example, that Laozi (604-531 BCE ), the founder of Daoism, on his journey to the West on the Silk Road, came in contact with biblical ideas, especially with tales about Israel in time of King Solomon. Weisz is the first who claims that certain ideas from Daodejing, the source of Daoism, attributed traditionally to Laozi and considered to be originated in China, were in fact borrowed from biblical stories in the Proverbs of Solomon: “a small country with few people, who lives in peace and prosperity” (Daodejing, # 80) that emulated the conditions during reign in the Kingdom of Solomon (pg. 13). DAO, the One, in the way in which it is described in Daodejing, is superimposed over Elohim, and overrides any other concepts especially when its attributes are divine features. Weisz strengthens his theory by pinpointing quotes in the Daodejing found in biblical literature. There are several, and identifying them is indeed amazing. It remains to be seen to what extent [his] theory wins followers and will be accepted by the international scientific world. We choose an example of Weisz interpretation from an unexpected topic in recent history, namely that of Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864), the charismatic leader of of the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) who self appointed his younger brother as Jesus Christ, and examined in the spirit of Jewish messianic movement. Hong fought to implement God’s plan in this world, which, as far as Chinese were concerned, was to overthrow the foreign Qing Dynasty and restore a native Chinese kingdom in the old capital city of Nanjing. Among the texts sacred that Hong used to legitimate his claims, was a very rudimentary translation of a Christian Bible into Chinese. Tiberiu Weisz, however, is of the opinion that the concepts that Hong actually promulgated -the Ten Commandments, monotheism, messianic - were closer to Judaism than to Christianity (pg. 148). The biblical texts quoted by Hong Xiuquan were from the prophecies of Isaiah in the Old Testament and Weisz wondered whether it could be possible that Hong has confused Isaiah with Jesus Christ. The Jewish messianic element of Hong is reinforced by a new argument that there is an undeniable connection between the two cultures. The comparative study of Weisz is an integral part of the entire process of the book. Based on the Chinese terminology, he suggests that Judaism could be considered the Yang to complement the Chinese Yin. Judaism is one of the essential pillars of Western civilization, able to adjust in the past and in the present to social changes while Chinese civilization, remains isolated, still misunderstood, preferring withdrawal, and integration with nature... “The interpretations of Weisz contain very interesting reflections and a high degree of originality and are aimed towards the intellectual world. We have to wait for the appearance of other specialists in these two fields [China and Judaism] with similar erudition for such a profound analysis. The precise academic value of Tiberiu Weisz’ works can be evaluated only after more interpreters with similar background will be available. The uncontested value of this works leads the way and I am convinced that it will take a long time to search for such a specialist from this milestone. A shortcoming of the book is the lack of conclusion or summaries at the end of each chapter as well as at the end of the book. This would have helped readers to digest the vast amount of information. For the Romanian public, this work presents a pleasant reading that not only enriches and opens new opportunities to understand these two of important cultures in the history of humanity, but also to know how one can to achieve better intercultural communication through comparative study.