This book wasn't quite what I expected. Boyarin argues that late ancient (Pharisaic/rabbinical) Judaism and Christianity didn't have a mother-daughter relationship, but are better spoken of as twin siblings. I found that thesis fairly convincing. I wasn't as convinced by his claim that the two did not have clearly distinct identities until roughly the fourth century (here he is leaning on the Bauer thesis of an orthodoxy of the "victors"). He examines patristic and rabbinical texts on martyrdom for a test case in how the two traditions began articulating their distinct identities. There is some interesting stuff here, and I'd love to see more comparative readings of such texts. I had a difficult time wading through some of his use of critical theory, however. ( )