ASPECTS OF EXILE AND RESTORATION IN THE PROCLAMATION OF AND THE GOSPELS*

Craig A. Evans

That Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God is one of the few items in which scholars are virtually unanimous. But just exactly what Jesus meant by this proclamation is an item of ongoing debate.' One of the more difficult questions concerns the place of Israel as a nation in his proclamation. In what condition did Jesus see Israel in his time? What changes in Israel did Jesus envision? There has been a tendency among Christian interpreters and theologians down through the centuries to understand Jesus' language in metaphorical, other­ worldly terms. The hopes of redemption that Jesus entertained were confined to personal and spiritual dimensions, not national. Recent work, however, is very different. That Jesus intended significant social, political, and economic changes in Israel, perhaps in the world as a whole, is now seriously considered.2 The present essay hopes to make a contribution to this newer outlook. Did Jesus think of Israel as still suffering exile? Was part of Jesus' agenda the end of Israel's exile and the restoration of the nation, per­ haps in terms of the idealizations found in the prophets? It is with

* A form of this essay also appears in J. M. Scott (ed.), Exile: Old Testament, Jewish, and Christian Conceptions (JSJSup 56; Leiden: Brill, 1997) 299-328. , See B. D. Chilton, "Introduction," in Chilton (ed.), The Kingdom of God (IRT 5; London: SPCK; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984) 1-26; idem, "The Kingdom of God in Recent Discussion," in Chilton and C. A. Evans (eds.), Studying the : Evaluations of the State of Current Research (NTTS 19; Leiden: Brill, 1994) 255-80. 2 As a sampling of some of the work that now takes the social, political, and economic dimensions of Jesus' teaching very seriously, see E. Bammel and C. F. D. Moule (eds.), Jesus and the Politics of His Day (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni ver­ sity Press, 1984); M. 1. Borg, Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus (SBEC 5; and Toronto: MeIlen, 1984); R. A. Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine (San Francis­ co: Harper & Row, 1987); idem, Sociology and the Jesus Movement (New York: Crossroad, 1989); D. E. Oakman, Jesus and the Economic Questions of His Day (SBEC 8; Lewiston and Queenston: MeIlen, 1986). 264 CRAIG A. EVANS these questions that this essay will grapple. Before treating the teaching and actions of Jesus, it will be necessary to review the evidence that bears on the question of ideas of exile in the intertestamental period. How did of late antiquity understand Israel's condition? To this question we shall now turn.

FIRST-CENTURY RESTORATION HOPES AND THE IDEA OF EXILE According to two Jewish men in the first century promised fellow Israelites signs of salvation; one by parting the Jordan River, the other by bringing down the walls of Jerusalem. These men and their provocative claims offer features of interest for the present study. We begin with Theudas (Josephus, Ant. 20.5.1 §97-98):

97 i)TT)S yap I'AEYEV ELVUL, Kat iTpocrTuy~aTL TOV iTOTa~OV crxtcras 8to8ov I'XElV 1'11 iTapE~ElV m'mlLS pq.8tav. 98 KaI. TaO Ta AE)'WV iTOAAOUS T]iTUT11crEV. OU ~"V ElacrEv aUTOUS Tfls apocruv11S övacr9UL aAT]V Kat KO~t(OVcrLV ELS 'IEpocroAv~a. Louis Feldman renders the passage as follows: 97 During the period when Fadus was procurator of Judaea, a certain impostor name Theudas persuaded the majority of the masses to take up their possessions and to follow hirn to the Jordan River. He stated that he was a prophet and that at his command the river would be parted and would provide them an easy passage. 98 With this talk he deceived many. Fadus, however, did not permit them to reap the fruit of their folly, but sent against them a squadron of cavalry. These fell upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them and took many prisoners. Theudas hirnself was captured, where­ upon they cut off his head and brought it to Jerusalern. 3 Next we may consider the episode of the Jew from Egypt (Josephus, J. W. 2.13.4-5 §258-263; Ant. 20.8.6 § 167-172):

258 ~vvEcrT11 8E iTPOS TOUTOLS crTlOS ETEPOV iTOV11PWV XELpt '~EV Ka9apWTEpoV, TalS YVW~ULS 8E acrEßEcrTEPov, ÖiTEP ou8Ev ~TTOV 259

3 Translation, with some modifications, from L. H. Feldman, Josephus IX (LCL 433; London: Heinemann; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965) 441, 443.