The Jewish Jesus

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The Jewish Jesus The Jewish Jesus Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation http://www.servantofmessiah.org Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies Editor Zev Garber Los Angeles Valley College Case Western Reserve University Managing Editor Nancy Lein Purdue University Editorial Board Dean Bell Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies Louis H. Feldman Yeshiva University Saul S. Friedman Youngstown State University Joseph Haberer Purdue University Peter Haas Case Western Reserve University Rivka Ulmer Bucknell University Richard L. Libowitz Temple University and St. Joseph’s University Rafael Medoff The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies Daniel Morris Purdue University Marvin A. Sweeney Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University Ziony Zevit American Jewish University Bruce Zuckerman University of Southern California http://www.servantofmessiah.org The Jewish Jesus Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation Edited by Zev Garber Purdue University Press / West Lafayette, Indiana http://www.servantofmessiah.org Copyright 2011 by Purdue University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Jewish Jesus : revelation, reflection, reclamation / edited by Zev Garber. p. cm. -- (Shofar supplements in Jewish studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-55753-579-5 1. Jesus Christ--Jewish interpretations. 2. Judaism--Relations--Christianity. 3. Christianity and other religions--Judaism. I. Garber, Zev, 1941- BM620.J49 2011 232.9'06--dc22 2010050989 Cover image: James Tissot, French, 1836-1902. Jesus Unrolls the Book in the Synagogue (Jésus dans la synagogue déroule le livre). 1886-1894. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. Image: 10 11/16 x 7 9/16 in. (27.1 x 19.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum. 00.159.71. Purchased by public subscription. http://www.servantofmessiah.org Contents Introduction 1 Section 1: Reflections on the Jewish Jesus 1 The Jewish Jesus: A Partisan’s Imagination Zev Garber 13 2 The Kabbalah of Rabbi Jesus Bruce Chilton 20 3 The Amazing Mr. Jesus James F. Moore 36 4 Jesus the “Material Jew” Joshua Schwartz 47 5 Jesus Stories, Jewish Liturgy, and Some Evolving Theologies until circa 200 CE: Stimuli and Reactions Ziony Zevit 65 6 Avon Gilyon (Document of Sin, b. Shabb.116a) or Euvanggeleon (Good News) Herbert W. Basser 93 7 Psalm 22 in Pesiqta Rabbati: The Suffering of the Jewish Messiah and Jesus Rivka Ulmer 106 Section 2: Responding to the Jewish Jesus 8 What Was at Stake in the Parting of the Ways between Judaism and Christianity? Richard L. Rubenstein 131 9 The Jewish and Greek Jesus Yitzchak Kerem 159 http://www.servantofmessiah.org 10 Jewish Responses to Byzantine Polemics from the Ninth through the Eleventh Centuries Steven Bowman 181 11 A Meditation on Possible Images of Jewish Jesus in the Pre-Modern Period Norman Simms 204 12 Typical Jewish Misunderstandings of Christ, Christianity, and Jewish-Christian Relations over the Centuries Eugene J. Fisher 228 Section 3: Teaching, Dialogue, Reclamation: Contemporary Views on the Jewish Jesus 13 How Credible is Jewish Scholarship on Jesus? Michael J. Cook 251 14 Taking Thomas to Temple: Introducing Evangelicals to the Jewish Jesus Christina M. Smerick 271 15 The Historical Jesus as Jewish Prophet: Its Meaning for the Modern Jewish-Christian Dialogue Sara Mandell 293 16 Before Whom Do We Stand? Henry F. Knight 315 17 Edith Stein’s Jewish Husband Jesus Emily Leah Silverman 333 18 Can We Talk? The Jewish Jesus in a Dialogue Between Jews and Christians Steven Leonard Jacobs 345 19 The New Jewish Reclamation of Jesus in Late Twentieth-Century America: Realigning and Rethinking Jesus the Jew Shaul Magid 358 Annotated Bibliography 383 Contributors 394 Index 401 http://www.servantofmessiah.org Introduction Zev Garber Though many articles, reviews, and books are not of one opinion on the life and time of Jesus, there is a general understanding in the dogma of the church and in the quests of the academy that the incarnate Christ of Christian belief lived and died a faithful Jew,1 and what this says to contemporary Jews and Christians is the focus of this volume depicting Jesus in the context of Judaism and its impact on Jewish and Christian traditional and contemporary views of the other. In the context of our time, Pope John Paul II challenged members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission to help Christians understand that the Hebrew Scriptures are essential to their faith (1997). That is to say, Catholic mysteries, including annunciation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and redemption are derived from the Hebrew biblical Weltaschauung. To speak of Jesus in the context of Judaism is affirmed by the church’s acceptance of the Jewish Hebrew Bible as the Christian Old Testament, and this presents distinctive challenges to the visions of Judaism. When Jewish and Christian savants interweave the narrative and teaching of Jesus into the cultural and social life of first-century Judaism in the land of Israel under the rule of Caesar, they pinpoint the evolving Christology of Jesus believers, which conflicts with the viewpoints of the rabbis and jurisdiction of Rome. Second, Christians and Jews committed to reading scripture together are deeply motivated by an academic and reverential disposi- tion toward rabbinic Judaism and the desire to correct the malign image of Jews and Judaism that emerges from erroneous readings of the Gospel sources. Argu- ably, contra Iudaeos biases happen when historicity (Pharasaic kinship of Jesus, Peter, and Paul) is conflated with apologetic (“give unto Caesar”) and polemic depictions (Jews are a deicidal and misanthropic people), and theological inno- vation (Christ replaces Torah). 1 http://www.servantofmessiah.org 2 ZeV GARbeR The desideratum is neither extreme skepticism nor full faith acceptance but rather a centralist position, somewhat contrary to an ecclesiastical tradition which teaches that truth is bounded and restricted to New Testament and early Christian kerygma (preaching) and didache (apologetics). Exploring the place of Jesus within Second Temple Judaism means to apply drash (insightful interpreta- tion) to peshat (plain meaning of the text). Why so? Because Jesus the historical being, that is to say, Jesus before the oral and written traditions, is transformed and transfigured into a narrative character that appears in the canonized New Testament. The Jesus in narratology is a fluid figure of creative, idyllic, and dog- matic imagination, whose realness cannot be fixed in any given episode, teach- ing, or telling. Thus, on reading the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus before the Sanhe- drin, the trial before Pilate, and the sentence of death, one may project that the Evangelist’s Jewish opponents are the reason for the virtual negativity of the Iou- daioi towards Jesus in his teaching and trial. Also, the cry of the mob, “His blood be upon us and on our children” (Matt. 27:25) is neither an acceptance of guilt nor perpetual pedigree damnation for the death of Jesus but can be seen as an expression of innocence that says if we are not innocent of this man’s blood then may the curse be fulfilled (see Acts 18:6 and b. Sanh. 37a). Jewish-Christian Encounter The ground rule for Christian-Jewish scriptural reading and discussion is simple but complex. Let the Christian proclaim core Christian dogma (Easter faith) and dicta (e.g., Jesus “the living bread that came down from heaven” [John 6:51] is the savior of Israel) without a hint or utterance of anti-Judaism. Likewise, the Jewish observant needs to be aware and sensitive about claims of Christian identity. The objective in the quest for the rediscovery, and possibly reclamation, by Jews of the Jewish Jesus is to penetrate the wall of separation and suspicion of “law and grace” and enable the believer in the Second Testament to appreciate the saga and salvation of Israel experientially in terms of Judaism, that is to say, in accordance with the teaching of Moses and the exegesis of the sages of Israel. Reciprocally, the follower of the Torah way learns the how and why of the Christian relation- ship to the Sinai covenant as presented in the Christian spirit of scriptural inspi- ration and tradition, a strong sign that the centuries-old “teaching of contempt” is not doable for Christians and Jews in dialogue, where a shared biblical tradi- tion is the surest sign that the stumbling blocks of religious intolerance can be overcome. Take lex talionis, for example. Three times the Pentateuch mentions the legislation of lex talionis (the law of retaliation, of an “eye for an eye” [Exod. 21:23-25; Lev. 24:19-20; Deut. 19:18-21]). Though the law of “measure for measure” existed in the ancient Near East, there is little evidence that the Torah meant that this legislation should be fulfilled literally except in the case of willful murder. “Life for life” is taken liter- http://www.servantofmessiah.org Introduction 3 ally in cases of homicidal intention, and fair compensation is appropriate when physical injuries are not fatal. Equitable monetary compensation is deemed ap- propriate by the Oral Torah in the case of a pregnant woman whose unborn child’s life is lost and when animal life is forfeited. Indeed, the Written Torah casts aside all doubts regarding the intent of the biblical lex talionis injunction: “And he that kills a beast shall make it good; and he that kills a man shall be put to death” (Lev. 24:21). Rejecting the literal application of lex talionis puts an end to the mean- spirited charge that Judaism is “strict justice.” Similarly, the words of Jesus on the Torah (“For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” [Matt. 5:18]) beckon interpretation. Christian citing of Matthew 5:38-39a (“You have heard that it was said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil”) to teach that “Jesus cancels the law of revenge and replaces it with the law of love” is wrong on two accounts:1) syntactically, the Greek text of Matthew 5:39 reads “and,” not “but,” thereby removing the onus of change; and 2) scripturally, the text in context (see Matt.
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