What a Friend We Have in Jesus
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What a Friend We Have in Jesus BY PAULA FREDRIKSEN Christian scholars. And particularly since the 1950s, being lightly worn. #ese outstanding essays—thirty THE JEWISH ANNOTATED NEW TESTAMENT with the shi!ing of the quest from schools of theology in all—are alone well worth the price of the book. edited by Amy-Jill Levine, Marc Z. Brettler to departments of comparative religion in liberal arts But "e Jewish Annotated New Testament o%ers Oxford University Press, 700 pp., $35 faculties, scholars of di%erent faiths and of none have much more. It provides multiple commentaries on cooperatively joined in the search. In current schol- each of the New Testament’s twenty-seven writings, THE JEWISH GOSPELS: THE STORY OF THE arship, in schools of theology no less than in faculties from its "rst gospel (in canonical sequence, Mat- JEWISH CHRIST of religion, to be a Jewish historian of Christianity, thew) to its closing revelation (Apocalypse of John). by Daniel Boyarin particularly of ancient Christianity, is no rarity. #e primary commentary appears as the individual The New Press, 224 pp., $21.95 Oxford University Press’ recent publication, "e scholar’s notes to particular verses in discrete writ- KOSHER JESUS Jewish Annotated New Testament, edited by Amy-Jill ings at the bottom of each page. #ese contain a Levine and Marc Z. Brettler, celebrates this fact. Re- wealth of historical information, linking the New by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach producing the English text of the Revised Standard Testament text to other near-contemporary Jewish Gefen, 300 pp., $26 Version, the editors have collected a group of "!y writings (such as those of Philo of Alexandria, or of Josephus, or of the Dead Sea Scrolls, or of more esoteric apocrypha and pseudepigra- rguments over who has the authority pha). Notes “translate” some to interpret traditions of Shabbat ob- of the New Testament’s Greek servance. Reprimands for bad behavior terms back into the Aramaic when food appears a!er community or Hebrew from which they service.A Boasting of accomplishments in Jewish likely derive. Others align education. Concern over the proper size of te!llin. chronological hints in the Discussion of the holidays, both minor (Hanukkah) texts with events in 1st-centu- and major (Pesach, Sukkot, Shavuot). Collecting ry Jewish and Roman history. funds in the diaspora to send back to Jerusalem. Maps, charts, sidebar essays, Endless in"ghting over the correct way to be Jew- and diagrams—scores of ish. Sound familiar? It’s all in the New Testament. them—visually and verbally An anthology of 1st-century Jewish texts written amplify this contextualizing, in Greek, the New Testament provides some of the providing a secondary kind best evidence we have from (and for) the rough-and- of commentary. Taken all to- tumble days of Judaism in the late Second Temple gether, this rich information period. #e intrinsic Jewishness of the New Testa- performs a small miracle, ment—and that of its two prime "gures, Jesus and resurrecting the vigorous late Paul—has long been obscured because of two simul- Second Temple Judaism that taneous and linked accidents of history: the rise of lies buried in these ancient Gentile Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism. texts, which are so habitu- As with Gentile Christianity, so with Rabbinic ally and so understandably Judaism: both asserted, very loudly, that though regarded by Jews and by Jesus may have been a Jew, he was a special sort of Christians as being “against” anti-Jew. (Paul had a more checkered career, either Judaism. as the ultimate apikoros or, in some Jewish retellings, For example, Matthew a secret agent of the high priest working to ensure 27:25 writes of the Jews’ pu- that something as outlandish as Christianity would tative response to Pilate’s $ourish only among the goyim.) #e anti-Jewish “washing his hands” of the rhetoric of the Christian churches in late antiquity execution of Jesus: “#en the helped to produce long centuries of sporadic vio- people as a whole answered, lence. Yet, at those times in Western history when ‘His blood be upon us and on Christian scholars availed themselves of Jewish our children!’” #at sentence Top, Siege of Jerusalem; center, the Jews led into exile in Babylon; learning, there came moments of $eeting recogni- bottom: three pairs of Jesus' ancestors, Salathiel, Abiud, Amor. Calf-hide went on to have a long and tion: the gospels tell a Jewish tale. from the diocese of Mainz, Germany, mid-13th century. (Erich Lessing / hideous history all its own in Eventually—and for reasons again internal to Art Resource, NY.) the annals of European anti- Christianity (namely, the Protestant repudiation Semitism. But seen in con- of Catholicism)—Christian scholars began more text, this verse functions not and more to distinguish the Jesus of history from Jewish scholars of Christian and Jewish antiquity to as a standing indictment, but as a realized prophecy. the Christ of doctrine. #e 19th and 20th centuries comment on the texts of the New Testament canon Matthew writes one generation a!er the Temple’s in particular saw multiple “quests for the histori- and to contribute succinct essays on matters of mo- destruction, which occurred one generation a!er cal Jesus” (the title of Albert Schweitzer’s great clas- ment: Second Temple Jewish history; the ancient Jesus’ lifetime. As annotator Aaron Gale points out, sic). Modern Jewish writers, availing themselves of synagogue; food and family; Jewish divine mediator “Matthew’s "rst readers likely related the verse to the distinction between Jesus and Christ, have in "gures; concepts of a!erlife and resurrection; and so the Jerusalem population, devastated in 70 C.E.” various ways "t the historical Jesus of Nazareth back on. #e array of topics is at once dazzling and dar- Recognition of this likelihood leaches away some of within the 1st-century Jewish fold—as, indeed, have ing, the scholarly erudition all the more e%ective for the verse’s toxicity. 22 JEWISH REVIEW OF BOOKS • Spring 2012 “Jews and Christians still misunderstand many is: everybody. Christians will bene"t from seeing of each other’s texts and traditions,” Amy-Jill Levine their own tradition placed in historical context, thus and Marc Z. Brettler note in their preface. #e aim coming into a better understanding of Jesus’ and of their book, then, is “to increase our knowledge Paul’s native religion and of the origins of their own. of both our common histories and the reasons why Jews will bene"t for the reasons given—and for Jews we came to separate.” #e spirit of the book, both no less than for Christians, much of 1st-century his- in its scholarship and in its pedagogy, is thus deeply tory is terra incognita. ecumenical. Indeed, though the “sensitivities of the wo other books—also by Jews, also on Chris- When Christian scholars Ttian topics—have just been published: Daniel Boyarin’s "e Jewish Gospels: "e Story of the Jewish availed themselves of Jewish Christ and Shmuley Boteach’s Kosher Jesus. #ese two exercises in popular writing are in some ways learning, there came moments similar, in others very di%erent. Boyarin is a schol- ar of Talmud at University of California, Berkeley; of !eeting recognition: the Boteach is a media personality and popular author whose website identi"es him as “America’s Rabbi.” gospels tell a Jewish tale. #e intellectual muscle mass of the two works cor- responds accordingly. #eir common goal seems contributors” may be “Jewish,” the same work with to be to take what, as a Christian datum, seems the same academic mission—placing these New very strange and foreign to Jews, and then to prove Testament texts in their Second Temple Jewish con- that this datum is in fact profoundly and/or origi- text—could equally well be produced by a squad of nally Jewish. Christian scholars. For Boyarin, that datum is Christian theology But who is the book for? Christians (at least in about the divinity of Jesus. In his book’s four chap- principle) already read the New Testament. One of An early European depiction of St. Paul. ters he brings together an assemblage of (canoni- the editors’ speci"c goals is to demystify these texts (Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart.). cal and non-canonical) ancient Jewish texts well and get Jews to read them without worrying about known to scholars and juxtaposes these to aspects the historically uncomfortable issue of conversion. just as important is the goal of cultural enrichment; of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. (A much briefer #e religious orientation of all of the contributors, the actually reading the gospels of Matthew and of John sample of his technique is available in his essay on editors hope, should quiet this fear, while promoting cannot help but enrich appreciation of Bach. And, of Logos/memra and the Gospel of John in "e Jewish cultural understanding. Increasing understanding of course, the history of Western art is a visual commen- Annotated New Testament.) a foundational text of majority culture is a laudable tary on these texts and traditions. Boyarin’s premise and conclusion is that ideas goal for our vigorously mongrel democracy. Perhaps So, who should read this book? #e short answer of radically divine mediation "gure prominently CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS איגוד הרבנים המתקדמים Since 1889 Food for !ought from CCAR Press Sharing the Journey: CLASSIC CCAR HAGGADOT Sacred Table: !e Haggadah for A Passover Haggadah Creating a Jewish Food Ethic the Contemporary Edited by Herbert Bronstein Edited by Mary L. Zamore Family Illustrated by Leonard Baskin !is groundbreaking new volume Edited by Alan S.