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FOURTH PRESENTATION (SUNDAY NOV. 17, 2013)

JESUS AS A AND HIS JEWISH HERITAGE

I. Reprise

A, The gross social and economic inequality under which the majority of the people labored In the 8 centuries leading up to the first century CE was intensified by the Roman comer- Cialization of land and the dispossession of farmers creating a greater destitute or degraged Class (see presentation 3, particularly Romanization through Urbanization for Commerciali- ation)

1. This is the proximate cause of the social turmoil (protests, rebellions, messianic movements, War) that occurred in the first century

B. Jesus’ innovation was to confront this radical inequality with a vision of radical equality (see Presentation 1)

II. The structure of in the first century CE

A. Although there were multiple sects of in the area of and , they all shared A common set of beliefs in one God of justice, governed by Law and the Covenant. Holiness and Purity were combined with righteousness and justice (see below)

B. As described by Jopheus in the late first century and early second, there were three major sects

1. Essenes (second century BCE through first century CE)

a. probably lived in small communities not unlike early Christian communities (as described in the Scrolls)

(1). Dedicated to asceticism, a life of voluntary poverty, daily immersion for purposes Of purity, and abstinence from worldly pleasures. They also were not allowed to Swear oaths, to sacrifice animals or use weapons except to defend against bandits

(a). It is possible, although not entirely clear, that they were celibate and survived by Selective recruitment

(2). Believed in communal ownership of land and property, did not engage in trading Or hold slaves

2.

a. identifies this group with the upper economic strata of Jewish society: aristocratic, wealthy elite

(1). Charged with maintaining the in

(a). had priestly responsibilities from the second century onward

(b).Took on many of the administrative responsibilities of the state

[1]. Regulated relations with Romans; often accused of being corrupt in so doing

[2]. Administered the state domestically and internationally

[3]. Collected and mediated local grievances

(c). differed from emerging sect of Jesus in believing that the soul is not immortal, There is no life after death, there is no resurrection from death; also differed from The Pharasees in this

(d). tended to favor Hellenism (see below) putting them at odds with the

3. Pharisees: became a sect following the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty (we call Them “”), the last Jewish dynasty to rule Judea (140-116 BCE)before the Romans Arrived

a. “The people’s Judaism:” Judaic practices brought out from the Temple and applied on on a daily basis to every day life; the “democratizing” impulse; rituals performed by any Jew at appropriate times, not just by Priests

b. Most liberal interpreters of Mosaic law and injunctions as requiring continual interpret- ation and commentary

c. believed in an oral (for definition of torah, see below ) given to Moses by God on Mt. Sinal in addition to the ten commandments and the covenant

d. in post diaspora Jewish life, the sect which creates the books which orthodox Jews study to this day (tanakh or essentially the Hebrew [the Old Testament with the books rearranged so that the prophets occur about ¾ through the text; the Torah or first five books of the Tanakh ; the , or commentaries on the the Torah (Talmud is divided into two parts: The Mishnah, thought to be the oral traditions given to Moses on Mt. Sinai and codified in the early 200s CE and the Gemara, which are the commentaries. The study and interpretation of the Talmud is considered by orthodox Jews to be a sacred responsibility]

e. Jesus and the Pharisees

(1), because of their treatment in the Gospels the Pharisees are often seen by Christians as enemies of Christ who eventually brought him down (see “woes of the Pharisees”, in Matt. , 23L 1-39m Luke, 11L 37-54, Mark 12: 35-40)

(2). Jesus was either a Pharisee or understood that Pharisees were the most attractive Alternative to his program and mission (a). his attacks on the Pharisees as indicated in the Gospels are sins of hypocrisy. This may be because Pharisees (or some Pharisees) were Accused of being too legalistic, demanding that rituals be observed In all aspects of life. Again, this would be counter to Jesus’ mission.

(b). From an historical perspective, it is important to see the Gospels as Having a political agenda, differentiating and promoting this “new sect” Of Judaism. Therefore, one can speculate that the most threatening Sect would be the Pharisees and that is why they are singled out in the Gospels

C. Hellenism

1. Alexander 456 BCE-323 BCE) conquered the whole including the area we know as and

a. left behind a new set of intellectual and cultural forms we call Hellenic

(1) characterized by a new emphasis on individualism, realism (many historians think that Modern Western culture begins in this era); first novels, often oriented to love and Erotism—see illustrations below)

(2) new philosophical movements (Stoicism, Skepticism, Pythagorianism)

(a). Cynicism is of particular interest, since some scholars believe that their Ideas may have influenced Jesus

[1]. Believed in extreme ascetism—lived extremely simply, dressed and Lived like someone who was destitute (e.g., Diogenes reputedly lived In a rain barrel

[2]. Thought people should live close to nature, eschewed the “new urbanism” Developing during this period

(2) new levels of artistic production (era of Sophocles, Aristophenes, etc., great libraries Like at , centers of learning)

2. By the first century BCE, particularly in cities of Alexandria and (), there Were thriving Jewish communities; spoke Greek and read the Septuigent Bible (a Translation of the )

3. Hellenism and the Jews

a. Judea resisted these new intellectual and artistic trends but religious leaders (rabbis) often struggled with their perceived threat to accepted Jewish doctrine

[1]. Struggle with these ideas continued well into the high Middle ages (1100-1300 CE)

II. Jesus’ mission and ministry had its roots in central tenets of radical egalitarianism found in the Old Testament

A. Evidence for this impulse can be found in even earlier societies before Israel

1. e.g., , ancient port city in northern Syria (1400-1200 BCE)

a. In the following, Keret is the king of Ugarit and his son is speaking to him, arguing that he Should reign instead of his father:

Hearken I pray you, Keret the noble! Listen and incline your ear…. You have let your hand fall into mischief. You judge not the cause of the widow, Nor do you adjudicate the case of the wretched [destitute] You drive not out them that prey on the poor; You feed not the fatherless before you, The widow behind your back. Having become a brother of the sickbed, A companion of the bed of suffering. Descend from the kingship—I’ll reign; From your authority—I’ll sit enthroned. (quoted in Crossan, 1999, p. 185-186)

3. e.g., “The protest of the eloquent peasant”

a. In the following, a peasant named Thut-Nakht living sometime in the (circa 2000-1800 BCE), having, he feels, been tricked in a transaction, appeals directly To the chief steward of Egypt:

Because you are the father of the orphan, the husband of the widow, the brother of the divorcee, And the apron of him that is motherless. Let me make your name in this land according to every good law: a leader free from covetousness, a great man free from wrongdoing, one who destroys falsehood And brings justice into being, and who comes at the cry of him who gives voice…Do not plunder of his property a poor man, a weakling as you know him. His property is the ( very) breath of a suffering man, and he who takes it away is one who stops up his nose. You were appointed to conduct hearings, to judge between two men, and to punish the brigand, (but) behold it is the upholder of the thief which you would be. One trust in you, whereas you are become a transgressor. You were appointed to be a dam for the sufferer, guarding lest he drown (but) behold you are his flowing lake. (quoted in Crossan, 1999, p. 186)

B. Continuous themes of righteousness and justice, particularly protection of widows, orphans, Poor and the wretched (destitute) through resisting inequality

1. At Creation, Exodus, the liberation from and redemption of Israel in the future

“The word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and Justice; the earth is full of steadfast love of the Ord. By the word of the Lord the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of sea in a bottle; he put the deep in storehouses,” (Psalm 33:4-7)

“ Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob…He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them…The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made know his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel” (Psalms, 99:4-7; 103: 6-7)

“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord; for he is coming , for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” (Psalms 96:11-13)

C. Judaic Law: three main collections: Covenent Code in Exodus 20:22-23:19(northern half of Jewish homeland in ninth century BCE; Deutoronomic Code in Deuteronomy 12-16 (seventh century BCE around time of Jeremiah; Holiness Code in Leviticus 17-26 (also in the seventh century period).

a. Establishing rest; every seventh day and year distinctively Jewish although sacred days very common in contemporaneous cultures—But rest for what and why?

“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have some relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed” (Exodus 23:12)

“Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

(1). rest or stay of inequality; stay against activity that engenders inequality during the week

“For six years you shall sow your land and gather its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You Shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.” (Exodus 23:10-11)

“when you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: It shall be a year of complete rest of your land. You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; for the livestock also, and the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food. (Leviticus 25: 2b-7)

(2). Even the land itself is in a state of equity or equality

(3). The poor have rights not just to alms or handouts but to the land and its produce

(a). Such sentiments occur in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code

b. Three things that threaten equality: debt, enslavement, dispossession

(1). Remission of these things was characteristic when a new king or emperor came on The throne in Near Eastern societies

(2). For Jews, deeply embedded in covenant relationship between God, Law, People, and Land

c. Controlling debt

(1). Forbidding interest

“If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact money from them” (Exodus 22:25)

“You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest on money, interest on provision, interest on anything that is lent.” (Deuteronomy 11:10)

“If any of your kind fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit.” (Leviticus 25: 35-37)

(2). Control over creditors

“If you give your neighbor’s cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate” (Exodus 22:26-27) No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge…When you make your neighbor a loan of any kind, you shall not go into the house to take the pledge. You shall wait outside, while the person to whom you are making the loan brings the pledge out to you If the person is poor, you shall not sleep in the garment given you as the pledge. You shall give the pledge back by sunset, so that your neighbor may sleep in his cloak and bless you, and it will be to your credit before the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 24: 6, 10-11)

(a). Even in absence of interest it is possible to get more deeply into debt so to exercise at Least some control over creditors helps to ameliorate this problem

(3). Remission of debts (not present in Covenant Code but created in Deuteronomic Code as part Of Sabbath year liberation

“Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor , not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed…If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any your towns within the land that God is giving you. Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, “the seventh year, the year of remission is near,” and therefore view our needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you , and you would incur guilt. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’” (Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 7-11)

(a). Note the emphasis on the health of the community, that movement toward equality And away from inequality are healing

(b), Empirically, it is very difficult to prove whether or not the Sabbath was enforced in Practice but it certainly is a legal and spiritual ideal

(4). Liberating Enslavement: (individuals or families could sell themselves into slavery or be Enslaved by their creditors when debt became too severe)

“When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt…When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have not right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing or marital rights of the first wife. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money (Exodus 21; 2, 7- 11)

“If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew women, is sold to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free. And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you…Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have give you services worth the wages of hired laborers, and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do (Deuteronomy 15:12-15, 18)

(5). Reversing dispossession: when debt leads to loss of the land which was the ultimate guarantee For loans. Remember (see third presentation) land is an ancestral inheritance from God. One Was never to be permanently alienated from the land. Not a commodity available for Exchange or fixed price.

“You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout the land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you in your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces. In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property…the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants” (Leviticus 25:8-13, 23)

(a). Once again we see the pull against increasing inequality

(b). related to the ruling class desire to create land monopoly or latifundia (estates)

Jubilee year return of land is an attempt to defeat “you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land.” (Isaiah 5:8)

D. Justice, equality and the Prophets

1. From the earliest to the late Prophets, the cry for justice for the “widow, orphan, poor and needy” is repeated over and over again even as one imperial power is succeeded by another

a. Assyrian Empire (721 BCE)

“A trader, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. Ephraim has said, ‘Ah, I am rich, I have gained wealth for myself; in all of my gain no offense has been found in me that would be sin.’ I a the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of the appointed festival.” (Hosea 12:7-9)

“Thus says the Lord: Act with just and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan and the widow, or she innocent blood in this place…Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages…Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and the needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? Says the Lord. But your eyes ahd heart are only on your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence” (Jeremiah 22:3, 13, 15b-17)

b. Babylonian Empire 587 BCE

“the Lord enters into judgment with the elders and of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. Why do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? Says the Lord of Hosts.” (Isaiah 3:14-15)

c. Persian Empire (539 BCE)

“They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress househoulder and house people and their inheritance…you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin of my people, and the flesh off their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.” (Micah 2:2, 3:1b-3)

“Thus says the Lord God: Enough, princes of Israel. Put away violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Cease your evictions of my people, says the Lord God. You shall have honest balances, an honest ephah, and an honest bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure…” (Ezekiel 45:9-12)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Rend true judgments, show kindness and mercy to on another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts again one another.” (Zechariah 7:9-10)

b. An interesting example from within Judaism as opposed to calling out imperial power is Samuel’s warning about , the first Jewish king:

“He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyard and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day (1 Samuel 8:14-18)

C. In other words, he will behave like any other king, emperor, or imperial warlord

E. Psalm 82

1. Justice framed as inequality can be found throughout the Psalms but Psalm 82 is perhaps most direct. Here God is sitting in the divine council of the gods (this may reflect the fact that Jewish monotheism is practiced in an environment composed of many groups who practice polytheism):

“God has taken his place in the divine council; In the midst of the gods he holds judgment: ‘How long will you judge unjustly And show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the orphan; Maintain the right of the lowly and destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’ They have neither knowledge nor understanding, They walk around in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say: ‘You are gods, Children of the Most High, all of you; Nevertheless you shall die as mortals, And fall like any .’ Rise up, O God, judge the earth; For all the nations belong to you!

a. Key here is the idea that the lowly and destitute have rights. In this way, they are equal to all and deserve justice. Note here the resonance with the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights…” The Founders of the US knew their Bible well.

b. The Jewish God is a God of justice and righteousness and ultimately an enemy of inequality out of which emerges injustice. God stands for those who are SYSTEMATICALLY vulnerable, for the weak, the orphan, the lowly, the destitute, and the needy.

c. Jesus takes these ideas and takes them to a new level by drawing out the implications for egalitarianism contained in the Old Testament and formulating them as radical egalitarianism (see Presentation one for an account of Jesus’ radical program).