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Some Anti-Semitic Assumptions in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

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Some Anti-Semitic Assumptions in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament SOME ANTI-SEMITIC ASSUMPTIONS IN THE THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT by MAURICE CASEY Nottingham 1. Introduction The ability of New Testament scholars to repeat major works of reference knows no bounds. Nowhere is this more regrettable than in the case of the earlier volumes of the Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (TWNT ), later translated into English as the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT ).1 These volumes were produced in Germany when anti-semitism was at its height in the run-up to the Holocaust. Scholars nonetheless continue to repeat their contents without proper critical assessment. This main point has been made before. In a ne article on the gen- eral problems of the use of Jewish sources in New Testament research, the Jewish scholar Geza Vermes noted the unduly high regard in which the TDNT is held among New Testament scholars. He also pointed out the anti-semitic life-stance of its main editor, Gerhard Kittel, whose tractate Die Judenfrage was published in 1933, the same year as the rst volume of TWNT, and the same year as Kittel joined the Nazi party. 2 A notable response to Vermes’ article was published by Professor B.D. Chilton, notable because Chilton is in no way anti-Jewish. On the con- trary, he is one of the few New Testament scholars who are both sym- pathetic to the Jewish source material and fully competent in it, being 1 G. Kittel and G. Friedrich (edd.), Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (10 vols.; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1933-79); English transl.: G.W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (10 vols.; Grand Rapids, 1964-76). For classic criticism of a diVerent kind, see J. Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford: OUP, 1961), ch. 8. 2 G. Vermes, “Jewish Studies and New Testament Interpretation”, JJS 21 (1980) 1-17, reprinted in G. Vermes, Jesus and the World of Judaism (London: SCM, 1983) 58- 73, esp. 64-66, referring to G. Kittel, Die Judenfrage (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1933, 21933, 31934). ©Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 1999 Novum Testamentum XLI, 3 anti-semitic assumptions in kittel ’s TWNT 281 able to read and interpret sources in Hebrew and Aramaic, as well as in Greek. He has also published books co-authored withh a Jewish colleague, Jacob Neusner. 3 Nonetheless, Chilton simply turned down Vermes’ contentions, declaring that he relied on “the old technique of imputing guilt by association: because Kittel was sympathetic with national Socialism, anti-Semitism is attributed to contributors to the Wörterbuch.”4 Moreover, by this stage Vos had published an article with the delib- erate intention of drawing attention to the anti-semitic outlook of some contributors to this dictionary, and Johnson had discussed more gen- erally the di Verent orientations of German New Testament scholars at that time.5 Unfortunately, neither article seems to have made much impression on the present generation of New Testament scholars. This may be because neither article was published in a major New Testa- ment journal, and neither article provided su Ycient evidence of the ideological orientation of the scholars whom they discussed. It may however also be that anti-Jewish prejudices are so convenient, and the story of Nazi New Testament scholars is so discreditable, that some of us are happier without the whole of this story. The purpose of this article is accordingly to use the pages of a major international jour- nal for the study of the New Testament to draw attention to the anti- Jewish assumptions of some material in TWNT. This material is still being repeated because of the regrettably high regard in which this work of reference is held, and because of the widespread and unfor- tunate habit of repeating the words of dead professors, regardless of truth or falsehood. I draw explicit attention to the Nazi allegiance of the author of the article on ƒIoudaÝow and other words for Jewish peo- ple, and to the position of an editorial assistant and a contributor of 3 B.D. Chilton and J. Neusner, Judaism in the New Testament. Practices and Beliefs (London/New York: Routledge, 1995); Revelation. The Torah and the Bible (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995); The Body of Faith. Israel and the Church (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1996); God in the World (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997); The Intellectual Foundations of Christian and Jewish Discourse (London/New York: Routledge, 1997); Jewish-Christian Debates. God, Kingdom, Messiah (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998). 4 B.D. Chilton, “God as ‘Father’ in the Targumim, in Non-Canonical Literatures of Early Judaism and Primitive Christianity, and in Matthew”, in J.H. Charlesworth and C. Evans (edd.), The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation (JSPS 14; She Yeld: SheYeld Academic, 1993) 151-69, at 153-4. 5 J.S. Vos, “Antijudaismus/Antisemitismus im Theologischen Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament”, Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 38 (1984) 89-110; M.D. Johnson, “Power Politics and New Testament Scholarship in the Nationalist Socialist Period”, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 23 (1986) 1-24..
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