MESSIANIC JEWS AND CHINDAN THEOLOGY Restoring an Historical Voice to the Contemporary Discussion David J. Rudolph Jesus-believing JewsJesus-believin g Jews were of great import to Paul but not to later catholic were of great import theologians. As a student of the New Testament and a Messianic Jew,1 to Paul but not to I have a natural interest in my field's inherited tendency to overlook later catholic Messianic Jews. Often I come across books and articles that assume the theologians. non-existence of Messianic Jews or reflect disregard for how a particu- DavidJ Rudolph, Cambridge University, Selzvyn College, Grange Road, Cambridge, CB39DQ, United Kingdom 1. Messianic Jews, by historical definition, are Jesus-believing Jews who embrace Jewish identity and Jewish communal life as a matter of covenant responsibility (see n. 113). The twentieth century Messianic movement arose out of a milieu in which "Hebrew Christians" viewed their Jewishness primarily as a matter of ethnicity. Pioneer "Messi­ anic Jews" (such as Joseph Rabinowitz, Mark Levy, and Paul Levertoff) rejected this orientation and maintained that their Jewishness was primarily a matter of covenant faithfulness. They argued that Messianic synagogues needed to be established so that Jesus-believing Jews could live out their covenant obligations in a Jewish community context. Recent socio-historical studies of Messianic Jews include: Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Messianic Judaism (New York: Cassell, 2000); Carol Harris-Shapiro, Messianic Judaism: A Rabbis Journey Through Religious Change in America (Boston: Beacon, 1999); Shoshanah Feher, Passing Over Easter: Constructing the Boundaries of Messianic Judaism (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 1998); Shoshanah Feher, "Managing Strain, Contradictions, and Fluidity: Messianic Judaism and the Negotiation of a Religio-Ethnic Identity," in Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader (eds. Penny E. Becker and Nancy L. Eiesland; Walnut Creek: AltaMira, 1997), pp. 25-50; Gershon Nerel, "Messianic Jews in Eretz Is­ rael, 1917-1967: Trends and Changes in Shaping Self Identity" (Hebrew; Ph.D. diss., Hebrew University, 1995); Ruth I. Fleischer, "The Emergence of Distinctively Jewish Faith in Jesus, 1925-1993" (Ph.D. diss., King's College, University of London, 1995); Bruce Stokes, "Messianic Judaism: Ethnicity in Revitalization" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Riverside, 1994); Carol Harris-Shapiro, "Syncretism or Struggle: The Case of Messianic Judaism" (Ph.D. diss., Temple University, 1992); John R. Stone, "Messianic Judaism: a redefinition of the boundary between Christian and Jew," Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion 3 (1991), pp. 237-52. 58 David J. Rudolph lar reading of a text, if translated into practice, would impact a twenty- The aim of this first century Messianic synagogue.2 Having said this, I have also ob­ study is to address served that awareness of Messianic Judaism is increasing in the guild, the query, "Should a happening facilitated by extensive repudiation of supersessionism there be a place for and recognition that Christianity was initially a sect of Jews in the ma­ theMessianic trix of pluriform Second Temple Judaism.3 The aim of this study is to Jewish perspective address the query, "Should there be a place for, the Messianic Jewish in Christian perspective in Christian theology?" I will begin by noting select ex­ theology?" amples of how Messianic Jews today are treated as an excluded middle in many theological venues, and then turn to recent signs of change and the growing theological case that is being made for viewing Messi­ anic Jews as fundamental to the church's identity. For the purpose of this essay, I sometimes write in the first-person to communicate the incontro­ vertible reality of my existence and perspective as a Messianic Jew. OVERLOOKING MESSIANIC JEWS IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY A current example of Messianic Jews being overlooked in Christian After a compelling theology occurs in Robert Jenson's article "Toward a Christian Theol­ treatment of ogy of Judaism" (2003).4 After a compelling treatment of Christianity's Christianity's need need for a non-supersessionist theological interpretation of Judaism, for a non- Jenson goes on to make four statements that formulate his position on supersessionist Jesus-believing Jews: First, he asserts that Jesus-believing Jews should theological be welcomed by the church as "gifts of God/'5 Second, he notes that interpretation of "identifiable Jewishness does not long survive within the gentile-domi­ Judaism, Jenson nated church ... the church as it is will not provide it... Jews within it goes on to make constantly tend to vanish from sight as Jews."6 Third, he argues that four statements that "Torah-obedience" is a divine means of ensuring Jewish continuity (a formulate his statement that few Christian theologians have dared to make).7 Fourth, position on Jesus- he reasons that the traditional (non-Messianic) synagogue is thereby believing Jews. God's vehicle of preserving the Jewish people. Jenson concludes: 2. There are over 300 Messianic synagogues around the world; most are affiliated with the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), the International Association of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS) and the International Messianic Jewish Alliance (IMJA). 3. James C. Paget, "Jewish Christianity," in The Cambridge History of Judaism III (eds. William Horbury et al.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 731-75; Alan E. Segal, "Jewish Christianity," in Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism (eds. Harold W. Attridge and Gohei Hata; Leiden: Brill, 1992), pp. 326-48. 4. Robert W. Jenson, "Toward a Christian Theology of Judaism," in Jews and Christians: People of God (eds. Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), pp. 1-13. 5. Jenson, "Toward a Christian Theology of Judaism," p. 9. 6. Jenson, "Toward a Christian Theology of Judaism," pp. 9-10. 7. Jenson, "Toward a Christian Theology of Judaism," pp. 9-11. PRO ECCLESIA VOL. XIV, No. 1 59 Can there be a present body of the risen Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, in which the lineage of Abraham and Sarah so vanishes into a congregation of gentiles as it does in the church? My final - and perhaps most radical - suggestion to Christian theology (not, let me say again, to Jewish self understanding) is that, so long as the time of detour lasts, the embodi­ ment of the risen Christ is whole only in the form of the church and an identifiable community of Abraham and Sarah's descendants. The church and the synagogue are together and only together the present availability to the world of the risen Jesus Christ.8 Jenson's first, second and third assertions are correct in my view. And the ecclesiological presupposition behind his fourth—that the church is a body of Jews and Gentiles—is in accord with the breadth of Paul's portrayal of the church.9 But Jenson must assume the non-existence of hundreds of Messianic synagogues around the world to arrive at the As Michael theologoumenon that non-Messianic synagogues are God's only au­ Wyschogrod thorized way to preserve the Jewish people. I am a second-generation recognizes, the Messianic Jew, reared in a Messianic synagogue, and my children are church shirks its third-generation Messianic Jews. Why doesn't Jenson raise the Messi­ responsibility when anic Jewish option as a means of preserving the Jewish people within it views the church?10 As Michael Wyschogrod recognizes, the church shirks its assimilation of responsibility when it views assimilation of Jesus-believing Jews as Jesus-believing Jewsunavoidable—"I f it is God's will that the Jewish people continue to as unavoidable. exist as long as the world exists, then the church must preserve the identity of the Jewish people within the church and cannot depend on Jews who refuse to enter the church."11 8. Jenson, "Toward a Christian Theology of Judaism," p. 13. 9. The textual basis for this will be discussed below. 10. Demographic and sociological studies suggest that Messianic synagogues contrib­ ute to Jewish continuity. The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) asked, "Is being Jewish very important in your life?" According to the findings, 100% of all Messi­ anic Jews interviewed said "Yes" to the survey question. This was higher than any other Jewish group interviewed, including Orthodox (77%), Conservative (58%) and Reform (40%). See Sergio DellaPergola, "New Data on Demography and Identification Among Jews in the U.S.," Jezoish Intermarriage In Its Social Context (ed. Paul Ritterband; New York: The Jewish Outreach Institute & The Center for Jewish Studies, 1991), pp. 84-86. The results of the 1990 NJPS have been confirmed by additional studies. Sociologist Shoshanah Feher concludes that, in Messianic synagogues, "congregants show a dis­ tinctive trend toward increased Jewishness: Those who grew up Jewish now value their heritage more fully... In terms of ethnicity, they are more culturally Jewish and more proud of their Jewish heritage than many mainstream Jews" (Feher, Passing Over Easter, pp. 140-42). Reconstructionist rabbi Carol Harris-Shapiro, who studied the Messianic movement for ten years, concludes, "Until now, according to Jewish communal expec­ tations, the amount of ritual indicates the strength of Jewish identity. Quantifiable Jew­ ish ritual had dominated sociological research on Jewish continuity; what Jews do has classified them as 'more' or 'less' Jewish, more or less in touch with the 'golden thread' that binds Jews to their