My friend Roar Sørensen has added a comment to some comments on the blog. Thank you! I think it is very important, and today not very controversial, to state that “Jesus fit within the Judaism of his day.” Even though I think this statement should be further qualified, this represents quite a broad consensus. In fact, some of modern exegetical research goes so far in that direction, that it thinks that it is difficult to discern him from the Judaism of his time. However, one must understand that the term Judaisms is more apt to describe the situation (see, for example, Baumgarten, Albert I. 1997. The Flourishing of Jewish Sects in the Maccabean Era: An Interpretation. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism. Leiden: Brill.)
With Jesus there is both a continuity and a discontinuity to present-day Judaisms. Acting as an endtime prophet, he proclaim that the time has come, the Kingdom of God is present, and the conditions for entering it. Pursuing the law without compromise, he seems to have streched it as much as possible to fit the Kingdom of God ethics which he had come to proclaim in Israel, and out of Israel. But in no way Jesus tries to starta ‘new’ thing, but to fulfil the old, to realise the covenant through his sacrifice, to release the Spirit of the covenant, and to make the calling of Israel as the teacher of the nations a reality.
History made gentile Christianity the dominating in terms of number, philosophical and theological culture etc. This belongs to the greatest problems in the history of the Church; due to this, it is difficult for us today what Christianity was meant to be.
Understanding that Jesus was and is a circumcised Jewish God-man, who took his Jewishness seriously is a fundamental truth, which challenges us to search for what Christian identity is meant to be. Our Saviour is a Jew. This also necessitates that Christians (i.e. people of the Jewish Messiah, since the word ‘Christ’ only is a translation of ha-Mashiach) understand that they have a fundamental association with his own people, the Jews.
David Nyström
2 months ago
Anders, have you read D. Boyarins “Border Lines”? He makes a very interesting case stating that not only Jesus but also the early Christians with their belief in Jesus fitted quite easily within the multi-coloured Judaism of the day. “Judaism” as contrasted to “Christianity”, he claims, was something which was later created in the rabbinic and patristic periods.
I certainly don’t agree with everything he writes, but it is an interesting perscpetive…
Anders Gerdmar
1 month ago
David, yes, this pespective by Boyarin is interesting indeed, and other authors do claim the same. I think it is basically true. But what seems to have been challenging is the claim that Jesus is ‘more than’ even the greatest figures in Judaism.