A selection of essays from the Leuven Conference on the anti-Judaism of the fourth gospel, this volume includes essays from the world's best Johannine scholars.
The Gospel of John presents its readers, listeners, and interpreters with a serious problem: how can we reconcile the Gospel’s exalted spirituality and deep knowledge of Judaism with its portrayal of the Jews as the children of the devil (John 8:44) who persecuted Christ and his followers? One widespread solution to this problem is the so-called “expulsion hypothesis.” According to this view, the Fourth Gospel was addressed to a Jewish group of believers in Christ that had been expelled from the synagogue due to their faith. The anti-Jewish elements express their natural resentment of how they had been treated; the Jewish elements of the Gospel, on the other hand, reflect the Jewishness of this group and also soften the force of the Gospel’s anti-Jewish comments. In Cast out of the Covenant, this book, Adele Reinhartz presents a detailed critique of the expulsion hypothesis on literary and historical grounds. She argues that, far from softening the Gospel’s anti-Jewishness, the Gospel’s Jewish elements in fact contribute to it. Focusing on the Gospel’s persuasive language and intentions, Reinhartz shows that the Gospel’s anti-Jewishness is evident not only in the Gospel’s hostile comments about the Jews but also in its appropriation of Torah, Temple, and Covenant that were so central to first-century Jewish identity. Through its skillful use of rhetoric, the Gospel attempts to convince its audience that God’s favor had turned away from the Jews to the Gentiles; that there is a deep rift between the synagogue and those who confess Christ as Messiah; and that, in the Gospel’s view, this rift was initiated in Jesus’ own lifetime. The Fourth Gospel, Reinhartz argues, appropriates Jewishness at the same time as it repudiates Jews. In doing so, it also promotes a “parting of the ways” between those who believe that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God, and those who do not, that is, the Jews. This rhetorical program, she suggests, may have been used to promote outreach or even an organized mission to the Gentiles, following in the footsteps of Paul and his mid-first-century contemporaries.
When and under what circumstances did the Gospel texts begin to serve anti-Jewish ends? Can it be said, accurately and fairly, that the evangelists were anti-Jewish? Are there tendencies in the Gospels that were originally contrived by the evangelists to injure the Jewish people or their religion, or to work against the interests of the Jewish people and/or their religion? In addressing these questions, an outstanding group of New Testament scholars effectively promotes a new relationship between Christianity and Judaism through historical study of the Bible. The rediscovery of Jesus as a Jew, against a Jewish background, as much by Jewish scholars as by Christian, shows how important it is for Christian self-understanding to reach a proper appreciation of Judaism.
Series: Jewish and Christian Heritage, 1 Is the Gospel of John anti-Jewish? What would this mean in the context of the original writer, of his community, the final text and its first readers? Who, precisely, are the Ioudaioi who are so scathingly criticized in the Gospel - “Judeans”, perhaps, or some other more specific group than the Jewish nation as a whole? What are the implications for New Testament study and for Christian theology in the light of the troubled history of relations between Judaism and Christianity? The papers in this volume were presented at the special international colloquium held in January 2000 in Leuven, Belgium, which was convened to assemble the world’s leading experts on John’s Gospel and issues of anti-Judaism for a thorough assessment of the state of the question. The result is a fascinating panorama of the issues and of current approaches to them, and an extremely valuable resource for further work on anti-Judaism in the Christian tradition. Contents: 1. Wrestling with Johannine Anti-Judaism: A Hermeneutical Frame-work for the Analysis of the Current Debate - Reimund Bieringer, Didier Pollefeyt, Frederique Vandecasteele-Vanneuville 2. The Embarrassment of History: Reflections on the Problem of ‘Anti-Judaism’ in the Fourth Gospel - James D.G. Dunn 3. Anti-Judaism in the Fourth Gospel as a Theological Problem for Christian Interpreters R. Alan Culpepper 4. The Fourth Gospel and the Salvation of Israel: An Appeal for a New Start Stephen Motyer 5. Anti-Judaism in Revelation? A Response to Peter Tomson - Jan Willem van Henten 6. Anti-Judaism in the Fourth Gospel - Judith M. Lieu 7. Escape Routes as Dead Ends: On Hatred towards Jews and the New Testament, Especially in the Gospel of John - Simon Schoon 8. The Coming Son of Man Became Flesh. High Christology and Anti-Judaism in the Gospel of John - Bertold Klappert 9. “Abraham is our Father” (John 8:39)The Gospel of John and the Jewish-Christian Dialogue - Hendrik Hoet 10. Biblical Thinking as the Wisdom of Love - Roger Burggraeve 11. The Identity of the ‘Jews’ for the Readers of John - Johannes Beutler 12. The ‘Jews’ in the Gospel of John - Henk Jan de Jonge 13. The Depiction of ‘the Jews’ in John’s Gospel. Matters of Behavior and Identity - M.C. de Boer 14. Speaking of the Jews .‘Jews’ in the Discourse Material of the Fourth Gospel - Raymond F. Collins 15. ‘Jews’ in the Gospel of John as Compared with the Palestinian Talmud, the Synoptics and Some New Testament Apocrypha - Peter J. Tomson 16. ‘Jews’ and Jews in the Fourth Gospel - Adele Reinhartz 17. The Nicodemus Enigma: The Characterization and Function of an Ambiguous Actor of the Fourth Gospel - Jean Marie Sevrin - 18. “Salvation is from the Jews.” The Parenthesis in John 4:22b - Gilbert van Belle 19. John and Judaism - C. Kingsley Barrett 20. “You Are of Your Father the Devil” in Its Context: Stereotyped Apocalyptic Polemic in John 8:38-47 - U.C. von Wahlde 21. Scriptural Dispute between Jews and Christians in John: Literary Fiction or Historical Reality? John 9:13-17, 24-34 as a Test Case - Maarten J.J. Menken 22. The Farewell Discourses (John 13:31–16:33) and the Problem of Anti-Judaism - Jean Zumstein 23. The Gospel of John: Exclusivism Caused by a Social Setting Different from That of Jesus (John 11:54 and 14:6) - James H. Charlesworth 24. Anti-Judaism in the Book of Revelation - Jan Lambrecht 25. The Canon – Understanding of Revelation – History of Reception and Effects. Problems of a Biblically Oriented Theo...
A window into early Judaism and Christianity The Gospel of John was written during the period of the emergence of Christianity and its separation from Judaism and bears witness to their contested relationship. This volume contains eighteen cutting-edge essays written by an international group of scholars who interpret for students and general readers what the book tells us about first-century Judaism, the separation of the church from Judaism, and how John's anti-Jewish references are being interpreted today. Features: A debate over the process that led to the separation of the church from Judaism, and John's place in that process A review of recent interpretations of John's anti-Jewish references An assessment of the current status of Jewish Christian relations
A compelling account of Christianity’s Jewish beginnings, from one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient religion How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God's promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church? Committed to Jesus’s prophecy—“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”—they were, in their own eyes, history's last generation. But in history's eyes, they became the first Christians. In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers this question by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life. Fredriksen offers a vivid portrait both of this temple-centered messianic movement and of the bedrock convictions that animated and sustained it.
The Jewish Gospel of John is not, by any standard, another book on Jesus of Nazareth written from a Jewish perspective. It is an invitation to the reader to put aside their traditional understanding of the Gospel of John and to replace it with another one more faithful to the original text perspective. The Jesus that will emerge will provoke to rethink most of what you knew about this gospel. The book is a well-rounded verse-by-verse illustrated rethinking of the fourth gospel. Here is the catch: instead of reading it, as if it was written for 21 century Gentile Christians, the book interprets it as if it was written for the first-century peoples of ancient Israel. The book proves what Krister Stendahl stated long time ago: "Our vision is often more abstracted by what we think we know than by our lack of knowledge." Other than challenging the long-held interpretations of well-known stories, the author with the skill of an experienced tour guide, takes us to a seat within those who most probably heard this gospel read in the late first century. Such exploration of variety of important contexts allows us to recover for our generation the true riches of this marvelous Judean gospel. "A genuine apologetic is one that is true to the texts and the history, akin to the speeches of a defense attorney with integrity. Using the best of contemporary scholarship in first-century Judaic history and contributing much of his own, Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg has demonstrated that the Gospel of John is not an anti-Jewish, but a thoroughly Jewish book." Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, University of California, Berkeley "Dr. Lizorkin-Eyzenberg places the text of John's Gospel in its authentic context by examining the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, rabbinic literature, and suggesting innovative explanations for the nomenclature, 'the Jews.' His fresh analysis is sure to stir meaningful debate. His creative approach will make an enduring contribution to the discipline of New Testament studies." Brad Young, Professor of Biblical Literature in Judeao-Christian Studies, Oral Roberts University "For some time, research on the Gospels has suffered from stagnation, and there is a feeling that there is not much new that one can say. In light of this, Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg's new commentary on the Gospel of John, with its original outlook on the identity of the original audience and the issues at stake, is extremely refreshing." Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Head of the Talmud and Late Antiquity Department, Tel-Aviv University.
Bestselling and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong reveals the subversive, mystical wisdom of the writer of the Gospel of John and how his teachings point us forward in the twenty-first century In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Spong turns his attention to the Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel in the Bible. Contrary to what is most often believed, he writes that this gospel was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus. In fact, it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus’ life through the medium of Jewish worship traditions and fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the “Beloved Disciple.” The Fourth Gospel not only recaptures the original message of this gospel, but also provides us with a radical new dimension to the claim that in the humanity of Jesus the reality of God has been met and engaged. This book offers a fresh way to read the Gospel of John and a unique primer about how to be a Christian in the post-Christian twenty-first century.
In the The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth-telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.