Modern Jews Engage the New Testament

Michael J. Cook

Description

An honest, probing look at the dynamics of the New Testament—in relation to problems that disconcert Jews and Christians today.

Despite the New Testament’s impact on Jewish history, virtually all Jews avoid knowledge of its underlying dynamics. Jewish families and communities thus remain needlessly stymied when responding to a deeply Christian culture. Their Christian friends, meanwhile, are left perplexed as to why Jews are wary of the Gospel’s “good news.”

This long-awaited volume offers an unprecedented solution-oriented introduction to Jesus and Paul, the Gospels and Revelation, leading Jews out of anxieties that plague them, and clarifying for Christians why Jews draw back from Christians’ sacred writings.

Accessible to laypeople, scholars and clergy of all faiths, innovative teaching aids make this valuable resource ideal for rabbis, ministers and other educators. Topics include:

• The Gospels, Romans and Revelation— the Key Concerns for Jews
• Misusing the Talmud in Gospel Study
• Jesus’ Trial, the “Virgin Birth” and Empty Tomb Enigmas
• Millennialist Scenarios and Missionary Encroachment
• The Last Supper and Church Seders
• Is the New Testament Antisemitic?

While written primarily with Jews in mind, this groundbreaking volume will also help Christians understand issues involved in the origin of the New Testament, the portrayal of Judaism in it, and why for centuries their “good news” has been a source of fear and mistrust among Jews.

Before We Proceed: How to Read This Book Introduction: Reversing "Statuary Blindness"—the Goal That Distinguishes This Book Notes on Terminology—Keeping Our Referents Straight xviii Part One Renouncing Intentional Ignorance 1 When Advice of Sages Ceases to Be Sage Advice 2 Results of Ignorance: Evolving Jewish Views of Jesus 3 Presenting the New Testament: Order and Dis-orders Part Two Basics We Should Know 4 Prisms for Viewing Early Christianity 5 Jesus and His Setting in the Land of Israel 6 Paul in His Diaspora Context Part Three Reasoning Matters Through 7 Characteristic Jewish Perspectives on the Gospels 8 Mastering “Gospel Dynamics”: Avenues to Ponder Part Four Christian Holy Days: Beneficial Applications of Jewish Gospel Study 9 Christmas: Why the Infancy (“Virgin Birth”) Stories Arose 10 Maundy (Holy) Thursday: Can We Right What's Wrong with Church “Seders”? 11 Good Friday: Responding to Blame for Jesus’ Death 12 Good Friday (Extended): Did the Sanhedrin and Barabbas Episodes Actually Occur? 13 Easter: Empty Tomb Enigmas Part Five Primary New Testament Writings: A Concern for Jews from Each 14 Romans–11: Why Paul’s Anxiety for Israel? 15 The Gospel of Mark: Destabilizing a Betrayal by “Judas” (“the Jews”?) 16 The Gospel of Matthew: Why So “Pro-Jewish” a Flavor to So “Anti-Jewish” a Gospel? 17 The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts: Did Jews Flock to Christianity? Luke’s Myth of the “Myriads” 18 The Gospel of John: Why Are Jesus’ Enemies So Conspicuously Termed “the Jews”? Part Six When Wariness Is Warranted: New Testament Knowledge for Self-Defense 19 The Christian Apocalypse: Jews as God’s Odometer in End-Times Scenarios 20 Neutralizing Missionary Encroachment: Conceptual Frameworks Part Seven Integrating Matters 21 My Personal Positions: Where They May Be Distinctive 22 Is the New Testament “Antisemitic”? 23 Never Again! Never Before! Suitability Index for Using This Multipurpose Book: Matching Contents to Occasion Listing of Figures Acknowledgments Abbreviations Notes Selected Bibliography Modern Author Index Scripture Index Gospel Dynamics Index Subject Index

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Hebrew Bible
• New Testament
• Judaism
• Christianity
• Religion
• Bible

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580236218
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

To Judy, for sharing in this book, and for always opening my eyes, and to Synagoga , for her daring, through this book, at last to open hers.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use .
-Galileo Galilei 1
Contents
Before We Proceed: How to Read This Book
Introduction: Reversing Statuary Blindness -the Goal That Distinguishes This Book
Notes on Terminology-Keeping Our Referents Straight
Part One Renouncing Intentional Ignorance
1 When Advice of Sages Ceases to Be Sage Advice
2 Results of Ignorance: Evolving Jewish Views of Jesus
3 Presenting the New Testament: Order and Dis-orders
Part Two Basics We Should Know
4 Prisms for Viewing Early Christianity
5 Jesus and His Setting in the Land of Israel
6 Paul in His Diaspora Context
Part Three Reasoning Matters Through
7 Characteristic Jewish Perspectives on the Gospels
8 Mastering Gospel Dynamics : Avenues to Ponder
Part Four Christian Holy Days: Beneficial Applications of Jewish Gospel Study
9 Christmas: Why the Infancy ( Virgin Birth ) Stories Arose
10 Maundy (Holy) Thursday: Can We Right What s Wrong with Church Seders ?
11 Good Friday: Responding to Blame for Jesus Death
12 Good Friday (Extended): Did the Sanhedrin and Barabbas Episodes Actually Occur?
13 Easter: Empty Tomb Enigmas
Part Five Primary New Testament Writings: A Concern for Jews from Each
14 Romans 9-11: Why Paul s Anxiety for Israel?
15 The Gospel of Mark: Destabilizing a Betrayal by Judas ( the Jews ?)
16 The Gospel of Matthew: Why So Pro-Jewish a Flavor to So Anti-Jewish a Gospel?
17 The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts: Did Jews Flock to Christianity? Luke s Myth of the Myriads
18 The Gospel of John: Why Are Jesus Enemies So Conspicuously Termed the Jews ?
Part Six When Wariness Is Warranted: New Testament Knowledge for Self-Defense
19 The Christian Apocalypse: Jews as God s Odometer in End-Times Scenarios
20 Neutralizing Missionary Encroachment: Conceptual Frameworks
Part Seven Integrating Matters
21 My Personal Positions: Where They May Be Distinctive
22 Is the New Testament Antisemitic ?
23 Never Again! Never Before!

Suitability Index for Using This Multipurpose Book: Matching Contents to Occasion
Listing of Figures
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Modern Author Index
Scripture Index
Gospel Dynamics Index
Subject Index
About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights
Before We Proceed
How to Read This Book
Most Jews are wary of, even intimidated by, the New Testament. Yet most Christians would be astonished at how anyone could be alienated from their sacred scripture. I intend to explain how these circumstances developed and to offer new ways of reaching the heart of these problems. As such, I present less a survey or introduction to the New Testament than a manual for managing it, a book that is:
primarily for lay readers but also for those of a scholarly bent.
primarily for Jews but also for interested Gentiles.
primarily for religionists but also for secularists.
Beyond these general readerships, I also have the following ones in mind:
Jewish professionals (rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service workers) -for use as their class text in their adult-education, teacher-training, religious school, and conversion courses; in counseling the intermarried; and in interacting with Christian clergy, with churches and sectarian colleges, and with the Christian community at large.
Academicians, seminarians, and college students -in their courses on the New Testament, on its understanding by Jews, and on its impact on Jewish history.
Christian clergy -in seeking guidance for how to reread New Testament texts that have an effect on Jews and Judaism.
Centers for Christian-Jewish Learning -as a text in their programming on the New Testament in relation to Jewish concerns.
Jewish, interfaith, and blended relationships and their households, and Jews-by-Choice -in seeking greater ease to engage in reasoned and informed interchange on religious issues and differences within relationships and families.
Jewish youth programmers -in imparting information about Jesus and the Gospels that is cogent, balanced, and helpful to youngsters who are vulnerable to Christian missionaries and millennialists.
Generalists with special interest in the dynamics of religious texts.
Accommodating These Differing Readerships
Because this book combines material that is vital to the novice with analyses that are potentially useful for scholars, certain devices are used to bridge widely differing interest levels:

Multidirectional reading options . For newcomers to this subject, chapters are arranged in a logical progression and are best addressed as sequenced. Yet, each is also written to stand on its own, so readers can productively approach them in any sequence.
Multipurpose applicability . This book is envisioned also for programming use, for example, weekly adult-education classes, synagogue Institutes for Christian clergy and seminarians, religious studies department courses in colleges, interfaith sessions at Centers for Christian-Jewish Learning, and so on. Accordingly, I provide my personal recommendations as to which chapters best lend themselves to which programming. (For these suggestions, see Suitability Index for Using This Multipurpose Book: Matching Contents to Occasion. )
Two types of endnotes . Because some readers consult endnotes as they go while others do so on a delayed basis or not at all, standard superscripts ( 1 ) indicate conventional endnotes, but underlined superscripts ( 1 ) indicate those endnotes that I believe readers might profit from consulting immediately.
Chapter-ending tools . Most of Chapters 9 through 20 (Parts Four through
Six of the book) end with sections that are pedagogical tools:
1. The Most Valuable Ideas in This Chapter May Be
2. What Gospel Dynamics Have We Recognized in This Chapter?
3. Loose Ends Worth Tying
Some readers may prefer to examine the first two items even before beginning these chapters. The third item draws attention to materials that are additional or tangential to the chapter s primary focus. The superscript ( ) within chapter texts signals that a subject just mentioned will receive elaboration in the Loose Ends Worth Tying section.
Rearranged Synoptic Columns . To aid those who are unfamiliar with reading Gospel texts in parallel columns, I display Matthew, Mark, and Luke not in their customary New Testament order of appearance but in their order of composition . The accompanying figure shows an example of what this looks like.
Preface Fig. 1-Resequencing Synoptic Columns

Other Matters
Chapter 21 outlines some of the ideas that animate my conclusions throughout this volume. This summary occurs late in the book because novice readers will find it more helpful after they have covered the earlier material. Nonetheless, as with each chapter, Chapter 21 stands on its own and can be read at any time. It opens with my views on the sensitive matter of Jews venturing to analyze sacred Christian texts.
All quotations from scholars in this book are appropriately noted in corresponding endnotes. But, given the special nature and purposes of this volume, I do not name the scholars within the body of the text if it might prove distracting to new learners.
Cross-referencing of chapters, notes, and illustrative materials is included especially to accommodate those who wish to read chapters out of order. In the titles of charts, diagrams, and so on (e.g., Fig. 5.3), the first number indicates the chapter while the second number indicates where in the sequence of figures in that chapter this figure appears. (See also Listing of Figures. )
Biblical quotations are from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version (New York: Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, 1965; with permission), with any emphases (italicized words) added. Chapter and verse citations usually appear within the main text, but in some cases strings of citations have been shifted to endnotes. (For abbreviations of biblical books, and other ancient writings, see Abbreviations in the back matter of this book.)
With regard to Hebrew transliterations, I depart from standard transliterations if alternatives are already more familiar, for example, tikkun olam ( repairing the world ), instead of tiqqun olam .
I have selected those materials and approaches that I believe will best help accomplish the goals set forth in the Introduction. As an example, each of the five chapters on Paul and the Gospels features the one constellation of factors that I feel is indispensable for readers to know.
Notes on Terminology-Keeping Our Referents Straight follows the Introduction. I strongly recommend that readers fully examine this section before delving into the rest of the book. When an expression explained in the Notes on Terminology appears in other chapters, it may be signaled by an asterisk (*).
Key to Superscripts
1 Conventional endnote
1 An endnote worth reading immediately
See Loose Ends Worth Tying
* Consult Notes on Terminology
Introduction
Reversing Statuary Blindness -the Goal That Distinguishes This Book
A lthough the New Testament has exerted the most harmful impact on the Jewish people s history, Jews have always opted to remain ignorant about it. This is the glaring exception to the time-honored Jewish approach to problem-solving, which is to amass-not shun-knowledge. As a result of not knowing how to engage the New Testament, Jews have allowed problems that began after the mid-first century not only to recur frequently but also to intensify and fester. These problems have persisted into modern times, continuing to destabilize Jews well-being on