Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS
need to take up the supposed hostility in the Synoptic Gospels
between Jesus and the Jewish movement. Several viewpoints have
emerged in recent scholarship. Prof. Paul Winter, for example, insists
that the fierce opposition between Jesus and "the Pharisees" depicts a
situation that came to pass well into the first century when the church
and the synagogue had gone their separate ways. It was not
representative of the actual relationship in Jesus' lifetime.
Another possible approach is based on the research of the Israeli
New Testament scholar David Flusser. He has shown that there were
many competing groups within the overall Pharisee movement and
they frequently spoke quite harshly about one another. In other
words, Jesus' condemnations may very well reflect internal disputes
rather than a total condemnation of Pharisaism.
Jesus seems most closely identified with what Flusser terms the
"love Pharisees," those who made the notion of love central to Jewish
religious belief and expression. In this perspective the Gospel
denunciations, even if they by chance reflect the authentic words of
Jesus, were aimed primarily at certain sectors of Pharisaism which, in
the judgment of the "love" Pharisees (including Jesus), were not
living up to the core ideals of the movement. In either case, the surface
antagonism between Jesus and the Pharisees must be read in a far
more nuanced fashion than has generally been the case in
Christianity. Also, this surface antagonism should not blind
Christians to the profound debt both Jesus and the apostolic church
owed to this creative Jewish movement.
Turning to more contemporary questions in the dialogue, we come
head-on to the question of Israel. It cannot be avoided. This question
is not simply a political matter, though surely the politics of the
Middle East will enter the contemporary conversations between
Christians and Jews.
No discussion of the State of Israel in the dialogue will
prove successful unless Christians clearly acknowledge the
vulnerability of Israel.
No discussion of the State of Israel in the dialogue will prove
successful unless Christians clearly acknowledge the vulnerability of
Israel. It remains deeply affected by the general turbulence in Middle
East politics, superpower rivalries, and a pervasive anti-Israel
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