Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

QUARTERLY REVIEW, WINTER 1984
Jewish responsibility for the Crucifixion. 1
Her careful analysis of
scores of German biblical scholars can only be briefly surveyed here.
As a rule, they fix the name of ''late Judaism" (emphasis mine) on that
phase of Israelite religion running from Ezra and Nehemiah and the
return from Exile to the period of the revolt of Bar Kochba. The very
name they use for it indicates that they regard it as Judaism in decline
and on the way to its own death, a Judaism in relation to which Jesus,
Paul, and Christianity can only be understood in terms of the starkest
contrast. Overwhelmingly, German scholars characterize this Judaism
as inauthentic, a Judaism that turned its back on genuine faith
in the Lord, the God of Israel, and the message of the prophets.
Henceforth, Judaism is on the wrong track, having abandoned its true
faith. Georg Fohrer once said that it failed in its "divine task by
constantly falling away from the way of life imposed on [it] . . . and
wanting to use God merely as metaphysical security for [its] own
life." 2
(Although typical of Fohrer's earlier views, this kind of remark
is no longer indicative of his thought.)
Late Judaism is described, hence, as an absurd result of a decadent,
"blind" rabbinic scholarship that is exaggeratedly preoccupied with
the letter of the law. It mistakenly sought to re-establish temple
worship and the political security of the people in a state of their own,
failing to realize that Jews are a religious community rather than a
nation and that ideally they should live under nomadic conditions,
wandering among the nations, to ensure the purity of the central
Jewish message of freedom. It is incredible that Augustine's old
theology of the wandering Jew should have itself found a home in
modern, ostensibly "critical" biblical scholarship! But here it is,
together with its obvious implications, for anti-Jewish thinkers, for
contemporary international affairs: the State of Israel is a theological
mistake of late Judaism.
"Late" Judaism, then, is both preparatory for and inferior to
Christianity. Jesus is interpreted as having rejected this "old" Judaism
and, with his words and work, it no longer forms a part of the history
of Israel. In him and in his Crucifixion by Jews, Jewish history comes
to an end. On this model, "late" Judaism was in a state of decadence,
orthodoxy, and legalism. Its faith had become externalized and rigid;
God had become distant and the prophetic message forgotten. Jesus
decisively rejects this old, dead Judaism.
Law and legalistic piety typify "late" Judaism and are condemned.
That Torah is hardly rendered with accuracy as "law" is not
acknowledged. Joachim Jeremias goes so far as to call legalistic piety
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