Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

NEW TESTAMENT RECONSIDERED
tradition. Also, the Pharisees were highly self-critical to the extent that
the criticism of them attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, if authentic,
need be no more than Pharisee self-criticism. In spite of what the
anti-Jewish paradigm says, the Pharisees also laid great stress on the
all-presence of God (the Shekinah) and on the grace of God. 12
A great Jewish scholar of our time, Leo Baeck, a rabbi who survived
Theresienstadt and Hitler's attempted "final solution," sums it up this
way:
Jesus, in all of his traits, is completely a genuine Jewish character. A
man such as he could only grow up on the soil of Judaism.. . . Jesus
is a genuine Jewish personality, all of his striving and acting, his
bearing and feeling, his speech and his silence bear the stamp of the
Jewish manner, the imprint of Jewish idealism, and the best of what
Judaism gave and gives, but what only existed, at that time, in
Judaism. He was a Jew among Jews; out of no other people could a
man such as he have been able to have this effect; in no other people
could he have found the apostles who believed in him. 13
Jesus' ethical teachings seem clearly continuous with those of the
contemporary school of Hillel; when the content differs, the method is
the same. Obviously there is much else in the sayings attributed to
Jesus (eschatology and apocalyptic, the coming kingdom of God and
Jesus' role in that coming) which is beyond the scope of our discussion
here. The argument is not that Jesus was just another Pharisee or that
he was in no way different from them. Precision in this matter is
probably beyond the reach of possibility.
The following do seem to be fair conclusions: (a) a more objective
view of the Pharisees results in a more favorable and less biased
picture of them; (b) the conflicts portrayed in the Gospels between
Jesus and the Pharisees are retrojected from the embattled situation of
the later first-century church; (c) ministers of the gospel should
familiarize themselves with this new scholarship on the Pharisees and
cease perpetuating negative images of the forebears of the synagogue
across the street; and (d) the good news of God is expressed in every
pericope of the Gospels, including the conflict stories. This good news
is what we should preach and teach, the promise of the love of God for
each and all and the command of God for justice to each and all.
PAUL
When we turn to the Apostle Paul, we find a wealth of scholarship
which takes a new look at the apostle to the Gentiles. 14 In spite of this
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