Jesus the Jew and Christianity’s Indebtedness to Judaism

Source: Academia.edu

By Barbara Meyer
Religious Studies Program
Graduate School of Philosophy
Tel Aviv University
July 2020

See Also: Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory (Cambridge; 2020) .

In this essay, I will explore Christianity’s ongoing indebtedness to Judaism as ingrained in the memory of Jesus the Jew. While Jesus’ rootedness in Second Temple Judaism has become a dominant factor in Historical Jesus research, Christianity’s connection to Judaism is still often seen as a specialized interest of some Christian theologians who choose that focus over other approaches in the study of world religions. Here, I will argue that the reason for Christianity’s ongoing indebtedness to Judaism lies in the ongoing meaning of Jesus the Jew for his followers who are Christians. For this reason, Jesus the Jew should have wide relevance for Christianity.

The centuries-old Historical Jesus research peaked during the last forty years, focusing on Jesus’ embeddedness in Second Temple Judaism. The paradigm change that led scholars to re-read New Testament settings as sources for Jesus’ thoroughgoing Judaism was itself the result of Christian historical consciousness: Post-Shoah Christianity corrected thought patterns of supersessionism (or replacement-theology), the notion that Christianity had superseded Judaism and spiritually replaced it. Christian theologians and exegetes found that the idea of Christianity replacing Judaism was both theologically and scripturally (Romans 11) mistaken (Meyer 2018). The theological understanding that Judaism is, in fact, neither replaced nor obsolete has shed new light on historical research itself. Thus today, most scholars search for Jesus within, rather than in opposition to, his historical environment.

This re-discovery of Jesus’ Jewishness offers far-reaching theological opportunities for 21st century Christianity as both the traditional claim of superiority and the popular assertion of Christian universalism are based on a decontextualized Jesus. This Jesus had long been projected as having no primary belonging or attachment. Consequently, he could be presented as connecting to everybody. A non-embedded Jesus who lends himself to universal equidistance had long been the outcome as well as the presupposition of Historical Jesus research. In sharp contrast, today’s scholars presuppose and find a Jesus whose historicity gains probability with his contextualization. I strongly contend that remembering Jesus’ Jewishness and his rootedness in Second Temple Judaism does not make the Christian faith any less distinct, original, or special. While the memory of Jesus the Jew and the notion of Christianity’s rootedness in Judaism are not in themselves critical theories, they can facilitate Christian self-criticism and self-correction vis-à-vis Judaism. For instance, the memory of Jesus the Jew can help to overcome false claims of superiority or superficial notions of uniqueness that have distorted Christianity for a long time. My thesis is that intensifying the memory of Jesus the Jew helps accentuate core features of Christian Thought, such as relatedness and indebtedness, that are easily overshadowed by Christian aspirations toward an ultimate truth or universal grace.

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