Came across this quote while studying for the teaching this weekend. It states the Jewishness of Jesus, as well as his relationship to Judaism beautifully...
Many modern theologians increasingly attempt to define the message of Jesus over against Judaism. Jesus is said to have taught something quite different, something original, unacceptable to other Jews. The strong Jewish opposition to Jesus' proclamation is emphasized. To deal with such views is not the task of New Testament scholarship but belongs to modern research of ideology; yet the Jewish parallels to the words of Jesus and the manner in which he revised the inherited material clearly refute the above assumptions. Even though he gave his own personal bent to Jewish ideas, selected from among them, purged and reinterpreted them, I cannot honestly find a single word of Jesus that could seriously exasperate a well intentioned Jew. [David Flusser in Reflections of a Jew]
To which Brad Young adds...
Those "Jewish parallels to the words of Jesus and the manner in which he revised the inherited material" make it difficult to accept the view that first-century Jewish people would have rejected Jesus' intensive outreach to people in need. His teachings concerning the search for the lost and hacing fellowship with people in need would by no means "exasperate a well intenioned Jew" from the period. Jesus sought to strenghten Judaism, not undermine the religious piety of his people. [Brad Young in The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation]
Hmm... I'm with you on this, but are we starting to "Jew-ize" Jesus more than our modern forefather "Gentile-ized" Him? Meaning, might we swing so Eastern that we neglect the Western?
Or in slang, is it just the "new thing" for Jesus to be Jewish?
Posted by: Tony Myles | October 20, 2005 at 10:36 AM