532 - Jesus and Judaism

Jesus and Judaism
By E. P. Sanders
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1985. 444 pp. $19.95.

Two principal questions regarding Jesus occupy Professor Sanders' attention in Jesus and Judaism: the intention of Jesus' ministry and his relationship to his contemporaries in Judaism. These two questions entail two others: the reason for Jesus' death and the motivating force behind the rise of Christianity. Sanders pursues the interrelationships among these questions in a carefully developed study of Jesus, his career and its consequences, seen against the background of institutions, groups, and realities in Judaism of his day, and especially in comparison with Jewish eschatological movements and thought. Sanders' intent is to explore the coherence between what Jesus intended, how he was

534 - Jesus and Judaism

perceived by both followers and adversaries, his relationship to the Jewish nation and to his people's religion, the reason for his death, and the character of the beginning of the Christian movement.

Evidence from Jewish literature about views of restoration eschatology held by Jesus' contemporaries are the foil against which the evidence about Jesus is assessed. Especially significant in setting Jesus apart from his contemporaries are his threatening words (and perhaps action) against the Temple, the absence of a call to repentance directed to Israel as a whole, and his opening of the realm of God to unrepentant sinners. These factors in his ministry, together with the evidence of his loyal group of followers, which incorporated some of the unrepentant sinners to whom his message was directed, would account for Jesus' own death, the lack of immediate persecution of his followers by Rome, and the subsequent separation of those followers from Judaism.

The careful way in which the author reviews significant literature in the field and makes clear the ways in which his work differs from its predecessors is one of the greatest strengths of this book. Especially helpful are his discussion of major positions in life-of-Jesus research, and his assessment of the contributions and limitations of form criticism. The methodical way in which he moves from the identification of commonly held -opinions (for example, on the significance of Jesus' miracles), to a critique of those opinions and the identification of new questions to explore, to an examination of the evidence, to the positing of summary answers to the earlier questions makes Sanders' discussion easy to follow and his argument generally persuasive.

In keeping with his own location on the faculties of Oxford University in England and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, Sanders' primary audience for this book would appear to be the academic community. Indeed, the methodological argument with which Sanders introduces the book establishes its place in the continually growing area of Synoptic research. The case which he makes for studying the evidence about Jesus against a carefully drawn background of Jewish institutions and literature would make this book a valuable resource for any seminary or college course dealing with the Synoptic Gospels or with the historical context of Jesus' life and ministry.

The importance of this book is, however, in no way limited to the academic community. Although Sanders himself brackets questions of the relationship between knowledge of the historical Jesus and the Christian faith, his work could be very important reading for pastors and educators. The way Sanders reviews recent and classical studies of the various questions he explores would make this book an excellent tool for reviewing or catching up on significant studies in New Testament history, theology, and criticism. Furthermore, his accent on contextual study of Jesus' life and ministry raises significant issues of context in contemporary interpretation and religious reflection as well. Sanders' appreciation of the similarities between Jesus' teachings and the basic

535 - Jesus and Judaism

assumptions of his ministry, on the one hand, and the institutions and teachings of Judaism, on the other, also needs to be heard again and again by those who would provide leadership in the Christian churches, so that our kinship with other heirs of that first century Judaism which nurtured Jesus will never be forgotten.

Sharon H. Ringe
Methodist Theological School in Ohio
Delaware, Ohio