Where Jewish scholars studying New Testament as history, but not as believers

February 24, 2003

More Jewish scholars studying New Testament
as history, but not as believers
___By Lisa Gardiner
___Religion News Service
___SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (RNS)--A Jew studying the New Testament?
___When he was an undergraduate, Rabbi Harry Manhoff scoffed at the idea. That's when he first read the Christian Scriptures for a religion course. The experience filled him with rage.
___"I grew up in a small suburban community in New Jersey, where anti-Semitism was rampant," he said.
___But these days, this Reform rabbi and leader of Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro, Calif., quotes the Gospels with ease. He's apt to describe Jesus as a miracle worker, charismatic leader or sage in a lecture at a synagogue or church. He is completing a doctoral dissertation on the New Testament for the University of California, Santa Barbara.
___Make no mistake, however. Manhoff hasn't become a Christian. Neither has he had a mid-life turn toward messianic Judaism, in the manner of Jews for Jesus. Instead, he is among a growing number of Jewish leaders and scholars who are studying the New Testament not as Christian Scripture but as Jewish history.
___Along the way, Manhoff and others are discovering new opportunities for interfaith discussion.
___"Jews and Christians have so much in common," Manhoff said. "If we could just speak the same language for a little while, there'd be a tremendous amount of possibility."
___Jewish New Testament scholarship is breathing new life into the interfaith movement, according to John Pawlikowski, director of the Catholic-Jewish studies program at the Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
___Although Jesus was Jewish, the New Testament isn't read in the mainline Jewish tradition. Because Jews don't consider Jesus the son of God--as Christians do--his teachings aren't considered relevant.
___While Christians widely acknowledge that Jesus was born a Jew, many believe he rejected the faith of his time to establish a new religion called Christianity.
___Concerns about assimilation within the Jewish community and centuries of anti-Semitic New Testament scholarship add to the interfaith divide.
___Among those spanning the chasm is New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine.
___Levine teaches at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn. Most of her students are Protestant Christians preparing for the ministry. But she is Jewish.
___"The peculiarity of it can have an unsettling effect on both Christians and Jews," she said, counting herself among a handful of Jewish New Testament scholars in the United States.
___Levine believes Jesus lived and died a Jew. For Christians to understand his life, they have to understand his Jewishness. She imparts this message to students taking a mandatory, introductory New Testament course.
___But Jews also can benefit from New Testament study, she said. The New Testament fills gaps in Jewish history, providing important information on a period known as Second Temple Judaism, she said.
___Jews also need to read the New Testament to understand the origins of anti-Semitism, she said. But they should do so with care. "It needs to be read with Christian readers to understand that the vast majority reject anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic interpretations."
___This movement of studying the New Testament within Judaism is not about bringing Jesus to Judaism, said Rabbi Stephen Wylen, a leader of Temple Beth Tikvah in Wayne, N.J., and author of "The Jews in the Time of Jesus."
___Wylen decries Christian efforts to convert Jews.
___"Judaism is a complete religion," said Wylen, a Reform rabbi. "It does not have a hole in it waiting to be filled by Jesus. (For Jews) this will never be more than a historical interest."
___Still, Wylen acknowledges, it is a keen interest.
___Jews are intensely curious about a religion that has surrounded them for centuries, he said. "If you're a fish, the ocean you swim in is important."
___For the first time in decades, Jews have the freedom to ask questions without the fear of anti-Semitic retribution, he said.
___But the dialogue still presents a large barrier, Manhoff pointed out, noting his Christian counterparts believe Jesus is the son of God but he does not.
___"All comparisons have to cease at some point," Manhoff said. "That's their faith, and I have my faith, as it should be. We can disagree and live with that disagreement."

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