The Jewish Reclamation Of Jesus

How successful is the Jewish reclamation of Jesus in dealing with the data of the Gospels? And how convincing? It is Hagner's claim that the Jewish reclamation of Jesus has been possible only by a very selective reading of the Gospels.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Section 1: Reflections on the Jewish Jesus -- 1 The Jewish Jesus: A Partisan's Imagination -- 2 The Kabbalah of Rabbi Jesus -- 3 The Amazing Mr. Jesus -- 4 Jesus the "Material Jew"--5 Jesus Stories, Jewish Liturgy, and Some Evolving Theologies until circa 200 CE: Stimuli and Reactions -- 6 Avon Gilyon (Document of Sin, b. Shabb.116a) or Euvanggeleon (Good News) -- 7 Psalm 22 in Pesiqta Rabbati: The Suffering of the Jewish Messiah and Jesus -- Section 2: Responding to the Jewish Jesus -- 8 What Was at Stake in the Parting of the Ways between Judaism and Christianity? -- 9 The Jewish and Greek Jesus -- 10 Jewish Responses to Byzantine Polemics from the Ninth through the Eleventh Centuries -- 11 A Meditation on Possible Images of Jewish Jesus in the Pre-Modern Period -- 12 Typical Jewish Misunderstandings of Christ, Christianity, and Jewish-Christian Relations over the Centuries -- Section 3: Teaching, Dialogue, Reclamation: Contemporary Views on the Jewish Jesus -- 13 How Credible is Jewish Scholarship on Jesus? -- 14 Taking Thomas to Temple: Introducing Evangelicals to the Jewish Jesus -- 15 The Historical Jesus as Jewish Prophet: Its Meaning for the Modern Jewish-Christian Dialogue -- 16 Before Whom Do We Stand? -- 17 Edith Stein's Jewish Husband Jesus -- 18 Can We Talk? The Jewish Jesus in a Dialogue Between Jews and Christians -- 19 The New Jewish Reclamation of Jesus in Late Twentieth-Century America: Realigning and Rethinking Jesus the Jew -- Annotated Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index

This insightful volume represents the “hands-on” experience in the world of academia of two Jewish scholars, one of Orthodox background and the other a convert to the Jewish faith. As a series of separate but interrelated essays, it approaches multiple issues touching both the historical Jesus (himself a pious Jew) and the modern phenomenon of Messianic Judaism. It bridges the gap between the typically isolated disciplines of Jewish and Christian scholarship and forges a fresh level of understanding across religious boundaries. It delves into such issues as the nature and essence of Jesus’ message (pietistic, militant or something of a hybrid), and whether Messianic Jews should be welcome in the larger Jewish community. Its ultimate challenge is to view sound scholarship as a means of bringing together disparate faith traditions around a common academic table. Serious research of the “great Nazarene” becomes interfaith discourse.

The Quests for the Historical Jesus resulted in a move “back to the Jewish roots!” Jewish Jesus research positioned Jewry within a dominantly Christian culture and permitted Jews to feel more at ease with Jesus the Jew. Christians are challenged to respond now with a new Christology.

This book examines the ways modern Jewish thinkers, writers, and artists appropriated the figure of Jesus as part of the process of creating modern Jewish culture.

For almost two thousand years, various images of Jesus accompanied Jewish thought and imagination: a flesh-and-blood Jew, a demon, a spoiled student, an idol, a brother, a (failed) Messiah, a nationalist rebel, a Greek god in Jewish garb, and more. This volume charts for the first time the different ways that Jesus has been represented and understood in Jewish culture and thought. Chapters from many of the leading scholars in the field cover the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives - Talmud, Midrash, Rabbinics, Kabbalah, Jewish Magic, Messianism, Hagiography, Modern Jewish Literature, Thought, Philosophy, and Art – to address the ways in which representations of Jesus contribute to and change Jewish self-understanding throughout the last two millennia. Beginning with the question of how we know that Jesus was a Jew, the book then moves through meticulous analyses of Jewish and Christian scripture and literature to provide a rounded and comprehensive analysis of Jesus in Jewish Culture. This multidisciplinary study will be of great interest not only to students of Jewish history and philosophy, but also to scholars of religious studies, Christianity, intellectual history, literature and cultural studies.

The teachings of Jesus, his life story, his relationships, the things that were said of him by early Christians - all are best understood against the backdrop of Jesus' own time and place. Understanding Jewish life in the first century will help us better understand Jesus' mission and how it relates to our own religious concerns today. The Jews in the Time of Jesus is ideal for classroom use and for anyone who is interested in understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity.

In the The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth-telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.