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Toto · 11-26-2011, 05:58 PM

Back to the OP:

NY TImes article: Focusing on the Jewish Story of the New Testament

Quote:

Jewish scholars have typically been involved only with editions of the Old Testament, which Jews call the Hebrew Bible or, using a Hebrew acronym, the Tanakh. Of course, many curious Jews and Christians consult all sorts of editions, without regard to editor. But among scholars, Christians produce editions of both sacred books, while Jewish editors generally consult only the book that is sacred to them. What’s been left out is a Jewish perspective on the New Testament — a book Jews do not consider holy but which, given its influence and literary excellence, no Jew should ignore.

So what does this New Testament include that a Christian volume might not? Consider Matthew 2, when the wise men, or magi, herald Jesus’s birth. In this edition, Aaron M. Gale, who has edited the Book of Matthew, writes in a footnote that “early Jewish readers may have regarded these Persian astrologers not as wise but as foolish or evil.” He is relying on the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo, who at one point calls Balaam, who in the Book of Numbers talks with a donkey, a “magos.”

Because the rationalist Philo uses the Greek word “magos” derisively — less a wise man than a donkey-whisperer — we might infer that at least some educated Jewish readers, like Philo, took a dim view of magi. This context helps explain some Jewish skepticism toward the Gospel of Matthew, but it could also attest to how charismatic Jesus must have been, to overcome such skepticism.

er, right. The fictional Jesus was charismatic enough to overcome Jewish skepticism of the fictional magi in one gospel written over a generation after his death.

John Kesler · 11-27-2011, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

Back to the OP:

NY TImes article: Focusing on the Jewish Story of the New Testament

Quote:

Because the rationalist Philo uses the Greek word “magos” derisively — less a wise man than a donkey-whisperer — we might infer that at least some educated Jewish readers, like Philo, took a dim view of magi. This context helps explain some Jewish skepticism toward the Gospel of Matthew, but it could also attest to how charismatic Jesus must have been, to overcome such skepticism.

The author of this article, Mark Oppenheimer, engages in a selective citation of The Jewish Annotated New Testament to make a dubious inference. On page 2 in the preface to gMatthew, Aaron M. Gale writes the following:

Quote:

Also anchoring Jesus in Jewish tradition are Matthew's comparisons between Jesus and Moses. This connection may begin in ch 1, with Mary's miraculous pregnancy, Joseph's resolve to divorce her, and the divine instructions to marry her, which bear some connection to midrashic accounts of Moses' conception (see e.g. Ant. 2.205-17; L.A.B. 9.1-10' Tg. Ps.-J; Ex. Rab. 1.13; Sefer ha-Zikronot). Connections are clear in ch 2: Jesus, like Moses, is rescued in infancy and travels to Egypt; like Moses, after leaving Egypt Jesus crosses water (the baptism), enters the wilderness (the temptation), and climbs a mountain before beginning his instruction (the "Sermon on the Mount" [5.1]). At the end of the Gospel, Jesus gives instructions to his followers from a mountain, as Moses did (28.16; cf. Deut 32.28).

This type of information is well-known to those of us who have studied this issue for years. In short, Oppenheimer has bombed.

No Robots · 11-29-2011, 09:12 AM

Looks like it's a bestseller.

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11-29-2011, 09:12 AM	#43
No Robots Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Edmonton Posts: 5,679	Looks like it's a bestseller.

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