Table Of ContentJewish Jesus Research and its Challenge to Christology Today
Jewish and Christian
Perspectives Series
Editorial Board
David Golinkin – Alberdina Houtman
Marcel Poorthuis – Joshua Schwartz
Freek van der Steen
Advisory Board
Yehoyada Amir – David Berger – Shaye Cohen
Judith Frishman – Martin Goodman
Clemens Leonhard – Tobias Nicklas – Eyal Regev
Gerard Rouwhorst – Seth Schwartz – Yossi Turner
VOLUME 30
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/jcp
Jewish Jesus Research and its
Challenge to Christology Today
By
Walter Homolka
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
University of Tilburg: Faculty of Catholic Theology,
The Netherlands
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel
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University of Tilburg: Faculty of Catholic Theology,
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Interaction between Judaism and Christianity in history, religion, art and literature / edited
Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, Israel
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
p. cm. — (Jewish and Christian perspectives series ; v. 17)
Includes bibliographical references.
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perspectives series, ISSN 1388-2074 ; VOLUME 30 | Includes bibliographical
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ISSN 1388-2074
i s s n 1 3 8 8 - 2 0 7 4 2008031295
ISBN 978 90 04 17150 3
isbn 978-90-04-33173-0 (hardback)
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Dedicated to:
Rabbi Henry G. Brandt
Pioneer – Teacher – Friend
∵
Contents
Editorial Statement ix
Preface x
Introduction 1
The Postcolonial Context of Jewish Scholarly Interest in the
Historical Jesus 4
Jesus: Jewish Receptions 7
1 Historical Jesus Research: A Reception History 9
The Modern Quest of a Historical Jesus as a Quest for
His Reception 12
The Development of Reception History as a Tool 15
Reception History: Global Dimensions 17
Reception History as a Secularization of the Interpretation
of Scripture 27
Reception Theory in Relation to the Jewish Quest 30
Creating Space: The Emergence of New Hermeneutical and
Methodological Paradigms 32
2 The Jewish Jesus Quest and the Wissenschaft des Judentums 36
The Pre-Enlightenment Jewish Jesus 37
The Emergence of the Wissenschaft des Judentums 42
The Wissenschaft des Judentums and the Historical Jesus 49
The Wissenschaft des Judentums and the Concept of a
Personal Messiah 54
The Legacy of the Wissenschaft des Judentums 60
3 Reclaimed or Reclaiming? Recent Jewish Approaches to Jesus’s
Wirkungsgeschichte 62
Jewish Jesus Research: Where to Draw the Line? 62
My Previous Contribution 63
Géza Vermès: Concluding the Classical Era of Jewish Jesus
Research? 64
Diversity in the Reception History of the Jewish Jesus 66
The Jewish Jesus in Literature 81
Recent Jewish Approaches to Jesus 88
The Contribution of Archaeology to Historical Jesus Studies 102
viii Contents
4 Jewish Quests and Christian Problems 105
The Jewish Quest of the Historical Jesus: In Search for Equality and
Acceptance 106
The Historical Jesus: Challenges to Jewish-Christian Dialogue 107
The Myth of the Judeo-Christian West 111
Jesus the Jew: Implications for Future Christian Theology 113
Back to the Roots? The Value of Christian Hellenism 126
Jewish Jesus Research: Paving the Way for Common Ground 127
Conclusion: Implications and Future Perspectives 131
Bibliography 141
Index 170
Editorial Statement
Judaism and Christianity share much of a heritage. There has been a good deal
of interest in this phenomenon lately, examining both the common heritage,
as well as the elements unique to each religion. There has, however, been no
systematic attempt to present findings relative to both Jewish and Christian
tradition to a broad audience of scholars. It is the purpose of the Jewish and
Christian Perspectives Series to do just that.
Jewish and Christian Perspectives publishes studies that are relevant to both
Christianity and Judaism. The series will include works relating to the Hebrew
Bible and New Testament, the Second Temple period, the Judaeo-Christian
polemic (from Ancient until Modern times), Rabbinical literature relevant to
Christianity, Patristics, Medieval Studies and the Modern period. Special inter-
est will be paid to the interaction between the religions throughout the ages.
Historical, exegetical, philosophical and theological studies are welcomed as
well as studies focusing on sociological and anthropological issues common to
both religions including archaeology.
The series is published in co-operation with the Bar-Ilan University and
the Schechter Institute in Israel, and the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the
Tilburg University in the Netherlands. It includes monographs and congress
volumes in the English language, and is intended for international distribution
on a scholarly level.
Detailed information on forthcoming congresses, calls for papers, and the pos-
sibility of organizing a JCP conference at your own institution, can be obtained
at: www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/jcp.
