004
Journalistic Summary
Jesus Within Judaism: New Light from Exciting Archaeological Discoveries
James H. Charlesworth
(Garden City, NY Doubleday, 1988) 288 pp., $22.00
“A new phase in the study of the historical Jesus commenced in the eighties,” declares Biblical scholar James H. Charlesworth. Charlesworth reacts against both the early 20th-century view that little could be known about Jesus and the partially successful post-World War II quest for the historical Jesus. He attempts to communicate the impact of archaeological discoveries on the understanding of Jesus. Successive chapters treat the resurgence in the study of the so-called Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (non-Biblical Jewish writings from the third century B.C.E. to the second century C.E.), the Dead Sea Scrolls (Jewish sectarian and Biblical documents, discovered in Judea in the late 1940s and 1950s) and the Nag Hammadi Codices (Gnostic writings from the second to fourth centuries C.E., discovered in Egypt in 1945) and also consider a selection of archaeological discoveries that contribute to our knowledge of first-century Palestine. A final chapter attempts to elucidate Jesus’ concept of God and self-understanding in the light of these discoveries. The book ends with several lists of ancient documents and abbreviations, a review of recent books on Jesus, an annotated bibliography and indexes.
The tone, rhetoric and argument are journalistic, anecdotal and breathless, promising to introduce “to a wide audience the exciting, even sensational, modern discoveries of the ancient world” (p. 4). Charlesworth gives magisterial, generalized summaries of scholars’ views and supports his claims with references to “the best minds” (p. 27), an “international consensus” (p. 132), personal authority (“I am convinced,” p. 42) and exhortations to abandon “outmoded” contradictory views. The reader gets the feeling of being at the cutting edge of emerging trends. For scholars, however, the contents of the book are old news from the last 40 years. Thus, this book is justified only insofar as it pulls together disparate materials and makes them into a coherent, intelligible whole for the general reader.
The book’s minimum thesis, that new literary and archaeological finds have enriched and expanded our understanding of first-century Judaism and of emerging Christianity, is unassailable and universally accepted. The reader who knows nothing about the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic documents can learn some basic information about these finds. Charlesworth also argues effectively that scholars in previous generations, and some in this generation, who deemphasized Jesus’ Judaism were misguided and had a myopic and often biased view of Judaism (for example, see the discussion on repentance on pp. 45–51). The long lists of scholars and summaries of their positions, however, especially of early 20th-century scholars whose views are held by few today, weary the reader and detract from the aim of the book.
The major problem with this work as a popular presentation is that it fails to provide a coherent and well-argued account of first-century Judaism. The author alternates between broad generalizations that go beyond the evidence and detailed discussions of particular problems that do not serve the purpose of the book. In the end, the abstract claims and limited empirical evidence fail to provide a clear and well-proportioned presentation of Jesus within Judaism. This may be because Charlesworth claims too much and too little at the same time. He claims that a paradigm shift in the understanding of Jesus has occurred (p. 3), yet he does not argue the case in a scholarly way. He sometimes claims not to take a stand: “It would be presumptuous to suggest that the answers…are either my own insights or anything more than informed speculation” (p. 7). At the same time, on every page of the book, he argues episodically and unevenly for his thesis of a paradigm shift and also attacks those who disagree. Through his use of journalistic rhetoric, Charlesworth overinterprets the evidence and often claims more clarity concerning the first century or scholarly consensus than really exists. It is undoubtedly true that much research is being done on Jesus, that post-World War II discoveries have helped immensely, that Christian notions of Judaism have been biased and inaccurate and that reconstructions of Jesus as a Palestinian Jew have often been very theologically and culturally tendentious. But the new Jesus research is much more varied and debated than this volume reveals. Besides the new understanding of Jesus that Charlesworth describes, several competing interpretations of Jesus are emerging, such as those of West Coast scholars in the Jesus Seminar, who suggest that Jesus was similar to cynic philosophers, and those of sociologically oriented scholars who associate Jesus with social and political reform. The reader is urged to accept a new understanding of Jesus with inadequate evidence and without being fully informed of the very hypothetical nature of many ideas, including those propounded with such certitude by Charlesworth.
A few details and quibbles will illustrate the problems noted above. In a discussion of Jesus and Qumran Sabbath regulations, the author treats Gospel accounts as though they were Jesus’ teachings unmediated by tradition and treats the Mishnah (which dates from 200 C.E.) as though it were an account of first-century Jewish teaching. The Odes of Solomon (usually dated to the late first or early second century C.E.) are used without argument as examples of Second Temple (pre-70 C.E.) Christian piety (p. 36). The citation of the Book of Enoch in the New Testament Letter of Jude is said, without explicit argument, to throw into question the notion of canon (p. 45). Canon, itself the subject of extensive and complex contemporary discussion, is not even discussed. The Lithostratos (John 19:13), where Jesus was condemned to death, is correctly located in Herod’s palace on the Westem Hill of Jerusalem, but it is for some reason compared to the mosaic bath floor discovered in a house on that hill. Finally, after 006the enormously complex problem of the meaning of Jesus’ title “Son of man” is discussed in the light of the Similitudes of Enoch (Enoch 37–71), as it has been for decades, Charlesworth prudently acknowledges that the problem cannot be solved here. But in the next line he gratuitously claims that the Son of Man sayings come from Jesus himself, who was influenced by the Similitudes (p. 42). These and many other confusions limit the attractiveness of the book and can mislead the nonspecialized reader.
Handy Reference
Biblical Holy Places: An Illustrated Guide
Rivka Gonen
(New York: Macmillan, 1987) 288 pp., $17.95
The chief virtue of this convenient, pocketsize guidebook is its compendium of holy places mentioned in the Bible, each with a clear and concise explanatory text written by Rivka Gonen, historian and tour guide. Added to this are superb color photographs and a few simple maps.
The alphabetical listing and detailed index help locate the sites. The 210 entries include 160 in Israel and another 50, mostly associated with the life of Paul, in Cyprus, Italy (Rome), Malta, Syria (Damascus), Turkey and Egypt (Sinai). About 90 percent of this guide is based on events and personalities in the New Testament, including an abundance of churches, monasteries, tombs, monuments, shrines and a few Crusader forts. In Israel, for example, 25 of the 50 sites listed for Jerusalem are churches.
Most of the entries provide a reference and quotation from the Bible. Gonen elucidates the history, traditions and structural features of each site. The author also gives the full archaeological background for major sites, including Bethlehem, Capernaum, Galilee, Hebron, Jerusalem, Jericho, Nazareth and many more. Two major sites, Megiddo and the City of David, are specially highlighted because of their archaeological importance.
This book succeeds very well in giving the tourist and New Testament student a concise reference guide to “holy places.” It is up to the reader to decide which places are relatively holier than others.
Journalistic Summary
Jesus Within Judaism: New Light from Exciting Archaeological Discoveries
James H. Charlesworth
(Garden City, NY Doubleday, 1988) 288 pp., $22.00
