Teaching the Historical Jesus: Issues and Exegesis

284 Pages·2014·1.082 MB·English

by  Zev Garber

Teaching the Historical Jesus
Teaching the Historical Jesus in his Jewish context to students of varied
religious backgrounds presents instructors with not only challenges, but also
opportunities to sustain interfaith dialogue and foster mutual understanding
and respect. This new collection explores these challenges and opportuni-
ties, gathering together experiential lessons drawn from teaching Jesus in a
wide variety of settings—from the public, secular two- or four-year college,
to the Jesuit university, to the Rabbinic school or seminary, to the orthodox,
religious Israeli university. A diverse group of Jewish and Christian scholars
refl ect on their own classroom experiences and explicates crucial issues for
teaching Jesus in a way that encourages students at every level to enter into
an encounter with the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament without
paternalism, parochialism, or prejudice. This volume is a valuable resource
for instructors and graduate students interested in an interfaith approach in
the classroom, and it provides practical case studies for scholars working on
Jewish-Christian relations.
Zev Garber is Emeritus Professor and Chair of Jewish Studies and Philoso-
phy at Los Angeles Valley College. He is the Editor of Shofar and the author
of The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Refl ection, Reclamation (2011).
Routledge Studies in Religion
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
6 Sufism and Deconstruction 15 The Entangled God
A Comparative Study of Derrida Divine Relationality and
and Ibn ‘Arabi Quantum Physics
Ian Almond Kirk Wegter-McNelly
7 Christianity, Tolerance 16 Aquinas and Radical Orthodoxy
and Pluralism A Critical Inquiry
A Theological Engagement with Paul J. DeHart
Isaiah Berlin’s Social Theory
17 Animal Ethics and Theology
Michael Jinkins
The Lens of the Good Samaritan
8 Negative Theology and Daniel K. Miller
Modern French Philosophy
18 The Origin of Heresy
Arthur Bradley
A History of Discourse in
9 Law and Religion Second Temple Judaism
Edited by Peter Radan, Denise and Early Christianity
Meyerson, and Rosalind F. Croucher Robert M. Royalty, Jr.
10 Religion, Language, and Power 19 Buddhism and Violence
Edited by Nile Green and Militarism and Buddhism
Mary Searle-Chatterjee in Modern Asia
Edited by Vladimir Tikhonov
11 Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols, and Torkel Brekke
and the Articulation of Identities
in South Asia 20 Popular Music in
Edited by Kelly Pemberton and Evangelical Youth Culture
Michael Nijhawan Stella Sai-Chun Lau
12 Theology, Creation, and 21 Theology and the Science
Environmental Ethics of Moral Action
From Creatio Ex Nihilo to Virtue Ethics, Exemplarity,
Terra Nullius and Cognitive Neuroscience
Whitney Bauman Edited by James A. Van Slyke,
Gregory R. Peterson, Kevin
13 Material Religion and S. Reimer, Michael L. Spezio
Popular Culture and Warren S. Brown
E. Frances King
22 Abrogation in the Qur’an
14 Adam Smith as Theologian and Islamic Law
Edited by Paul Oslington Louay Fatoohi
23 A New Science of Religion 33 Contemporary Jewish
Edited by Gregory W. Dawes Writing
and James Maclaurin Austria After Waldheim
Andrea Reiter
24 Making Sense of the Secular
Critical Perspectives 34 Religious Ethics and
from Europe to Asia Migration
Edited by Ranjan Ghosh Doing Justice to
Undocumented Workers
25 The Rise of Modern Jewish Politics
Ilsup Ahn
Extraordinary Movement
C.S. Monaco 35 A Theology of Community
Organizing
26 Gender and Power in
Power to the People
Contemporary Spirituality
Chris Shannahan
Ethnographic Approaches
Edited by Anna Fedele and
36 God and Natural Order
Kim E. Knibbe
Physics, Philosophy,
and Theology
27 Religions in Movement
Shaun C. Henson
The Local and the Global in
Contemporary Faith Traditions
37 Science and Religion
Edited by Robert W. Hefner,
One Planet, Many Possibilities
John Hutchinson, Sara Mels, and
Edited by Lucas F. Johnston
Christiane Timmerman
and Whitney A. Bauman
28 William James’s Hidden
38 Queering Religion,
Religious Imagination
Religious Queers
A Universe of Relations
Edited by Yvette Taylor
Jeremy Carrette
and Ria Snowdon
29 Theology and the Arts
39 Sainthood and Race
Engaging Faith
Marked Flesh, Holy Flesh
Ruth Illman and W. Alan Smith
Edited by Molly H. Bassett
30 Religion, Gender, and the and Vincent W. Lloyd
Public Sphere
Edited by Niamh Reilly and 40 Making European Muslims
Stacey Scriver Religious Socialization among
Young Muslims in Scandinavia
31 An Introduction to Jacob Boehme and Western Europe
Four Centuries of Thought Edited by Mark Sedgwick
and Reception
Edited by Ariel Hessayon and 41 Just War and the
Sarah Apetrei Ethics of Espionage
Darrell Cole
32 Globalization and
Orthodox Christianity 42 Teaching the
The Transformations of a Historical Jesus
Religious Tradition Issues and Exegesis
Victor Roudometof Edited by Zev Garber
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Teaching the Historical Jesus
Issues and Exegesis
Edited by Zev Garber
First published 2015
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Teaching the historical Jesus : issues and exegesis / edited by Zev Garber.
pages cm. — (Routledge studies in religion ; 42)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Jesus Christ—Historicity—Study and teaching. I. Garber, Zev,
1941– editor.
BT303.2.T43 2015
232.071—dc23
2014031073
ISBN: 978-1-138-79461-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75912-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Introduction 1
ZEV GARBER
SECTION I
Jesus in Undergraduate Education
1 Teaching Jewish Studies, Hebrew Scriptures, and the
Historical Jesus in the Context of Jewish Studies at a
Two-Year Public College: Rationale, Objectives, Evaluation 13
ZEV GARBER
2 Untangling Myths and Misconceptions: A Narrative
of the Undergraduate Classroom 26
ROCHELLE L. MILLEN
3 Jesus “in the Trenches”: Pedagogical Challenges Posed
by Teaching the Nazarene in the Context of Judaic Studies 37
KEN HANSON
4 Teaching Jesus at the University of Alabama 49
STEVEN L. JACOBS
5 Teaching about Jesus in a Catholic University 59
RICHARD L. LIBOWITZ
6 Teaching about Jesus and Early Christianity
at U.S. Rabbinic Schools 69
JOEL GEREBOFF
7 The Jewish Jesus: An Evaluation after Three Years 80
HERBERT W. BASSER
viii Contents
8 Dialogue as Integral to Teaching about the Jewish Jesus 93
JAMES F. MOORE AND JOSEPH EDELHEIT
9 Between the Literary and the Historical Jesus: Teaching
the Modern Jewish Writers’ Jesus 109
NETA STAHL
SECTION II
Some Issues in Teaching Jesus
10 Jesus the Jew: Who Says So? 121
NORMAN SIMMS
11 Reflections on a Course: Judaism and Early Christianity:
The Parting of the Ways—When? Where? Why? 133
LEONARD GREENSPOON
12 Typical Christian Misunderstandings of Jesus and Judaism 146
EUGENE J. FISHER
13 Teaching Jesus in a Halakhic Jewish Setting in Israel:
Kosher, Treif, or Pareve? 156
JOSHUA SCHWARTZ
14 Jewish Artists and the Perception of the Crucifixion 168
NATHAN HARPAZ
15 Jesus on Film: Cinema as a Tool in the
Discovery of the Jewish Jesus 182
PENNY WHEELER
16 Gravitating to Luke’s Historical Jesus: Help or Hindrance? 195
MICHAEL J. COOK
SECTION III
Teaching Views on Jesus
17 Jesus, the Pharisees, and Mediterranean Manliness 209
S. SCOTT BARTCHY
18 Jesus as Sadducee and Pharisee: Teaching the Teacher
in the Gospel of Mark 221
PETER ZAAS
Contents ix
19 Jesus as a Seditionist: The Intertwining of Politics
and Religion in His Teaching and Deeds 232
FERNANDO BERMEJO-RUBIO
20 Was Jesus a Pharisee? And Does It Matter? 244
JOHN PAWLIKOWSKI
Contributors 257
Bibliography 263
Index 267
Source Index 271