Newsletter: Vol. 10. Iss. 1
September 2010
Was Jesus Really Jewish?
Peter J. Miano
That Jesus, his disciples and their contemporaries, such as Paul, were Jewish is almost uncontested in popular conversation. Preaching, Sunday school curricula and hymnody all reinforce this notion. Most scholars label Jesus Jewish as well, although it is a label that is attracting more and more critical scholarly attention, as it well should.
All scripture comes to us in heavily modfied forms. For one thing, it is translated into English. The work of the translator is hardly a neutral, objective science. It is heavily influenced by contemporary values and ideology. English translations of the Bible carelessly and misleadingly employ the term Jew to translate the Greek word Ioudaios, even though scholars know full well that there are multiple meanings of the term Ioudaios that are thus lost in the misleading translation. In scholarship, the religion of Jesus and Paul is routinely referred to as Judaism. Jesus, Paul, their respective disciples and many of their enemies are equally and routinely identified as Jews, as well. It has become axiomatic to say that Jesus was a Jew and most scholars mechanically and uncritically repeat some variation of the theme that “The first Christians were Jews.” (Owen Chadwick) Even a cursory examination of the literature on the subject of the historical Jesus, the most popular subject in New Testament studies, reveals the frequency with which the terms Judaism, Jewish and Jew appear in the scholarly discussion about 1st Century issues. Geza Vermes’ Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels and E.P. Sanders’ Jesus and Judaism are illustrative examples of landmark scholarship that define the terms of discourse. Yet in neither of these or any other works is there any attempt at definition. Just as rare is any suggestion that such labels are problematic. But yes, there is a problem with our modern translations of the Bible and the contemporary application of these modern terms to ancient people. And the problem is not simply one of anachronism.
My contention is that the terms Jew and Judaism are inappropriate when they are used for the first century or earlier. So, by the way is the term Christian. Not only are they historically inaccurate and misleading, their use is morally irresponsible. If Jesus, his disciples, his friends, his family and his people were Jewish, then so were at least some of his enemies, because the biblical testimony is clear that Jesus was opposed, rejected, denied, betrayed and framed by his own people. The biblical testimony is just as clear that Jesus was crucified by the Romans, but at no place in the Gospels does Jesus betray any anti-Roman sentiment. Jesus’ most pointed remarks and most scathing critique is reserved for his own people. His enemies, i.e., those who opposed him, were his fellow Israelites. His friends and followers, i.e., those who also denied him, deserted him and betrayed him, were also his fellow Israelites. They are almost always called Jews in modern biblical scholarship, although there is no evidence that they self-identified that way.
I raise this issue not out of simple academic curiosity, but because the common belief that Jesus, his people and by extension his enemies were Jews, which seems benign on the surface, lies at root of one of the more repugnant canards of Christian anti-Semitism, specifically the belief that the Jews killed Jesus. Not only does such a canard deserve the moral disdain it has earned, all the evidence suggests that it is historically incorrect too. Yet it persists.
Even though modern scholarship routinely,
mechanically and uncritically refers to Judaism as a phenomenon with distinct
religious, cultural and ethnic dimensions in the 1st Century, in extant 1st
Century literature in any language, a term that can be loosely translated
as Judaism occurs only one time (Gal. 1:13-14). This deficit is telling.
Even more telling, however, is the simple fact that there is no place in scripture
or any other extant 1st Century literature about Jesus where Jesus refers
to himself as a Ioudaios or any term that can be translated as Jew.
He does not use that label for himself. In the two locations in Paul’s letters
where Paul identifies himself with labels, it is significant that he does
not refer to himself as a Jew. If Jesus or Paul were to self identify as Jews,
they would use the Greek term Ioudaios. Paul does not use the term
for himself.
Further, there are only two places in Scripture where Jesus is defined by
the Greek term Ioudaios (Judean or Jew). In both instances, the term
Ioudaios is employed by people who are not members of the group to
which Jesus and Paul both belong, which, by the way, they refer to as Israel.
When the magi come for the East, they inquire of Herod, “Where is he who has
been born king of the Ioudaioi?” (Mt. 2:2) When Jesus stands before
Pilate, Pilate asks him, “Are you the king of the Ioudaioi?” (Mt. 27:11)
Interestingly, neither Pilate nor the magi are Israelites. Moreover, when
in the gospels, Israelites do label Jesus, they refer to him not as a Ioudaios,
but as a Galiean. (Galilaiou, Mt. 26:69)
