Jesus the Jew and Christianity’s Indebtedness to Judaism
Thus, even decades into the Third Quest with its overall agreement about Jesus’ core belonging to Second Temple Judaism, assessments of his Jewishness as “marginal” continue. Depicting Jesus as a “marginal Jew” allows for distance from and criticism of “common Judaism.” Inadvertently, Jesus becomes somewhat “less” Jewish, enabling identification for today’s Christians.
See Also: Jesus the Jew in Christian Memory (Cambridge; 2020).
By Barbara Meyer
Religious Studies Program
Graduate School of Philosophy
Tel Aviv University
July 2020
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