The Pharisees: a SBL 2021 Review Forum (Kelley Coblentz Bautch and Joshua Scott)
The Pharisees (Eerdmans, 2021), edited by Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, is an important recent publication for readers of AJR and indeed all readers interested in Jewish history and Jewish/Christian relations.[1] This volume, with contributions from twenty-seven scholars of an international scope, is significant for numerous reasons, as the reviews in this AJR Forum make clear. ...I noted the 2019 conference here from which the essays in the book come. I knew the book was coming out, but its publication appears to have slipped by me in December.
Pharisees Part One: Historical Reconstruction (Kathy Ehrensperger)
By way of some concluding remarks, in terms of the historicity of the Pharisees, as we have seen especially in the first portion of the volume (chapters 1-5), it is difficult to find more than a few details, like relation and knowledge of the Law, political presence, some popularity. This should already lead us to caution.Who Needs the Pharisees? New Testament and Beyond (Anders Runesson)
Summing up – and answering our initial question, “Who needs the Pharisees?” – it seems that, on the whole, we today, both Jews and Christians, need them more than anyone has ever done before, but for very different reasons. And we need them in academic historical, non-polemical form.
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