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Diversity and Unity in Judaism before Jesus |
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NOTES [1] This terminology, invented by Jacob Neusner, has found wide, but by no means universal, acceptance. See Jacob Neusner, Ernest S. Frerichs, William Scott Green, eds., Judaisms and the Messiahs at the Turn of the Christian Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). [2] Ant. 13.171-173, trans. H. Thackeray, Loeb Classical Library (1976). The words translated “schools of thought” is the Greek haireseis, and doesn’t necessarily imply a difference from some “normative” position as our modern words “sect” and “heresy” imply. [3] Ant. 18.63-64. The text has been reworked by the Christian scribes who copied Josephus’ texts in order to make it theologically orthodox, but there’s little reason to doubt that the core of the report—that there was a man named Jesus who performed wonders; that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and that his followers persisted until Josephus’ day—is genuine. [4] Of these sources, Josephus is certainly the most significant since he actually undertakes a description of the sects—something the other sources do not do. He writes about all three main sects as well as his “fourth philosophy,” the religious wing of the Jewish freedom movement. The New Testament and early rabbinic literature (the so-called “Tannaitic” literature, produced before the mid-third century C.E.) speak of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Philo of Alexandria, the Hellenized Jewish philosopher who lived around the time of Jesus, includes some detailed descriptions of the Essenes. Most scholars would also include the Dead Sea Scrolls among our sources for the Essenes, but I believe that the Dead Sea Scroll sect should be treated separately. The Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds as well as the midrashic literature were produced centuries after the time of the Pharisees and Sadducees and must be used with caution. [5] The suitability of the term “oral law” has been attacked frequently of late. Josephus never actually uses the phrase, and so some argue that there was no such thing as “oral law” in Second Temple times. See, e.g., E.P. Sanders, Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah (Philadelphia, 1990), chap.2. [6] There’s increasing uncertainty among scholars concerning the purpose of the Septuagint. Certainly, the Scriptures were originally translated into Greek to benefit Jews of the Diaspora, but what of the books of the Apocrypha? Philo, a Jew of the Diaspora, never quotes these books as Scripture. Perhaps only the Christians ever used these books as Scripture. [7] See Mishnah, Yadaim 4.6. [8] An older, but still definitive, treatment of this topic is G. W. E. Nicklesburg, Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in Early Judaism (Cambridge, MA, 1972). [9] No doubt most of the credit for this development must go to Martin Hengel, whose magisterial study was published in English as Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period, trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974). [10] The issues of debate seem to have been the keeping of kosher and the practice of circumcision—considered diagnostic tests of Judaism in the first century C.E. The church council’s decision regarding Gentiles—that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, and from sexual immorality—surely did not cover the whole spectrum of Christian morality. Apparently, they were rendering decisions only on the issues that were being contested: Jewish dietary restrictions and circumcision. Food sacrificed to idols and blood were the only dietary restrictions imposed. Abstaining from sexual immorality, then, must have been considered analogous to circumcision. [11] We need to note here that the term “Jewish” is somewhat slippery in this era. It is used in the literature to denote not just a religious group but also as an ethnic designation and even as a geographical designation.
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