The Misunderstood Jew: the Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (review)

Abstract

The Misunderstood Jew: Church and Scandal of Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. 250 pp. $24.95. Ecumenical dialogue involving Christians and Jews resembles its associated activity, learning language of ecumenism. Achieving some fluency is manageable, but mastery is almost impossible. The problem really is that we try to reach this goal by reading thought of others on material of a setting in life beyond pale of Western categories of thought. The result can be slipshod discussion, misguided and nonproductive. Take biblical Christology, for example. The large number of works devoted to this discipline is informed by Christian interpretation, which provides genre's narration and justification. However, for me - an Orthoprax Jew, who sees and values importance of Christian-Jewish dialogue - much of information offered is cross-disciplinary Christianity that flows osmotically from New to Hebrew Scriptures and back to New Testament, giving impression that Scriptures of Jews and Christians are reciprocally closed and dependent. But is this so on a theological front? In Christian creedal tradition, Roman Catholicism and other Christian Orthodoxies maintain belief in Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is to say, Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten; Son is Father alone, not made, not created, but begotten; and Holy Spirit is of Father and Son, not made, not created, not begotten but proceeding. However, from a Jewish viewpoint, New simply stated (peshat) presents an antithetical understanding. For example, there are passages that speak of inequality of Father and Son (John 10:30; 14:28); different wills of Father and Son (John 5:28-30); and inferences that God and Jesus are not one and same (Mark 13; 4, 32: Luke 22: 31-32; John 5: 30-33; 12:49; 14:23-24, etc.). Furthermore, Mark 13:32 speaks of knowledge hidden from Jesus and known to Father and Holy Spirit, and Luke 12:10 speaks of forgiveness of sin by Father and Son but not by Holy Spirit. If three are one, why is there a demarcation in knowledge and forgiveness by persons of Trinity? Mainstream Jewish tradition claims that there is one indivisible God (Deut 6:4); there is god with Him (Deut 32:39; Isa 44:6-8); nor is likeness of Him possible (Exod 20:4; Deut 5:8); He is ultimately responsible for good and evil (thus Satan, Isa 45:7) and no man may see Me and live (Exodus 33:20). Though He is one, He has many titles, but on that day His name will be one (Zech 14:9; and ultimate line in Aleinu prayer recited thrice daily). This doubt explains why rabbinic Judaism does not nor cannot embrace emotionally and logically faith affirmation of Christology and by extension, Old Testament theology. Thus are we to say that framework of Jewish-Christian dialogue is theologically off limits and ought to be limited to historical, political, and sociological discussion? For concerned and involved post-Auschwitz Christian and Jew, who take seriously, Have we not all one father? Has not God created us? (Mal 2:11), this will not do. For religiously involved Christian, the hatred, acts of persecution, and displays of anti-Semitism directed against Jews by Christians at any time and in any place (Pope Paul John II, Yad Vashem, March 23, 2000), must be remembered and forever exposed and condemned. Supersessionism and contra Judaeos literature provided religious agenda for Nazi Judeocide in heartland of Christendom. As scholarship exposes these teachings of contempt found at crossroads of Christian preaching and teaching can these corrections become a staple in ecclesia? …