This is the second in a series of papers/essays I wrote this past fall for seminary classes.

In our New Testament Introduction class we were assigned to read A Rabbi Talks with Jesus by Rabbi Jacob Neusner, along with two pieces of inter-testamental Jewish literature, the Psalms of Solomon and Jubilees. Our assignmen was to compare and contrast their views on the Messiah and then to assess whether or not any of the authors would’ve been likely to accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah. I chose to write mine in the form of a dialogue, imagining that the authors of Jubilees and Psalm of Solomon were each rabbis contemporary with Neusner. This is the device Neusner used in his book, where he imagined a series of dialogues he might have had with Jesus after hearing the Sermon on the Mount. Please keep in mind that this assignment was limited to five pages, and thus is in no way a full treatment of this subject.

THREE RABBIS AND JESUS CHRIST
A DIALOGUE
BY
MARK W. TRAPHAGEN
New Testament Introduction – NT 111
Prof. Stephen S. Taylor
October 7, 2004

Brothers, our subject of discussion today is the young rabbi from Nazareth, Jesus bar Joseph, who is causing quite a stir in our district. Among some of his followers it is being said that he is the Messiah promised to Israel. To begin, how do each of you view the Messiah?

Solomon: To begin, let me offer thanks to you, Mark of Jenkintown, for the hospitality of your home. The Messiah will be a mighty, conquering king in the line of David. His conquest will be swift and decisive. He will “destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from gentiles who trample her to destruction” (Charlesworth, “Psalms of Solomon” [PS] 17:22). All the gentile nations will bow before him, and he will make them the servants of Israel (PS 17:30).

Jubilee: You are right to say that he will be of the house of Judah, for such David, of blessed memory, was (Charlesworth, “Jubilees” [JUB] 31:18). But I am not so sure that his conquest will come so quickly. Rather, I see him as planting a seed of righteousness that will grow over many years until a time of peace covers the earth and men will live to a millennium of years (JUB 21:26-27). He will lead his people back to the study of the Law and a renewed love for its commands (JUB 21:26).

Jacob: With all due respect to our gracious host and my esteemed colleagues, I refuse to make any speculations concerning the nature of the Messiah, especially in connection with this young rabbi from Nazareth. My first concern is with whether or not he is a proper teacher of Torah, and not with any claims made by his followers (Neusner 2000, 32).

Mark: Then since you bring that up, Rabbi Jacob, what of the teaching of Jesus? Is it good teaching?

Jacob: On some levels, he is an extraordinary teacher. I was personally enriched by his fencing of Torah in order to keep me on the righteous path. For example, his teaching that I must not harbor hatred in my heart keeps me far away from even the possibility of the sin of murder (Neusner, 40). However, I take serious issue with him on several points. First, many of his teachings speak only to the private life of the individual. I am shocked to hear so little reference to the nation of Israel, God’s Holy People. The Torah is always for “us,” not just “me.” Furthermore, he seems to feel that he can exclude some members of that great community, constituted at Sinai, merely on the basis of his ethical judgments of individual behavior (Neusner, 50-52).

Solomon: Rabbi Jacob, I certainly share your high regard for the Law and for the People. But does not the Torah also speak of our individual responsibility before God? I have written, “the Lord’s righteous judgments are according to the individual and the household” (PS, 9:5) and again, “the Lord is good to those who persistently call upon him” (PS, 2:36). Perhaps it may be that while a man’s basic standing with God is by the Covenant, he himself must maintain a faithful walk before God.

Jubilee: I am with Rabbi Jacob in holding this Jesus to a high standard if he represents himself as a teacher of Torah. After all, the Law is eternal and unchanging; for example, the Sabbath was kept in heaven by the angels long before God created this world (JUB, 2:30-33).

Jacob: Then you would be quite shocked, my friend, to learn that Jesus teaches that it is
acceptable to break the Sabbath and even dishonor your father and mother, if you do those things for his sake (Neusner, 57-72, 76-88).

Jubilee: The Eternal One forbid! How can it be that a teacher in Israel would say such things? For I recorded that God spoke through the Angel of the Presence to Moses that a day would come when “they will forget all My commandments, even all that I command them, and they will walk after the Gentiles” (JUB, 1:9). Such teaching as you say this Jesus is giving, if followed, would surely bring God’s judgment on the house of Israel and turn back the Messianic age I am so sure we have already entered!

Jacob: And it is not just his teaching that there are circumstances under which one may break the Torah that bothers me. It is the very way he teaches. My brothers, when you or I teach, we are careful to say that we are merely interpreting that which was handed by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Even Moses himself was careful to say, “God says to you…” But this rabbi from the Galilean hills actually puts himself above the Torah by saying, “You have heard it said (by Moses), but I say to you…” (Neusner, 49).

Solomon: If the truth be known, Rabbi Jacob, both my brother Jubilee and I wrote in other’s names, he of Moses and I of Solomon. But, never, never would we even consider speaking in place of the Holy One of Israel!

Mark: Esteemed teachers, let me ask you now to summarize your positions. What say you of Jesus of Nazareth?

Solomon: The stories of wonders surrounding his birth along with the mighty miracles he has performed had my interest at first; all the more so when I learned that he is a descendant of King David. Yet I see him making no effort to restore the throne of David and lead the people of Israel in throwing off their gentile oppressors. When I add to that his apparently reckless abandonment of the commandments, I cannot consider him as the Messiah of the Lord. Did not Moses say, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul”? [Deut. 13:1-3]

Jubilee: I concur, although I disagree about the nature of the Messianic reign. I believe the blessed time has already begun, if only in seed form, and that it will spread over all the earth through the power of the Eternal Law itself. If this Jesus taught the law properly, he might have been one who God used to advance that blessed time. But now I say no.

Jacob: I was very willing to give Jesus a chance, not necessarily as Messiah, but at least as a great teacher of Israel. And indeed, I think he has taught much that is wise. But because he teaches that it is acceptable to break commandments, because he emphasizes the individual heart over the ritualistic purity of the Law, and because he claims authority that only God may have, I cannot follow him.

Evaluation of the Responses
If I step aside from my vantage point as a twenty-first century Christian believer, I would say that the three rabbis’ responses are entirely defensible as consistent within their worldviews. Each of them in his own way follows his strong tradition of interpretation concerning the Torah, the Law given to Moses. For the author of Psalms of Solomon, the Law is God’s sole means of redemption, whether personal or corporate. The writer of the Book of Jubilees sees the Law as ultimate, perhaps even above God himself in terms of determining the character of all that is. And for Rabbi Neusner, author of A Rabbi Talks with Jesus, following in the footsteps of the Tanna’im of the early centuries after Jesus, the Torah is all there is to being a Jew, to the extent that ritualistic purity according to the Law must have equal value with issues of heart purity before God. All of them would perceive Jesus’ teaching, taken at face value, as being at many points at odds with those views.

Rabbi Neusner, however, pinpoints the real issue when he makes it very clear that Jesus made “changes” concerning the Law, or at least how it was to be viewed, that only God himself could make. This was the ultimate stumbling block. Nothing in these rabbis’s background would have prepared them to expect to meet the Eternal God walking around on the dusty plains of Galilee. For them, as for us all, the gift of faith was necessary if they were to accept that God has come in the flesh. As Jesus himself said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Charlesworth, James H., ed. “Jubilees.” In The Old Testament Pseudopigrapha. Vol. 2. Doubleday, 1985.
——-. “Psalms of Solomon.”
Neusner, Jacob. A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2000.

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