The Centre for Jewish Studies
University of Manchester
Extra-Mural Lectures 1998-99
For the full list of lectures, click here
Jan 26 Michael Hilton: A Jewish view of Jesus (and
early Jewish-Christian relations)
Abstract:
Over 300 published authors have contributed to the "Jewish background"
to the life of Jesus. Interest among Jews began in the 1890s at the start
of the modern interfaith movement. A broad consensus has emerged among non-Orthodox
Jewish scholars of Jesus as a benign Jewish teacher. In many Gospel texts,
Jesus quotes Torah or rabbinic law and then asks his disciples to go further
than the law demands - to give away *all* their money to the poor, for example.
But only in the last twenty years have Jewish scholars really begun
to understand how important the Gospels are for their insights into the
history of Jewish practices and customs - over a century earlier than the
earliest rabbinic texts. The Gospel texts give us for example, the earliest
evidence for the reading of the prophets (haftarah) in the synagogue,
crucial early evidence about the history of immersion as part of the rite
of conversion, and indeed very early evidence about the use of the synagogue.
Such evidence must be treated with caution because the Gospels were written
in the diaspora and probably reflect Jewish life outside the land. Even
after the "parting of the ways" debate and conflict between Jews
and Christians continued to shape both faiths: my conclusion therefore is
that the rise of Christianity is central to Jewish history.
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Michael Hilton is Rabbi, North London Progressive Synagogue, and an
Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies; he is the author
of The Gospels and Rabbinic Judaism - A study Guide (1988); The Christian
Effect on Jewish Life (1994).
The Centre for Jewish Studies
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University of Manchester
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