Honzo April 1st, 2008
As I am going through part of of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza’s book In Memory of Her I came across this nice, compact orienting passage of the various Jewish movements in Israel before 70CE and how the Jesus movement fit in with these other movements.
All these diverse Jewish renewal movements of the time were strongly concerned with how to realize in every aspect of life the obligations and hopes of Israel as the kingly and priestly people of God. … Some stressed and strongly utilized the cultic priestly traditions, some claimed prophetic authority, some reenacted the Exodus, and still others integrated wisdom teachings with an apocalyptic perspective. Regardless of differences in lifestyle and theological outlook, however, all these groups were united in their concern for the political existence and holiness of the elected people of Israel. the proclamation of the [kingdom] of God by Jesus and his movement shared this… However, the Jesus movement refused to define the holiness of God’s elected people in cultic terms, redefining it instead as the wholeness intended in creation. (Page 113)
Honzo March 17th, 2008
Was Jesus a rabbi? The definite answer is - Yes and No. Wayne Meeks, along with others, points out that the earliest we can trace Rabbinic Judaism is to the academy at Yavneh in the second century CE. To refer to anyone before then as a Rabbi in the big-R sense is anachronistic. Now, Jesus was called rabbi to be sure, but this referred to anyone who taught and was viewed as an authority on the law - it was much more of a general term, sorta like teacher is today.
There really is no good answer as to the currents behind the formation of the Rabbinical school, and by good I mean an answer predicated by definite evidence. We have the experts in the interpretation of the Law, Pharisees, till 70 and then in 170(?) we suddenly have the Rabbis, new interpreters of the Law. It is most likely that P->R happened, but there is no concrete evidence showing that transition. This is not to say that good ole JC was not an expert in the Law, just that we should not throw all of the connotations we have of current Rabbis onto him.
I often loose sight of that distinction when I hear the term Rabbi thrown about, especially in conjunction with Jesus and Paul. I don’t think this is limited to just myself.
Honzo February 25th, 2008
Here is the quote of the day from a genre of music that I don’t particularly like by an artist I most certainly don’t like.
I ain’t here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I’m just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that’s the way I need Jesus
From Jesus Walks by Kanye West
I find that particularly instructive.