Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Biblical Literature
Angaben zur Quelle:
139,4 (2020) 769-788
Keywords:
Jesus Jewish interpretations
;
Jesus Jewishness
;
New Testament. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Mishnah. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Mishnah Relation to the New Testament
;
Pharisees New Testament teaching
;
Jewish law New Testament teaching
Abstract:
This article offers a new approach for reconstructing the original form and meaning of Jesus's legal woe sayings in Matt 23:16-26 (and the parallel in Luke 11:3944) as part of a broader Jewish intersectarian discourse. A close analysis of this unit alongside an early rabbinic source embedded in Mishnah tractate Yadayim 4:5-8 reveals that Jesus's condemnation of the Pharisees was not unique. His arguments concerning oaths, tithes, and ritual purity belong to a pre-Matthean stratum, and they match a familiar rhetorical pattern condemning the Pharisees' lenient and compromising approach. According to this pre-Matthean tradition, Jesus drew his argument and depiction of the Pharisees from the current intersectarian debate concerning the essential principles of torah observance. Jesus is portrayed as exploiting current anti-Pharisaic accusations, familiar also from Qumran literature and directed originally against the Pharisees' distorted conceptions of purity and holiness, as he attempts to uncover their moral faults.
DOI:
10.15699/jbl.1394.2020.8
URL:
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