The Gospel according to Jewish Scholars
Brandeis University Professor of Biblical Studies Marc Zvi Brettler assures us that The Jewish Annotated New Testament is neither part of a Jewish conspiracy to take over America, as one anti-Jewish blogger claims, nor part of an attempt to convince Jews to convert to Christianity, as an Amazon respondent warns.
“Both perspectives are absurd, and I think reflect attitudes toward the book’s title rather than its contents,” says coeditor Brettler, a visiting professor this year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Brettler conceived of the tome – the first edition of the Christian Scriptures edited and annotated entirely by Jewish scholars – as a follow-up to his co-editorship of National Jewish Book Awardwinning The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press, 2004), which was intended to increase Bible literacy among Jews and to present gentiles with Jewish perspectives on the Hebrew Scriptures.
He hopes that a Jewish-annotated New Testament “would encourage more Jews to read this important book, and more non-Jews to understand Jewish perspectives on it. Such engagement is crucial in the modern world.”
Brettler combined his expertise in the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible with that of his co-editor, Vanderbilt University professor Amy-Jill Levine, a scholar of the New Testament, Second Temple Judaism and Jewish-Christian relations.
Approximately 50 contributors – all Jewish – added their “annotations and essays… of first- and second-century Judaism that enrich the understanding of the New Testament… highlight connections between the New Testament material and later Jewish [especially rabbinic] literature… and [address] problems that Jewish readers in particular may find in reading the New Testament, especially passages that have been used to perpetuate anti-Judaism,” according to the editors’ preface.
“This whole project would have been impossible a generation ago, when there were not enough Jewish scholars who had expertise in the New Testament and in the relevant languages – Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic,” says Brettler.
“Many Jewish scholars have become interested in this topic, and have studied it at the leading universities.”
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| Marc Brettler |
After drawing up a list of Jewish scholars with the requisite background and experience, the co-editors contacted them with suggested assignments.
“Almost all of our first choices recognized the landmark nature of this volume, and agreed to participate,” says Brettler.
To cite just a handful of the contributors of note, the Hebrew University’s Lee I. Levine wrote the essay on “The Synagogue,” Princeton’s Martha Himmelfarb wrote on “Afterlife and Resurrection,” Susannah Heschel of Dartmouth explored “Jesus in Modern Jewish Thought,” and Burton Visotzky of the Jewish Theological Seminary contributed “Jesus in Rabbinic Tradition.”
Brettler says he consulted many colleagues – especially Brandeis professor Bernadette Brooten, a scholar of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism – before “eagerly jump[ing] into the project,” and was more concerned about its logistic difficulties than any controversy it would stir up.
“I feel fortunate to live in an era where scholars of different religions can discuss, rather than polemicize about, different scriptures from various perspectives,” he says. “My enthusiasm was fostered by my belief that it would be important to both the Jewish and the Christian community.”
The volume contains several essays discussing Jewish attitudes toward Christianity over time and the break between Judaism and Christianity. “Of the approximately 8,000 verses in the New Testament, more than 250 quote the Tanakh [Jewish Scriptures], and perhaps twice as many directly allude to it,” Brettler reveals in his own contribution.
