The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
David A. deSilva
Abstract
Jews have sometimes been reluctant to claim Jesus as one of their own; Christians have often been reluctant to acknowledge the degree to which Jesus' message and mission were at home amidst, and shaped by, the Judaism(s) of the Second Temple Period. This book introduces readers to the ancient Jewish writings known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and examines their formative impact on the teachings and mission of Jesus and his half-brothers, James and Jude. Knowledge of this literature bridges the perceived gap between Jesus and Judaism. Where our understanding of early Judaism is limited t ... More
Jews have sometimes been reluctant to claim Jesus as one of their own; Christians have often been reluctant to acknowledge the degree to which Jesus' message and mission were at home amidst, and shaped by, the Judaism(s) of the Second Temple Period. This book introduces readers to the ancient Jewish writings known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and examines their formative impact on the teachings and mission of Jesus and his half-brothers, James and Jude. Knowledge of this literature bridges the perceived gap between Jesus and Judaism. Where our understanding of early Judaism is limited to the religion reflected in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus will appear more as an outsider speaking “against” Judaism and introducing more that is novel. Where our understanding of early Judaism is also informed by the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Jesus and his half-brothers appear more fully at home within Judaism, and giving us a more precise understanding of what is essential, as well as distinctive, in their proclamation. This study engages several critical issues. How can we recover the voices of Jesus, James, and Jude? How can we assess a particular text's influence on Jews in early first-century Palestine? The result is a portrait of Jesus that is fully at home in Roman Judea and Galilee, and perhaps an explanation for why these extra-biblical Jewish texts continued to be preserved in Christian circles.
Keywords:
Second Temple Judaism,
Historical Jesus,
Apocrypha,
Pseudepigrapha,
James,
Jude,
intertexture,
influence
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195329001 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2013 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329001.001.0001 |
