“Jesus of Nazareth: A Judaic Dilemma” by Thomas Grisso

Jesus of Nazareth: A Judaic Dilemma

Thomas Grisso

 

Introduction: This is an historical fantasy set in Judea soon after Jesus’ death and resurrection. During a brief period in the mid-1st century, the Jesus Movement was not yet a new religion. The name “Christian” does not appear in any of the four gospels. Growing from and based on ancient Judaic scripture, what Jesus taught was likely to have been identified as a new interpretation of Judaism. For a brief time, it would have been possible for the Jesus Movement to join the many other sects that Judaism accepted as competing interpretations of the Torah. But was it too radically different? Was it a new religion entirely?

 

Aaron walked the road from Jerusalem to Bethphage in about a half-hour. He usually managed a few things in the city’s late afternoon bustle and still arrived home before the family gathered for evening meal. But he had stopped by the synagogue to hear a debate that had lasted longer than most.

Dusk came and went, and darkness neared as he approached his home. Firelight from hearths glowed from windows faintly illuminating the street as he approached the courtyard gate. He opened it, crossed to the door, touched the mezuzah on the doorpost, stubbed his toe on the threshold, and closed and barred the door.

​Aaron sat to remove his sandals, and Naomi appeared from the kitchen with a bowl of water. “Here, let me take those,” she said as she placed the bowl near his feet and draped a towel across his legs. “I hope you weren’t too worried,” Aaron said. “Esra and Asher could not let go until one of them believed he had demolished the other. I’d have been even later if the rabbi had not called it a draw until another day.”

​Naomi shrugged. “I presumed it was something like that. I fed the children and put them to bed, but I told them you would see if they were awake when you got home.” Aaron rose to visit the children and Naomi said. “And while you do, I will put some food on the table.”

The children were already asleep, so Aaron was soon seated where Naomi had ladled a generous portion of aromatic lamb and lentil stew, bread with oil and wine vinegar, and a cup of wine. Naomi stood by him as he prayed, then washed the children’s dishes as Aaron savored the stew. When he had finished, he settled into his chair by the fireplace and Naomi came to join him. Picking up her needlework from a table, she sat and after a moment said, “Aaron, what was the question?”

“You mean the debate in the synagogue?” “Yes, of what importance was it that they so strongly argued?” Aaron stroked his beard. “Oh, just some talk about that man who was executed during the last Passover.” Naomi paused her needlework and watched Aaron expectantly.

A dog barked in the street. An ember fell out onto the hearth and Aaron reached with his staff to nudge the coals back into the fireplace. Then he sat back in silence. Naomi bristled. “Husband, why do you hesitate? How will I learn about these things if you will not disclose them to me? Women do not have time to attend such conversations in the synagogue courtyard and, if they do, the men ignore them and make them feel unwelcome.”

“Woman, you speak hastily. You know that I believe you exceed most of the men in the synagogue in soundness of reasoning and certainly in ability to argue. And have I not disclosed many things to you in confidence? Yet you chide me for hesitating as though I were reluctant.”

Naomi resumed her needlework. “Yes, my husband. Please forgive me for my impatience.” “Ah, Naomi, your impatience, like many traits, is both a danger and a strength. Or shall I say, a burden and a blessing?” Naomi smiled, and Aaron said, “Whichever, I love you the more for it.”

Aaron continued. “All right, here is what they discussed. Some unusual beliefs develop around this Jesus. Even some of our Pharisees are beginning to adopt some of the strange notions of his followers. The question is this. Are their ideas to be regarded as some sort of new, progressive interpretation of our ancient scriptures? Will these Jesus followers become a sect within Judaism, like our Pharisees and Sadducees? Or are they something else? Some sort of cult that goes too far and violates the heart of Judaism.”

Naomi said, “I have heard much about these people. Often there are discussions at the well where some of the Jesus followers tell us of their beliefs. I am not certain that I understand it all but perhaps enough to have an opinion on the question.”

“And what is that, Naomi?”

“Their view is not merely an interpretation of Judaism. It is a total rejection of it.”

“Then you believe as Ezra. What is your reason?”

“Where shall I start,” Naomi said, then placed her needlework in her lap. “They say this Jesus is the Messiah, the one who scriptures have said will come and destroy our enemies. He will be a King who will sweep away all of Israel’s oppressors and establish a nation to which all other nations will bow. The Messiah will make Israel great again.”

​Aaron said, “That is all true,” and Naomi said, “And none of it is true of this Jesus. When he lived, he never opposed our oppressors. Would a king, when slapped, turn the other cheek? He was more a peasant than a king. They cried ‘Hosanna, save us’ as he rode that donkey our neighbor gave him at Passover, then proceeded to get himself killed, and even if you believe the story that he came back to life, he promptly left them to fend for themselves. Based on the Messiah of the prophets, this Jesus is a false Messiah.”

​Aaron said, “Then I will take Asher’s part as defense. They say this Jesus gave them a way to live that allows them to transcend the world and Israel’s enemies. That in the end, the lowliest of us will be greater than those with earthly power. And metaphorically, his death and resurrection are a defeat of worldly oppressors of our people.”

​Naomi spoke softly but firmly. “So, his was a metaphoric victory? Leaving his followers with Rome’s boot metaphorically but squarely on their necks?”

Aaron did not reply, so Naomi continued. “Now, you say he speaks of saving our people. And who, in Jesus’ language, is ‘our people?’ They say he offers Yahwe to everyone, not just to Israel. Nothing in the ancient scriptures could be clearer than Yahweh’s covenant with his chosen people Israel.” She quietly chuckles, then said, “Can you imagine Moses leading Israel out of Egypt and inviting Egyptians to join in the trip to Canaan?”

​“Naomi, you speak without considering alternative views. When the scriptures speak of ‘my people Israel,’ this might be a metaphor for all people. Are not all people from Adam at the creation? Are not all people descended from Noah after all others were drowned in the flood? Might Yahweh’s covenant have been with all people, but only Israel accepted Yahweh’s promise and agreed to keep the Laws Yahweh gave?”

​“Ah, husband, the Laws. Oh, yes, the Laws. Pharisees and Sadducees disagree about which of our Mosaic Laws require obedience, but neither rejects the obedience to Law entirely. Yet I hear that this Jesus regularly and openly violated the Laws, even those honoring Yahweh’s sabbath, the Law above which there is no greater.”

​“Asher does not agree,” said Aaron, “and for good reason. Jesus apparently said that everything he taught fulfilled the Law and did nothing to disturb it. He simply interpreted all of the Law as being fulfilled by one new commandment: Do what is best for your neighbor.”

​“How convenient,” said Naomi. “If you want to be Messiah to the whole world, what better way than this. No circumcision necessary. Just be nice to everyone and metaphorically you are righteously obeying the hundreds of other Laws without actually obeying them. How could this possibly be a form of Judaism?” She looked across the room at Aaron. “Tell me, do all these people’s beliefs rely on metaphoric interpretations that deny reality?”

​“There is one more,” said Aaron, “and it goes back to where we started. Jesus as savior. They say his execution saved the world by being Yahweh’s sacrifice of his son, a metaphor for the sacrificial lamb that absolves us of the consequences of sin. Then his resurrection assured his believers of their own resurrection and eternal life. If they believe, they are absolved and live beyond death.”

​“Aaron, did Ezra destroy this nonsense?” Aaron was silent, and Naomi said, “First, the metaphor fails because it presumes that Jesus was Yahweh’s son—the same as being Yahweh—and Yahweh does not sacrifice lambs to himself. But the further metaphoric implication is worse. If this lamb or man, whatever, is literally Yahweh’s son, then this man is Yahweh. That is plain and simple blasphemy.”

​“But Asher claims that Jesus never said he was the son of Yahweh.”

​“Perhaps,” said Naomi. “And I would be less sharp if they said he was metaphorically divine. That he was so righteous that no human was ever more Godlike. But no. They say he was fully divine. Fully Yahweh an fully human. In all of Israel’s history, there is no equal to blasphemy and no description of the Messiah that ever claimed that Yahweh would come to us face to face.”

​There was a long silence. They listened to the crickets in the courtyard and watched the embers fading in the fireplace.

​Finally, Aaron spoke. “Naomi, I was uncertain after hearing Ezra and Asher offering their opposing views. But your points give even more power to Ezra’s argument. You drown Asher’s claim about these—what shall I call them—these Jesus-ites. This is not within the bounds of Judaism. It now seems to me that this is something too different, too radically progressive, to exist within the Torah.

“Husband, I hope you will be able to keep it away from the synagogue. It will only create confusion. And it will disappear soon.”

“Are you so sure, woman? I believe we must not look askance at this new thing. Can you tolerate another metaphor? It is as though a lioness has given birth to a creature that is not a lion. However, this might have happened, the offspring is a cub of a powerful mother. One must consider that in its blood it carries her strength and resilience. It might live long and become something great.”

“We shall see,” said Naomi. “But while Yahweh decides the cub’s fate, it should not live with its mother in the same den. It must fend for itself.”