The sayings of Jesus can sometimes be a puzzle to us. Much of the difficulty comes from not seeing the nuances of their Jewish style and context. This loss of understanding has come from the church’s movement away from its Jewish beginnings. But, about 30 years ago, a group of Christian and Jewish scholars began to meet in Israel to study Jesus from within his Jewish culture.1 They saw that the more they fit Jesus' teachings into their first century rabbinic context, the more they could make sense out of texts that had made translators scratch their heads for centuries. Remarkably, they were in agreement that while Jesus was a Jewish rabbi like many others, he did do miracles and did claim to be the promised Messiah that God would send. In fact, the more they’ve read his words in their Jewish context, the stronger they have seen his claims! They have shown us that Jesus used many rabbinic teaching methods to deliver his powerful message. Let's look at some of them: The Parable Even though Jesus was a master at using parables for his purposes, he didn't invent them. In fact, over a thousand parables are on record from Jewish rabbis from Jesus' time and before. A parable was a way to explain a theological truth in terms of physical images and stories. Just as the Hebrew language uses concrete pictures to express abstractions (God's “outstretched arm" meant God's power, to be “stiff-necked" meant to be stubborn, etc), the parable explained truth in terms of everyday experiences. The logic was that we can understand things we don’t see by comparing them to things that we can see and know about. Typically, a rabbi told a parable to make one major point, often as an illustration of a larger teaching. Many times two parables were told that had the same point, to make a point twice from the “testimony of two witnesses” – two parables that prove the same thing. Often Jesus did this, as when he tells the parable of the leaven and the mustard seed – both describing something that starts out invisible but then grows huge. By reading the two parables together and seeing the similarities, we can often understand the common conclusion better.2 Some elements were common motifs in many parables, and they usually were drawn from the scriptures. For instance, a king was often the subject of the parable, and the king was almost always symbolic of God (from 1 Sam 8:7). Jesus told several parables about kings, all making a point about the nature of God. Parables of these type were the main way Jews communicated their theology of God. Another image that was used for God is the shepherd. One rabbinic parable says,
We can hear a similarity between this parable and Jesus' parable about the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep to look for the one lost sheep. It is interesting that even other rabbis had the understanding that God has mercy on the lost, and pursues them to bring them back to himself. Both parables use the shepherd image because in several places in the Old Testament, God is described as a shepherd looking for his sheep (Ezekiel 34, Jer. 23). The Messiah is also called the “shepherd” too – linking God to the Messiah. When Jesus speaks of himself as “the good shepherd” (John 10), all of these images would have come to mind. Kal V'homer Another teaching method that Jesus used was called "kal v'homer", meaning "light and heavy". The idea was to communicate a larger truth by comparing it to a similar, but smaller situation. Often the phrase "how much more" would be part of the saying. Jesus used this when he taught about worry:
Jesus also uses this method when he says, “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to you children, how much more will your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:11) In both cases, Jesus was teaching theology in non-theological terminology. Rabbis often used this logic even if they didn’t use the very words “how much more”. An interesting example is from Rabbi Gamaliel, the same rabbi mentioned in Acts 5:34. One time at a banquet, Gamaliel got up and humbly served his disciples, going against the tradition that they should serve him. When they protested and asked why, he said,
Understanding his teaching is dependent on our grasping the “kal v’homer”. Abraham was the most revered of all of their ancestors, but Gamaliel points out that he acted as a humble servant by serving a meal to God and two angels in Genesis 18. Then he points out that God himself serves us and even the animals when he gives us food. God himself is a model of serving others rather than wanting to be served. Certainly, if one as great as God serves his lowly creation, how much more should we serve each other! Rabbinic Exaggeration Some of the sayings of Jesus are so strong that we wonder if Jesus really wants us to take them literally. Should we really pluck out our eye if it causes us to sin? Is it really better to be drowned with a millstone than to lead a little one astray? Is it really harder for a camel to go through a needle's eye than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Jesus' overstatements make us uncomfortable when we aren't sure how we should take them. One thing that we should keep in mind is that Jesus' contemporaries often exaggerated, and gave commands that went far beyond expectations, in order to underline the importance of what they taught. For instance,
The point of this teaching is to emphasize that people should try to always include discussion of the scriptures when they eat together. Likening a meal without Bible study to worshipping in an idolatrous temple is a strong overstatement that is intended for emphasis. Or, here is another example:
Once again the importance of concentration in prayer is taught by exaggeration – by saying that even in the most extreme circumstances, you should have single-minded attention on God. People took these teachings seriously, but knew they were overstatements for effect. Knowing this aspect of Jesus' culture should give us some sense of how Jesus' words were heard by his audience when he said things like, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt...you can say to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and it will be done.” (Matt 21:21). He sounded like many other rabbis who said extreme things to reinforce the importance of their teaching. We must be careful never to minimize Jesus' high calling away as exaggeration. But at the same time, our ability to interpret his words increases when we know how they would have been heard in his time. Alluding to the Scriptures It may surprise many that Jesus’ teachings are peppered with “hints” to his scriptures. He often used unique phrases or even single words to allude to passages in the Old Testament. He could do this because he lived in a biblically literate culture, where most people knew much of the Old Testament scriptures by memory. By knowing his reference, people recognize the context and heard more complex ideas of the Scriptures behind his words. He wasn't hiding secret messages – he expected people to catch his allusions. In medieval times the Jews referred to this technique of hinting as "remez", but the practice actually predated Jesus. One example of this is when at the cleansing of the temple, Jesus said, "My house is to be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!" (Matt 21:13) He was quoting Isaiah 56:6 and Jeremiah 7:11, which contrast God's greatest vision for the temple (All the nations of the world worshipping there) with the worst possible abuse of it (being used as a refuge for thieves and murderers, which led to its destruction). He was not just protesting the selling of doves – he was speaking about the corrupt leadership that was getting rich from temple sacrifices, and hinting about the Temple’s destruction. 7 We actually use the same practice of allusion today. When a headline says, "War in Iraq May Be Another Vietnam", it assumes that everyone knows the history of the Vietnam War. Without saying anything but the word "Vietnam", people immediately know the reference, and have an emotional reaction to that difficult time in US history. Or when we refer to a government scandal as "Travel-gate" or "File-gate", we are subtly alluding to the Watergate scandal. Just by adding the half-word “gate”, we hint that the issue is a major White House scandal that will cast a shadow over the presidency. Just as we expect people to be literate in history, Jesus expected his listeners to be literate with God’s word. Another example of this practice in the gospels is the conversation Jesus had with John’s disciples about whether he was the “one who was to come,” in Matt. 11: 2 – 6:
Both John’s question and Jesus’ answer are filled with allusions to the scriptures. John was speaking of the “coming one” of Malachi 3:2, and Jesus’ answer was from Isaiah 35:4-6 and 61:1 that speak about the coming of the messiah.8 Recognizing that all those things Jesus mentioned were fulfillment of scripture underlined that he was the fulfillment of all of those prophecies. Conclusion Knowing more about Jesus’ context should both clarify our reading and challenge us to take another look at Jesus’ words in light of his scriptures and Jewish culture. Jesus used methods of teaching that are somewhat foreign to us, so it is easy to assume that his style was foreign to his first listeners too. But we see instead that God was preparing a culture for his own coming, giving them a love for the scriptures and powerful techniques to teach the truth about himself. Jesus used these methods to proclaim truth in an uncommonly brilliant way – certainly he was a master teacher!
©2005
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