A Rabbi Talks with Jesus

by Jacob Neusner

Overview

Placing himself within the context of the Gospel of Matthew, Neusner imagines himself in a dialogue with Jesus of Nazareth and pays him the supreme Judaic gesture of respect: making a connection with him through an honest debate about the nature of God's One Truth. Neusner explains why the Sermon on the Mount would not have convinced him to follow Jesus and why, by the criterion of the Torah of Moses, he would have continued to follow the teachings of Moses. He explores the reasons Christians believe in Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven, while Jews continue to believe in the Torah of Moses and a kingdom of priests and holy people on earth. This revised and expanded edition, with a foreword by Donald Akenson, creates a thoughtful and accessible context for discussion of the most fundamental question of why Christians and Jews believe what they believe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773520462
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	02/16/2000
Edition description:	REVISED
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jacob Neusner is Distinguished Service Professor of the History and Theology of Judaism and Senior Fellow, Institute of Advanced Theology, Bard College.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Foreword	xi
1	Come, Let Us Reason Together	3
2	A Practicing Jew in Dialogue with Jesus	18
3	Not to Destroy but to Fulfill vs You Have Heard That It Was Said, But I Say to You	35
4	Honor Your Father and Your Mother vs Do Not Think That I have Come to Bring Peace on Earth	53
5	Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy vs Look, Your Disciples Are Doing What Is Not Lawful to Do on the Sabbath	73
6	You Shall Be Holy; for I the Lord Your God Am Holy vs If You Would Be Perfect Go, Sell All You Have and Come, Follow Me	89
7	You Shall Be Holy vs Holier than Thou	111
8	The Road from Capernaum	127
9	You Shall Tithe All the Yield of Your Seed vs You Tithe Mint and Dill and Cumin and Have Neglected the Weightier Matters of the Law	134
10	How Much Torah, After All?	151

Editorial Reviews

"A tour de force and very, very moving." Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain "By far the most important book for the Jewish-Christian dialogue in the last decade. The absolute honesty, the precision of analysis, the union of respect for the other party with carefully grounded loyalty to one's own position characterize the book and make it a challenge especially to Christians, who will have to ponder the analysis of the contrast between Moses and Jesus." Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger "Neusner here makes a contribution to Jewish-Christian understanding that is as lively as it is unusual ... To listen in as he talks with Matthew's Jesus is to get a surer sense of the real issues on this important front of interreligious dialogue." Schubert M. Ogden, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

From the Publisher

In a highly challenging, contentious exegesis that is almost certain to provoke interfaith dialogue, an eminent scholar of Judaism explains why, if he had lived in Israel in the first century, he would have refused to join Jesus and his circle of disciples. Neusner, whose books include Jews and Christians and (with Andrew M. Greeley) The Bible and Us , argues that the Jesus of the Gospel of St. Matthew called into question the primacy of the family and violated the sanctity of the Sabbath. Casting himself as a local rabbi in biblical times, Neusner engages in an imaginary dialogue with Jesus, a Jew who explicitly claimed that he came to fulfill the Torah, not to destroy it. To Neusner, Jesus's message, summed up as ``leave home, follow me,'' shortchanged the priorities of home, family, community and the social order that the Torah had commanded Israel to bring into being. Neusner's earnest polemic will compel both Jews and Christians to look more deeply at the sources of their faith. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Here Neusner, a distinguished theologian and author of more than 400 books on Judaism, conducts an imaginary dialog with Jesus (as portrayed in the Gospel according to Matthew): ``In this book I explain in a very straightforward and unapologetic way why, if I had been in the Land of Israel in the first century, I would not have joined the circle of Jesus' disciples.'' Although the dialog is somewhat one-sided at times, understandably enough, a number of doctrinally valid and insightful points arise, and Neusner effectively sheds light on the question, ``Why, while Christians believe in Jesus Christ and the good news of his rule in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jews believe in the Torah of Moses and form on earth and in their own flesh God's kingdom of priests and holy people?'' A lively and intriguing work that should interest, enlighten, and challenge thoughtful readers of both faiths. Highly recommended.-- Marcia Welsh, Guilford Free Lib., Ct.

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