In Quest of the Historical Pharisees

by Jacob Neusner (Editor), Bruce D. Chilton (Editor)

Overview

This work sketches the many portraits of the Pharisees that emerge from ancient sources. Based upon the Gospels, the writings of Paul, Josephus, the Mishnah, the Tosefta, and archeology, the volume profiles the Pharisees and explores the relationship between the Pharisees and the Judaic religious system foreshadowed by the library of Qumran. A great virtue of this study is that no attempt is made to homogenize the distinct pictures or reconstruct a singular account of the Pharisees; instead, by carefully considering the sources, the chapters allow different pictures of the Pharisees to stand side by side.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932792720
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	04/09/2007
Pages:	522
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.22(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jacob Neusner was Research Professor of Theology and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College.

Bruce D. Chilton is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion, Rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, and Executive Director of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College.

Table of Contents

Preface

PART ONE: FIRST-CENTURY ACCOUNTS

1 Josephus's Pharisees: The Narratives, Steve Mason

2 Josephus's Pharisees: The Philosophy, Steve Mason

3 Matthew's and Mark's Pharisees, Martin Pickup

4 Luke's Pharisees, Amy-Jill Levine

5 John's Pharisees, Raimo Hakola and Adele Reinhartz

6 Paul and the Pharisees, Bruce Chilton

7 Paul and Gamaliel, Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner

8 The Pharisees and the Dead Sea Scrolls, James C. VanderKam

9 Archaeology and the Pharisees, James F. Strange

PART TWO: THE PHARISEES IN RABBINIC JUDAISM

10 The Pharisees and the Sadducees in the Earliest Rabbinic Documents, Jack N. Lightstone

11 The Rabbinic Traditions about the Pharisees before 70 CE: An Overview, Jacob Neusner

12 The Pharisaic Agenda: Laws Attributed in the Mishnah and the Tosefta to Pre-70 Pharisees, Jacob Neusner

13 The Pre-70 Pharisees after 70 and after 140, Jacob Neusner

PART THREE: THE PHARISEES IN MODERN THEOLOGY

14 The German Theological Tradition, Susannah Heschel

15 The Anglo-American Theological Tradition to 1970, Jacob Neusner

16 The Debate with E. P. Saunders since 1970, Jacob Neusner

PART FOUR: CONCLUSION

17 What Do We Really Know about the Pharisees, and How Do We Know It?, William Scott Green

Journal and Series Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

About the Contributors

What People are Saying About This

Harry Attridge

This is a provocative and engaging study that invites the reader to wrestle with the complexity of the sources and to come to their own synthetic conclusions. In the hands of ordinary most-modernists, such a de-centered approach to a historical question might be counterproductive, but in the hands of the learned colleagues Neusner and Chilton have here assembled, the exercise becomes a very effective way of enabling contemporary students to wrestle with difficulties of the ancient sources.

This is a provocative and engaging study that invites the reader to wrestle with the complexity of the sources and to come to their own synthetic conclusions. In the hands of ordinary most-modernists, such a de-centered approach to a historical question might be counterproductive, but in the hands of the learned colleagues Neusner and Chilton have here assembled, the exercise becomes a very effective way of enabling contemporary students to wrestle with difficulties of the ancient sources.

Philip Davies

This is an important book in so many ways. It demonstrates eloquently that 'what we can't show, we don't know'—that much of what we assert about Pharisees is simply not supported by the evidence. But it also reminds us that 'objective' description is not a matter of either choosing or amalgamating sources, but of realizing that how the Pharisees were perceived and presented is indeed also some part of who they were. We also see how interpretation reveals the interpreter as well as the text: in these assured and well-informed analyses, we also discern the moral and intellectual character of the scholar. Not least, we are confronted with those other Pharisees—of Jewish and Christian mythology and contemporary critical controversy, who long outlived their historical counterparts but who still haunt and fascinate us.

Daniel R. Schwartz

Whether as parents, foils, or both, the Pharisees have always been a focus of interest for anyone interested in the genesis of Christianity or of rabbinic Judaism. This volume allows serious readers an opportunity to learn the sources, to follow the debates, and so to understand and assess a revolution in historical and theological scholarship.

Editorial Reviews

Whether as parents, foils, or both, the Pharisees have always been a focus of interest for anyone interested in the genesis of Christianity or of rabbinic Judaism. This volume allows serious readers an opportunity to learn the sources, to follow the debates, and so to understand and assess a revolution in historical and theological scholarship.

—Daniel R. Schwartz, Professor of Ancient Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This is an important book in so many ways. It demonstrates eloquently that "what we can't show, we don't know"-that much of what we assert about Pharisees is simply not supported by the evidence. But it also reminds us that "objective" description is not a matter of either choosing or amalgamating sources, but of realizing that how the Pharisees were perceived and presented is indeed also some part of who they were. We also see how interpretation reveals the interpreter as well as the text: in these assured and well-informed analyses, we also discern the moral and intellectual character of the scholar. Not least, we are confronted with those other Pharisees-of Jewish and Christian mythology and contemporary critical controversy, who long outlived their historical counterparts but who still haunt and fascinate us.

—Philip Davies, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield

From the Publisher