Search for other papers by Thomas Kazen in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
In this essay I suggest that the attitudes to Jewish law and the conflicting interpretations reflected by the early Jesus tradition are best understood within a landscape of change, in which the character of torah as instruction, guidance, and description gradually morphed into a more prescriptive and judicial nomos. Although the tensions described in the sources usually concern Jesus and the Pharisees, a comparison with the legal interpretation in some of the texts from Qumran sheds light on the principled differences between the early Jesus movement’s understanding of the law’s character and function and that of its opponents. It is suggested that Jesus and his early followers saw no conflict between the Torah’s guidance and its pragmatic application, but objected to some interpretations associated with its transformation.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Altmann, Peter. “The Significance of the Divine Torah in Ptolemaic Egypt in Documentary and Literary Sources from the Third and Second Centuries BCE.” JSJ 53 (2022): 1–31.
-
Amihay, Aryeh. Theory and Practice in Essene Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
-
Banks, Robert. Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition. SNTSMS 28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
-
Baumgarten, Joseph, Torleif Elgvin, Esther Eshel, Erik Larson, Manfred R. Lehmann, Stephen Pfann, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, eds. Qumran Cave 4, XXV: Halakhic Texts. DJD 35. Oxford: Clarendon, 1999.
-
Berge, Kåre. “Deuteronomy and the Beginning of the Mosaic Torah.” Pages 3–18 in The Challenge of the Mosaic Torah in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Edited by Antti Laato. SCA 7. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
-
Blum, Erhard. Studien zur Komposition des Pentateuch. BZAW 189. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990.
-
Bottéro, Jean. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
-
Cohen, Shaye J.D., Robert Goldenberg, and Hayim Lapin, eds. The Oxford Annotated Mishnah: A New Translation of the Mishnah with Introductions and Notes. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
-
Collins, John J. The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul. Taubman Lectures in Jewish Studies 7. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017.
-
Crawford, Sidnie White. Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008.
-
Crawford, Sidnie White. “Scribal Traditions in the Pentateuch and the History of the Early Second Temple Period.” Pages 167–84 in Congress Volume Helsinki 2010. Edited by Martti Nissinen. VTSup 148. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
-
Crüsemann, Frank. The Torah: Theology and Social History of Old Testament Law. Translated by Allen W. Mahnke. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996.
-
Cummins, S.A. “Torah, Jesus, and the Kingdom of God in the Gospel of Mark.” Pages 59–74 in Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity. Edited by Susan J. Wendel and David M. Miller. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
-
Davies, Philip R. “Halakhah at Qumran.” Pages 37–50 in A Tribute to Geza Vermes: Essays on Jewish and Christian Literature and History. Edited by Philip R. Davies and Richard T. White. JSOTSup 100. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990.
-
Dettwiler, Andreas. “The Source Q and the Torah.” Pages 32–64 in Torah in the New Testament: Papers Delivered at the Manchester-Lausanne Seminar of June 2008. Edited by Peter Oakes and Michael Tait. LNTS 401. London: T&T Clark, 2009.
-
Doering, Lutz. “Much Ado about Nothing? Jesus’ Sabbath Healings and their Halakhic Implications Revisited.” Pages 217–41 in Judaistik und Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft: Standorte – Grenzen – Beziehungen. Edited by Lutz Doering, Hans-Günther Waubke, and Florian Wilk. FRLANT 226. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2008.
-
Doering, Lutz. “Sabbath Laws in the New Testament Gospels.” Pages 207–53 in The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature. Edited by Reimund Bieringer, Florentino García Martínez, Didier Pollefeyt, and Peter J. Tomson. JAJSup 136. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
-
Doering, Lutz. Schabbat: Sabbathalacha und -praxis im antiken Judentum und Urchristentum. TSAJ 78. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999.
-
Edelman, Diana V., Philip R. Davies, Christophe Nihan, and Thomas Römer. Opening the Books of Moses. BM 1. Sheffield: Equinox, 2012.
-
Finkelstein, Jacob J. “The Goring Ox: Some Historical Perspectives on Deodands, Forfeitures, Wrongful Death and the Western Notion of Sovereignty.” Temple Law Quarterly 46 (1973): 169–290.
-
Fitzpatrick-McKinley, Anne. The Transformation of Torah from Scribal Advice to Law. JSOTSup 287. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
-
Frei, Peter. “Persian Imperial Authorization: A Summary.” Pages 5–40 in Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch. Edited by Peter Frei and Klaus Koch. SBLSymS 17. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2001.
-
Frei, Peter and Klaus Koch. Reichsidee und Reichsorganisation im Perserreich. OBO 55. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984.
-
Furstenberg, Yair. “Defilement Penetrating the Body: A New Understanding of Contamination in Mark 7.15.” NTS 54 (2008): 176–200
-
García Martínez, Florentino, and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. 2 Vols. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
-
Hayes, Christine E. “Legal Realism and Sectarian Self-Fashioning in Jewish Antiquity.” Pages 119–46 in Sects and Sectarianism in Jewish History. Edited by Sacha Stern. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
-
Hayes, Christine E. What’s Divine about Divine Law? Early Perspectives. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.
-
Heger, Paul. Cult as Catalyst for Division: Cult Disputes as the Motive for Schism in the Pre-70 Pluralistic Environment. STDJ 65. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
-
Hidary, Richard. Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
-
Himmelfarb, Martha. Between Temple and Torah: Essays on Priests, Scribes, and Visionaries in the Second Temple Period and Beyond. TSAJ 151. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.
-
Jassen, Alex P. Mediating the Divine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism. STDJ 68. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
-
Jassen, Alex P. Scripture and Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
-
Kazen, Thomas. Jesus and Purity Halakhah: Was Jesus Indifferent to Impurity? ConBNT 38. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2002. Corrected repr., Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2010.
-
Kazen, Thomas. Scripture, Interpretation, or Authority? Motives and Arguments in Jesus’ Halakic Conflicts. WUNT 320. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013.
-
Kazen, Thomas. “Theology of Law: New Testament.” Pages 384–400 in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Law, vol. 2. Edited by Brent A. Strawn. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
-
Kazen, Thomas. “The Role of Law in the Formation of the Pentateuch and the Canon.” Pages 257–74 in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law. Edited by Pamela Barmash. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
-
Kazen, Thomas. Impurity and Purification in Early Judaism and the Jesus Tradition. RBS 98. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021.
-
Kazen, Thomas. “Biblical Law and the New Testament.” Pages 261–82 in Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Bruce Wells. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.
-
Klawans, Jonathan. Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
-
van der Kooij, Arie. “The Septuagint and Scribal Culture.” Pages 33–39 in XIV Congress of the IOSCS, Helsinki, 2010. Edited by Melvin K.H. Peters. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2013.
-
Konradt, Matthias. Christology, Torah, and Ethics in the Gospel of Matthew. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2022.
-
Kraus, Fritz Rudolf. “Ein zentrales Problem des altmesopotamischen Rechtes: Was ist der Codex Hammu-rabi?” Genava 8 (1960): 283–96.
-
Lee, Kyong-Jin. The Authority and Authorization of Torah in the Persian Period. CBET 64. Leuven: Peeters, 2011.
-
LeFebvre, Michael. Collections, Codes, and Torah: The Re-characterization of Israel’s Written Law. LHB/OTS 451. New York: T&T Clark International, 2006.
-
Lieberman, Saul, ed. Tosefta According to the Codex Vienna, with Variants from Codex Erfurt, Genizah MSS. and Editio Princeps (Venice 1521). 4 vols. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1955.
-
Loader, William. “Jesus and the Law in John.” Pages 135–54 in Theology and Christology in the Fourth Gospel: Essays by Members of the SNTS Johannine Writings Seminar. Edited by Gilbert Van Belle, Jan G. van der Watt, and P.J. Maritz. BETL 184. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005.
-
Loader, William. Jesus’ Attitude towards the Law. WUNT 2.97. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997.
-
Malul, Meir. The Comparative Method in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Legal Studies. AOAT; Veröffentlichungen zur Kultur und Geschicte des Alten Orients und des Alten Testaments 227. Kevelaer: Butzon & Butzon; Neukirchen–Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1990.
-
Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. Vol. 4: Law and Love. AYBRL. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
-
Miller, David M. “Reading Law as Prophecy: Torah Ethics in Acts.” Pages 75–91 in Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity. Edited by Susan J. Wendel and David. M. Miller. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
-
Neusner, Jacob, transl. The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, With a New Introduction. 2 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.
-
Noam, Vered. “Traces of Sectarian Halakhah in the Rabbinic World.” Pages 67–85 in Rabbinic Perspectives: Rabbinic Literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 7–9 January, 2003. Edited by Steven D. Fraade, Aharon Shemesh, and Ruth A. Clements. STDJ 62. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
-
Pouchelle, Patrick. “From tôrâ to νόμος: How the Use of νόμος in the LXX Pentateuch Enlightens the Process That Leads the Word tôrâ to the Concept of Torah.” Pages 95–114 in Torah: Functions, Meanings, and Diverse Manifestations in Early Judaism and Christianity. Edited by William M. Schniedewind, Jason M. Zurawski, and Gabriele Boccaccini. EJL 56. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2022.
-
Reed, Annette Yoshiko. “Hellenistic Judaism beyond Judaism and Hellenism.” Pages 15–42 in Above, Below, Before, and After: Studies on Judaism and Christianity in Dialogue with Martha Himmelfarb. TSAJ 188. Edited by Raʿanan Boustan, David Frankfurter, and Annette Yoshiko Reed. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.
-
Roth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. 2nd ed. WAW 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997.
-
Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. “Nominalism and Realism in Qumranic and Rabbinic Law: A Reassessment.” DSD 6 (1999): 157–83.
-
Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. “Nominalism and Realism Again.” Dine Israel 30 (2015): 79–120.
-
Runia, David T. Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato. Leiden: Brill, 1986.
-
Schmid, Konrad. “The Persian Imperial Authorization as an Historical Problem and as a Biblical Construct: A Plea for Distinctions in the Current Debate.” Pages 23–38 in The Pentateuch as Torah: New Models for Understanding Its Promulgation and Acceptance. Edited by Gary N. Knoppers and Bernard M. Levinson. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2007.
-
Schmid, Konrad. The Old Testament: A Literary History. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012.
-
Schremer, Adiel. “‘[T]he[y] Did Not Read in the Sealed Book’: Qumran Halakhic Revolution and the Emergence of Torah Study in Second Temple Judaism.” Pages 105–26 in Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to Bar Kokhba in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 27–31 January, 1999. Edited by David Goodblatt, Avital Pinnick, and Daniel R. Schwartz. STDJ 37. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
-
Schwartz, Daniel. “Law and Truth: On Qumran-Sadducean and Rabbinic Views of Law.” Pages 229–40 in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research. Edited by Devorah Dimant and Uriel Rappaport. STDJ 10. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
-
Shemesh, Aharon. Halakhah in the Making: The Development of Jewish Law from Qumran to the Rabbis. TLJS 6. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
-
Shemesh, Aharon. “Shabbat, Circumcision and Circumcision on Shabbat in Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Pages 263–87 in Rewriting and Interpreting the Hebrew Bible: The Biblical Patriarchs in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by Devorah Dimant and Reinhard G. Kratz. BZAW 439. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013.
-
Shemesh, Aharon, and Cana Werman. “Halakhah at Qumran: Genre and Authority.” DSD 10 (2003): 104–29.
-
Sievers, Joseph and Amy-Jill Levine, eds. The Pharisees. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021.
-
Tuckett, Christopher M. “Q and the Historical Jesus.” Pages 213–41 in Der historische Jesus: Tendenzen und Perspektiven der gegenwärtigen Forschung. Edited by Jens Schröter and Ralph Brucker. BZNT 114. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2002.
-
Vroom, Jonathan. The Authority of Law in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism: Tracing the Origins of Legal Obligation from Ezra to Qumran. JSJSup 187. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
-
Watts, James W., ed. Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch. SBLSymS 17. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2001.
-
Wells, Bruce. “What is Biblical Law? A Look at Pentateuchal Rules and Near Eastern Practice.” CBQ 70 (2008): 223–43.
-
Westbrook, Raymond. “Biblical and Cuneiform Law Codes.” RB 92 (1985): 247–65.
-
Westbrook, Raymond. “Biblical Law.” Pages 1–17 in An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law. Edited by N.S. Hecht, B.S. Jackson, S.M. Passamaneck, Daniella Piatteli, and Alfredo Rabello. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
-
Westbrook, Raymond. “Codification and Canonization.” Pages 33–47 in La Codification des lois dans l’antiquité: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 27–29 Novembre 1997. Edited by E. Lévy. Travaux du Centre de Recherche sur le Proche-Orient et la Grèce antiques 16. Paris: De Boccard, 2000.
-
Westbrook, Raymond. “Cuneiform Law Codes and the Origins of Legislation.” ZA 79 (1989): 201–22.
-
Westbrook, Raymond. “The Nature and Origins of the Twelve Tables.” ZSS105 (1988): 74–121.
-
Westbrook, Raymond. Law from the Tigris to the Tiber: The Writings of Raymond Westbrook. Edited by Bruce Wells and F. Rachel Magdalene. 2 vols. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2009.
-
Westerholm, Stephen. Jesus and Scribal Authority. ConBNT 10. Lund: Gleerup, 1978.
-
Wishart, Ryder A. “Paul’s Use of Νόμος: Torah, Law, or Custom?” Pages 31–58 in Paul and Scripture. Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Christopher D. Land. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
-
Wright, Jacob L. Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah-Memoir and Its Earliest Readers. BZAW 348. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2004.
-
Zaas, Peter S. “What Comes Out of a Person Is What Makes a Person Impure: Jesus as Sadducee.” Pages 217–26 in Jewish Law Association Studies VIII: The Jerusalem 1994 Conference Volume. Edited by Edward A. Goldman. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.
-
Zahn, Molly M. Rethinking Rewritten Scripture: Composition and Exegesis in the 4QReworked Pentateuch Manuscripts. STDJ 95. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
-
Zuckermandel, Moses Samuel, ed. Tosephta: Based on the Erfurt and Vienna Codices: With Parallels and Variants. 2nd ed. Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrmann, 1937.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 80 | 80 | 44 |
| Full Text Views | 11 | 11 | 9 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 22 | 22 | 20 |
Search for other papers by Thomas Kazen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
In this essay I suggest that the attitudes to Jewish law and the conflicting interpretations reflected by the early Jesus tradition are best understood within a landscape of change, in which the character of torah as instruction, guidance, and description gradually morphed into a more prescriptive and judicial nomos. Although the tensions described in the sources usually concern Jesus and the Pharisees, a comparison with the legal interpretation in some of the texts from Qumran sheds light on the principled differences between the early Jesus movement’s understanding of the law’s character and function and that of its opponents. It is suggested that Jesus and his early followers saw no conflict between the Torah’s guidance and its pragmatic application, but objected to some interpretations associated with its transformation.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 80 | 80 | 44 |
| Full Text Views | 11 | 11 | 9 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 22 | 22 | 20 |