A Rabbi Talks With Jesus

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A Rabbi Talks With Jesus

Posted Feb 4th 2008 8:38AM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Religion, Christianity, Controversy, Atheism

Pope Benedict has a favorite rabbi, none other than the distinguished Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner. At first glance this is a puzzle. Many years ago Neusner wrote a book called A Rabbi Talks With Jesus. In it, he noted, "I explain why, if I had been in the land of Israel in the first century, I would not have joined the circle of Jesus' disciples."

Neusner sent his book to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, asking him to write a blurb. Ratzinger agreed, and then even more remarkably, praised the book again when he became Pope Benedict. More than a dozen pages of Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth are devoted to discussing Neusner's argument. Benedict writes that Neusner's work "has opened my eyes to the greatness of Jesus' words and to the choice that the gospel places before us."

To understand what Benedict is getting at, recall atheist Richard Dawkins' famous claim that we are all atheists when it comes to other people's gods. For instance, I am an atheist when it comes to the gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans. By the same token Neusner is an atheist when it comes to the Christian notion of the divinity.

Even so, Neusner's treatment of Christ could not be more different than that of Dawkins. One of the main differences is that Dawkins is a biologist and Neusner is a scholar of ancient texts and history. Consequently Dawkins' historical and literary understanding is at the eighth grade level, while Neusner brings to his work a depth and sophistication worthy of a man regarded as perhaps the greatest living scholar of Judaism.

Neusner discusses Christ as a great and pure man whose teachings, especially at the Sermon on the Mount, embody unforgettable insight and wisdom. Taking up the oldest of Jewish prescriptions, they interpret and transform them in a powerful and surprising way. And yet Neusner notes that Christ violates the old law, as when he says that actions are permitted on the Sabbath that were regarded as forbidden on the Sabbath. This is the basis of Neusner's rejection of Christ as a fulfillment of the old covenant.

What gives Christ the right to change the old law? Neusner notes that Christ is not another liberal rabbi, seeking to bend the rules of the orthodox to make life easier for people. Rather, "Jesus' claim to authority is at issue." In effect, Christ claims to be "Lord of the Sabbath" and this provokes Neusner to ask, as if conversing with one of Christ's disciples, "Is your master God?"

Pope Benedict finds this a penetrating question. "The issue that is really at the heart of the debate," he writes, "is thus finally laid bare. Jesus understands himself as the Torah--as the word of God in person." In other words, Jesus claims to speak with a divine authority. If Jesus is God, then obviously he has the right to say what the old law really means. So ultimately Jesus confronts us with the choice of accepting or rejecting his claim to divinity.

In the January issue of First Things, a Jewish writer Meir Soloveichik takes Rabbi Neusner to task for his admiring words about Jesus. Soloveichik charges that Neusner, despite his denials, seems to accept the divinity of Christ. Why? Here Soloveichik borrows a famous argument from C.S. Lewis. Lewis argued that since Christ claimed to be God, either he was speaking the truth or he was an astounding liar. Lewis insisted that Christ does not give us the option of considering him a great and wise human teacher. Rather, Christ compels us to take him at his word that he is the son of God, or rather reject him as an impostor and a fraud.

Soloveichik goes with the latter option, as indeed he says all Jews must. "If we deny Christ's divinity," he writes, "then we can respond with nothing short of shock and dismay when we read the words of a man who puts himself in the place of God." Yet Soloveichik notes that this is not Neusner's reaction. Neusner treats Christ with deep respect; yet who can have respect for a liar? Neusner writes as a friend of Christ; yet who can befriend an impostor and fraud? Soloveichik concludes that "even as Neusner argues that Jesus is mistaken about his divinity and authority, it follows from much that Neusner has written that Jesus must be God."

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Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 41)

Previous 15 Comments | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

61. Your interpretation of gawd is corrupt and misleading, but that is because you are trying to fathom the unfathomable of gawd.

JefFlyingV at 3:21PM on Feb 4th 2008

62. God will boot your butt into hell. Time and again you preach from a misinformed and misanthropic cult interpretation of god and jesus.

JefFlyingV at 3:34PM on Feb 4th 2008

63. Man! I think someone needs to surgically implant a sense of humor into Obs. He is one sour dude.

Linda at 3:37PM on Feb 4th 2008

64. linda,

you making that comment is like the pot calling the kettle balck. you have hate in your heart a plenty. you don't want to recount the number of F bombs you have dropped. or was it in the name of love and tolerance?

brian at 3:41PM on Feb 4th 2008

65. jet,

as for your question of jesus' divinty that is exactly why they crucified him. but why even be part of this discussion when you don't believe a word of it? i read somewhere that most atheist are un-employed is this true. do all you regulars have a job? if so, what do you fellows do? you blog day and night,are you mis-understood even in the job market.

brian at 3:44PM on Feb 4th 2008

66. Observant, I have read many of your post, and you are a perfect example of an antiquated thinker. Anyone can parrot the words of the bible, but parroting the bible hardly makes it true. I believe people like yourself do damage by misleading people by stating you KNOW instead of believe. Of course you probably do not know the difference between believing and knowing. Jesus addressed your kind when he spoke of the tares (antiquated thinking). Think what you will, but I would hope you would quit misleading people with your antiquated thinking.

Jerry Brown at 3:44PM on Feb 4th 2008

67. This link is mainly for William Hays. You may have heard the story of the 15 year old boy who shot his parents and two brothers Friday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020400426.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Another devout Christian who totally lost it, obviously.

Linda at 3:47PM on Feb 4th 2008

68. Every time brian uses a hateful tone to call someone hateful I'm having a drink!

Mokele-Mobembe at 3:49PM on Feb 4th 2008

69. observant,

there is nothing to say to these atheist that is going to get into the darkness of their soul. the truth is that you and i know the truth and they do not. therefore they believe the lie. you and i also know that one day when they breathe their last the truth will be there for them meet, his name is jesus. as the bible says "every knee will bow" even the atheist will one day bow and the shout from heaven will be thunderous!! keep up the good work. don't let the mindless dead bother you. the atheist out-look is a mindless corpse parading as if alive. again, the LIE!!

brian at 3:49PM on Feb 4th 2008

70. If one is divine one gets crucified, interesting concept. That means every person crucified must have been divine.

JefFlyingV at 3:51PM on Feb 4th 2008

71. mo-

i have not used a hateful tone!! i just ask what you fellows did. i think that comment about an-employed atheist may have come from here. i was curious. not hateful at all.

brian at 3:51PM on Feb 4th 2008

72. brian,
I would say calling people liars is pretty hateful.

Jerry Brown at 3:55PM on Feb 4th 2008

73. Who cares what brian little b, little brain says? His posts sound like the way my retarded Aunt Thelma used to speak. Maybe he's channeling her.

Linda at 3:56PM on Feb 4th 2008

74. 65. Observant, I have read many of your post, and you are a perfect example of an antiquated thinker. Anyone can parrot the words of the bible, but parroting the bible hardly makes it true. I believe people like yourself do damage by misleading people by stating you KNOW instead of believe. Of course you probably do not know the difference between believing and knowing. Jesus addressed your kind when he spoke of the tares (antiquated thinking). Think what you will, but I would hope you would quit misleading people with your antiquated thinking.

Jerry Brown at 3:44PM on Feb 4th
------------------------------------
So the antiquated way is not good enough for you any more. Strange to me that you would say that when the Bible says God chsnges not.

I have read your comments also , and they are nothing more than the views of a libreal coward.

It is people like yourself who are nothing more than wolves in sheep clothing. YOU NEED JESUS.

Observant at 4:03PM on Feb 4th 2008

75. Linda, one could have an intelligent conversation with Aunt Thelma and she was pleasant.

JefFlyingV at 4:03PM on Feb 4th 2008

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.