Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§5.5 The Flight from History
Wright. 129 Sanders gives only cursory attention to questions of method, so that
the main thrust of his work has been twofold. First, he sees the key to understanding
Jesus' intentions in Israel's own 'restoration eschatology'; Jesus himself
looked for the restoration of Israel. 130 Second, Jesus did not pit himself against
Judaism, against the law or the Pharisees; set within the matrix of Second Temple
Judaism, Jesus remains there throughout. 131 Wright likewise makes a double
thrust. 132 He takes off from Sanders' insight regarding 'restoration eschatology'
and develops it in more specific terms as Israel's hope for return from exile, a
theme which has become for him something of an idee fixe. 133 Moreover, as already
noted, he shares with Borg the conviction that Schweitzer got it wrong: Jesus
did not expect the end of the world; apocalyptic language is metaphorical; 134
129. See also Charlesworth, Jesus within Judaism; Charlesworth, ed., Jesus' Jewishness;
B. H. Young, Jesus the Jewish Theologian (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1995); Allison, Jesus
of Nazareth; Ehrman, Jesus; P. Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ (New Haven: Yale University,
1988) ch. 6; also Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews; A Jewish Life and the Emergence of
Christianity (New York: Knopf, 1999); S. McKnight, A New Vision for Israel: The Teachings of
Jesus in National Context (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999); J. Schlosser, Jesus de Nazareth
(Paris: Noesis, 1999); B. Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (New York: Doubleday,
2000). Fredriksen is heavily influenced (in both volumes) by Sanders, and McKnight by
Wright. Chilton's Rabbi Jesus, appealing in the raw Jewishness of its portrayal (Jesus as an illiterate
but dynamic peasant mystic afire with a passion for Israel's purity), is constructed too
fancifully from a few hints in biblical and non-biblical sources of at best doubtful relevance —
'more boldly original than historically persuasive' is the judgment of Keck, Who Is Jesus? 43.
Keek's review of 'The Jesus Quest and the Jewish Jesus' (23-47) is full of sharply insightful
comment.
130. Sanders, Jesus, Part One, 'The Restoration of Israel' (61-119); Sanders' treatment
was more focused and proved more effective (in impact) than Meyer's (Aims 133-37, 153-54,
161, 223-41). In McKnight's view, 'The most important development in recent studies of the
historical Jesus has been the recognition that Jesus had a mission to the nation of Israel' (opening
sentence of his New Vision viii).
131. Sanders, Jesus, particularly chs. 6, 9, and 10 (174-211, 245-93).
132. Characteristic of the third quest is Wright's insistence that the much-discussed 'criterion
of double dissimilarity' must be complemented by a 'criterion of double similarity: when
something can be seen to be credible . . . within first-century Judaism, and credible as the implied
starting point... of something in later Christianity, there is a strong possibility of our being
in touch with the genuine history of Jesus' (Jesus 132).
133. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God 268-72, 299-301; Jesus 126-31,
227, 230-34 (even the parable of the sower 'tells the story of Israel, particularly the return from
exile'), 255-56, 268-69 ('forgiveness of sins is another way of saying "return from exile'"), 340
and 364 (the expected destruction of Jerusalem indicates that 'the exile was coming to an end at
last'), 557 (the Last Supper 'pointed to the return from exile'). For critique see below, §12.6c(2).
134. Wright, New Testament 298-99, 306-307, 332-33; Jesus 56-57 (against Crossan),
75 (Borg), 81 (cited above, chapter 4 at n. 177), 95-97, 114, 513 ('"Apocalyptic" . .. uses "cosmic"
or "other-worldly" language to describe [what we think of as] "this-worldly" realities, and
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