Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§9.1 The Historical Context
'Middle Judaism' 18 has the advantage of distinguishing the Greco-Roman period
from what went before (the 'ancient Judaism' of the sixth to fourth centuries
BCE). But it raises in turn the issues of when we should start speaking of 'Judaism'
proper, whether 'Judaism' is a concept or simply a label, and the justification
for and significance of marking off the pre-exilic period ('the religion of Israel')
so sharply from the still biblical 'Judaism' of the return from exile. 19
Probably the least objectionable and problematic term to use is 'Second Temple
Judaism': it does not purport to denote 'Judaism' as such but the 'Judaism' which
spanned the 600 or so years from the rebuilding of the Temple in the late sixth
century BCE to its destruction in 70 CE, a Judaism focused round the Jerusalem
Temple.
All this potential perplexity points up the need to proceed cautiously if we
are to avoid the danger of imposing categories and grids which might distort the
evidence more than display it. In view of the confusion of definitions which has
weakened earlier debate we should obviously begin with some clarification of
the term 'Judaism' itself (§9.2). We can then indicate something of the range of
beliefs and practices which that term, or more precisely, Palestinian Judaism or
Second Temple Judaism, may properly be used to categorise (§9.3). It will also
be necessary to highlight the factionalism which was such a mark of the Judaism
of the second half of the Second Temple period (§9.4), in the light of which it
will be still more pressing to clarify what it was that makes it possible to use the
same category, 'Judaism', for all the 'Judaisms'. What was the common ground
which they shared (§9.5)? Finally we need to ask what difference it might have
made that Jesus was brought up in Galilee (§§9.6-7) and remind ourselves of the
politics of the period and how they would have influenced conditions in the time
of Jesus (§9.8). All this should give us a clearer idea of what the description of
someone as a 'Jew', whether Jesus or any other Jew, would have signified in the
first century CE. 20 The immediate results are summed up in a brief outline of Jesus'
life and mission (§9.9).
18. G. Boccaccini, Middle Judaism: Jewish Thought, 300 BCE to 200 CE (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1991).
19. The Anchor Bible Dictionary completes its articles on the 'History of Israel' with the
Persian period and begins its treatment of 'Judaism' with the Greco-Roman period (ABD 3.526-
76, 3.1037-89).
20. Cf. D. J. Harrington, 'The Jewishness of Jesus: Facing Some Problems' (1987), in
Charlesworth, ed., Jesus' Jewishness 123-36: 'Our increased understanding of the diversity
within Palestinian Judaism in Jesus' time makes it difficult to know precisely what kind of Jew
Jesus was and against which background we should try to interpret him'; 'the more we know,
the less we know' (136, 128). Similarly T. Holmen, 'The Jewishness of Jesus in the "Third
Quest'", in Labahn and Schmidt, eds., Jesus, Mark and Q 143-62. Meier: 'the phrase Jesus the
Jew has become an academic cliche. The real challenge is to unpack that phrase and specify
what sort of first-century Jew Jesus was' ('Present State of the "Third Quest"' 467). Meier pre-
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