Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §9.5
tion of Judaism in the land of Israel in the first century. The spectator perspective
can observe the diversity of Judaism quite well, including the distinctive features
of the different sub-groups, whether set against the broad sweep of common Judaism
or not. But as soon as we get inside one of these Judaisms the picture
changes, from a comfortable comprehensiveness, to a hostile jostling to remain
'in' by ensuring inter alia that others are defined as 'out'. The tension in part is
between 'Judaism' perceived phenomenologically and 'Israel' perceived from
within, but in part also between the insider's perception of an Israel of pure/purified
form in the here and now and an Israel of eschatological completeness. Such
tendency to sectarianism is probably inevitable, perhaps even desirable, wherever
claims to ultimate truth are constitutive of identity, for it constantly recalls
the larger body to its constitutive truth claim and underlines the inescapability of
the tension between ideal and actual practice. Failure to recognize the presence
of such tension in the case of first-century Judaism simply makes it harder to understand
the dynamic of the group interactions, including the impact of Jesus and
the emergence of his 'sect'. But where did Jesus stand within all this? — simply
as further indicating the diversity, or as in effect reinforcing the factionalism, or
as somehow representing the heart of Judaism, or as a false prophet, a rebellious
son, an embryonic apostate, or what? We have already indicated several shafts of
illumination which the tensions within the larger Judaism of the late Second
Temple period seem to shed on features of the Jesus tradition, but the questions
and issues are of course much greater. We will return to them in subsequent
chapters.
At the same time, we need to recall once again that all this argument over
who constitutes Israel, all this polemic, whether evangelistic or dismissive, was
going on between relatively small groups within first-century Judaism. All the
while 'common Judaism', the potentially restored comprehensive Israel, was still
functioning as such. All the while that which fundamentally constituted Israel as
Israel, Judaism as Judaism was still in effect. To this we therefore turn.
9.5. The Unity of First-Century Judaism
In some ways the most serious of the anachronisms with which modern research
into Jewish and Christian origins labours is the very use of the term 'Judaism' in
the plural (Judaisms). For nowhere in its early usage is 'Judaism' used in the plural;
it occurs only in the singular. 'Judaism' was evidently perceived, from 'outside'
as well, not as a multiplicity of forms but as a singular entity; there was a
something called 'Judaism'. We may describe this as 'common Judaism', of
which these other 'Judaisms' were particular expressions, remembering that
Sanders' 'common Judaism' is derived principally from Josephus' spectator per-
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