Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §9.7
'church' = building, may seem insubstantial, but it may also involve a significant
shift in orientation for some and is another reminder of the need for historians of
Jesus to jerk themselves consciously out of their contemporary perspective in order
to gain a more soundly based historical perspective.
b. Pharisees in Galilee?
The dispute on whether Pharisees were resident or active in Galilee during this
period also bears on the subject. It is true that the record of great Torah scholars
in Galilee is minimal. 234 But there is a tradition which links Johanan ben Zakkai
with the Galilean town of Arav (although Johanan is never referred to as a Pharisee).
235 And it is quite probable that some Pharisees at least accepted an obligation
to live in the Galilee (which they would certainly have regarded as part of the
land promised to Abraham) in order to make their central principles and halakhic
rulings available throughout the holy land. 236
This would certainly accord with the testimony of the Gospels, and though
it is clear enough that a good number of references to Pharisees have been inserted
into the recollections of Jesus' mission, 237 other evidence seems more substantial.
In particular, the tradition of Mark 12.38-39 that the scribes (Pharisees
in Matt. 23.6/Luke 11.43) had a reputation of expecting the best seats in the (village/local)
assemblies, must reflect a pre-70 situation. 238 And the q/Q complaints
semblies of a region or locality ('their assemblies') in the Synoptics (Mark 1.39; Matt. 4.23;
9.35; 10.17; 12.9; 13.54; Luke 4.15), probably implying that the followers of Jesus had their
own (separate) assemblies.
234. See my 'Pharisees, Sinners, and Jesus' 77-79.
235. Arav is not far from Sepphoris, and so also from Nazareth. Neusner dates
Johanan's sojourn there between 20 and 40 CE (J. Neusner, A Life of Rabban Yohanan ben
Zakkai [Leiden: Brill, 2 1970] 47-53). See Freyne, Galilee 315-16.
236. Cf. the conclusions of Goodman, 'Galilean Judaism' 606. The otherwise surprising
Matt. 23.15 suggests a history of some such sense of obligation on the part of some Pharisees to
ensure an appropriate level of law observance on the part of those who claimed Israelite ancestry.
Such an interpretation is certainly consistent with Josephus' account of Eleazar in Ant.
20.43-45 and with the 'Pharisaic tendency' (cf. Acts 15.5) within the earliest Judean churches,
as attested in Gal. 2.4, 12-13 and in subsequent opposition to Paul's Gentile mission.
237. Details in my 'The Question of Antisemitism in the New Testament Writings of the
Period', in J. D. G. Dunn, ed., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways AD 70 to 135
(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992) 177-211 (tabulated 205).
238. Freyne, Galilee 319-22. Horsley observes that the much fuller role attributed to the
Pharisees in the Gospels 'would have no credibility . . . unless they did, historically, on occasion
at least, appear outside of their focus of operations in Jerusalem' and refers particularly to
the tradition of Luke 11.43 and Mark 12.38-39 (Galilee 150).
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