Misreading the Gospels: Understanding Jesus Within Rabbinic Judaism

For nearly two thousand years, the world has viewed Jewish tradition, especially the Rabbis of the Apostolic era, through a distorted lens. This distortion is derived from various disputes in the New Testament, but the picture is not complete. There is an epilogue that many have missed.

It's time to recover the full story.

New Beginning

To begin, it is important to recognize that the events of the New Testament occurred within, quite possibly, the most volatile and divisive moment in Jewish history¹.

Sectarianism reigned with opposing schools of Pharisees, Sadducean corruption, and violent zealots, to name a few, these and other groups found conflict with one another. Meanwhile, the Roman occupation strained every other aspect of life.

But what’s often missed is that these divisions did not define Judaism going forward. In fact, many of the issues Jesus critiqued in his opponents were called out by other Rabbis, too, and ultimately corrected in the next generation.

Vilifying the Rabbis

In the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple (~70CE), the surviving sages reorganized the people around unity and mercy, leaving factionalism and harsh strictness behind.

Many of the “villains” in the Gospels simply did not survive the destruction of the Jewish Roman War.

Most of the survivors banded together and began building a new path forward. Though the Talmud records a few times some reverted back to their former patterns, they would find themselves chastised, and even excommunicated, as in the case of Rabbi Eliezer.

In a sort of Rabbinic retroactive, the remnant of the Jewish leadership essentially discussed² the causal factors of the calamity, determining that it was, among other things; internal strife, baseless hatred, and lack of compassion for one another.

These are similar claims Jesus had for some leaders in his day.

The Problem: Modern Misconceptions

Terms like Pharisees, Rabbinic literature, or even the Rabbis, often trigger negative feelings. This is commonly the case for Western readers, who tend to approach the New Testament with little to no knowledge of first-century Judaism, nor the Judaism that emerged afterwards.

The result is a flattened and inaccurate view where Jesus appears as anti-Torah, and Rabbinic Judaism is cast as hypocritical, harsh, and oppositional to the Gospel message.

That’s a bad combination when these views are overlaid onto modern Judaism as if they are the same.

Of course, this has contributed to theological errors, replacement theology, antisemitism, and worse.

This misconception overlooks a crucial truth that Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles were engaged in the deeply nuanced legal and spiritual debates of their time. They understood the framework, built upon it, and operated within it. Not around it.

We'll look at a few examples of this below, but let's understand what led to this contentious era in the first place.

The Historical Context: Sectarianism and Survival

After the Babylonian Exile, Jewish life changed dramatically. With most Jews living outside Israel and successive empires ruling the land, Torah observance faced everyday challenges.

By the time of Jesus's arrival, Jewish society was fragmented. Nearly two dozen Jewish groups existed in Israel alone. Their arguments weren’t just for sport, these reflected the everyday struggles Jews sought to survive while staying faithful to G_D, and fend off the ever-pervasive Hellenistic influences.

Matters of purity and impurity often dominated many disputes. To help, the Pharisees³ often waded into the mire of these discussions. Their goal: to help the everyday people understand, for example, the permissibility of using foreign currency with idolatrous images, how and when to tithe produce, and more - and the observance of other Biblical commandments.

Missing the Point

Most readers are unaware of the context because the Gospel writers did not include it. They assumed the context was evident, because in their time, it was.

The original audience were Jews and likely familiar with the nature and content of these halachic discussions.

Building on these, the Apostolic authors pointed to deeper theological insights atop a foundation of Jewish law. In my opinion, no where is this missed more than the various healings on Shabbat.

Unpacked in an article all its own⁴, a crash course in Jewish law reveals the Pharisees indeed allowed many types of healings already. With this, a deeper message emerges through the Gospel's inclusion of this debate, one not seen otherwise.

Judaism's Reboot

Fast forward to the years after 70CE, in the wake of Israel's near annihilation at the hands of the Romans⁵, the surviving Rabbis were able to establish a new place of learning in Yavne, located near modern day Tel Aviv. Here, long discussions, led to the eventual re-establishment of the School of Hillel over the school of Shammai.

The Talmud asked why the school of Hillel was given prominence in this new era, the answer:

... they were agreeable and forbearing, showing restraint when affronted, and when they taught Jewish law they would teach both their own statements and the statements of Beit (the school of) Shammai. Moreover, when they formulated their teachings and cited a dispute, they prioritized the statements of Beit Shammai to their own statements, in deference to Beit Shammai.

In essence, the school of Hillel embodied the ethics necessary to prevent sectarianism from taking root again. In general, they were kinder, compassionate and balanced.

From this shift, we begin to see striking parallels between the emerging Judaism and the teachings of Jesus.

A Few Parallel Teachings

Below are just a drop in the bucket of Rabbinic teachings that can be found to parallel the words of Jesus.

Conclusion: A Call for Restoration

If you are interested in hearing this idea unpacked further, you can watch the two-part series on this teaching, link below.

We will come to find that understanding Rabbinic thought doesn't diminish Jesus's message. It shows him as engaging in the halachic and ethical concerns of his time, even adding spiritual insight to illuminate them further.

It’s time to right historical wrongs. By returning to the lost context of the New Testament, we rediscover not only missing nuance behind the teachings of Jesus, but we correct the misunderstood tradition that shaped him.

The Jewish sages were not his enemies, but his peers. To this day, their words echo his—and his, theirs.

Watch the Full Series

Notes:

¹ The Missing Context of the New Testament - pt. 1

² Eruvin 13b, Gittin 56a

³ Pharisees

⁴ Unraveling the Controversy of Healing on Shabbat in the Gospels

⁵ From Ruin to Resilience - Jewish Revival Post-Temple Destruction