Notes on the New Testament as a Witness for Broader Jewish Patterns in Jesus’ Times

If the argument for the Jewish matrix of the early Jesus-centered tradition is taken seriously, the New Testament sources should be expected not only to react to elements of that matrix, but also to reflect them. It is here that study of the Jewish setting of early Christianity for the sake of better understanding the latter morphs into the investigation of early Jesus movement sources as witnesses for broader Jewish tendencies. Scholars of Qumran developed salient methods and insights that allow us to learn from the Scrolls not only about the particular group that seems to have produced them, but also about its rivals as well as “wider Judaism.” It stands to reason that a similar effort can contribute to critical assessment of the “witness value” of the earliest Christian writings: We can suppose that much of the material found there mirrors more general patterns of broader Jewish thought and practice. This effort becomes even more meaningful when the New Testament provides the earliest attestation for those patterns.

I dedicated two book-length discussions to the New Testament’s corroborations of contemporaneous Jewish beliefs. The earlier book, Mapping the New Testament,^[66] dealt with tendencies in biblical exegesis, while the most recent volume, Early Jewish Messianism in the New Testament,^[67] focused on nascent Christian tradition’s reflections of broader messianic trends. The present essay will comment on a number of additional instances in which the New Testament attests to common Jewish customs, rituals, and accompanying beliefs. Some of the cases to be addressed are widely known and have received due attention in the research, whereas others have so far been overlooked and require further elaboration. I focus here upon traditions represented in Lukan and Matthean contributions to the Gospel narrative, thus clearly expressing the narrative strategies of the authors. What information about broader first-century C.E. Jewish mores can be gleaned from them?

This discussion, while far from exhaustive, can provide a road map for further investigation.

• ^[1] Cf. Ami-Jill Levine and Marc Z. Brettler (eds.), The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 103. ↩
• ^[2] For all practical reasons, it is highly unlikely that a not too well-to-do family could afford such regular pilgrimages, see S. Safrai, “Pilgrimage in the Time of Jesus,” Jerusalem Perspective 22 (1989): 3-4, 12. This highlights Luke’s Jewish piety focused agenda all the more. ↩
• ^[3] E.g., Gen. 17:10-4 (cf. Jub. 15:11-14, 26-27); Exod. 34:20, 23. ↩
• ^[4] E.g., in the Interpretation to the Prayers and Blessings penned by R. Yaakov ben Yaqar (990-1064). ↩
• ^[5] See S. Safrai, “Naming John the Baptist,” Jerusalem Perspective 20 (1989): 1-2. ↩
• ^[6] David Flusser, Jesus (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2001), 29. For a different opinion, see The Jewish Annotated New Testament, 103. ↩
• ^[7] E.g., Exodus 30, 31, 35, 37, 39-40. ↩
• ^[8] It is an open question to which extent such an expectation can be traced back to Isaiah’s vison of the LORD enthroned in the Temple (Isa. 6). ↩
• ^[9] Michael Schneider, The Appearance of the High Priest: Theophany, Apotheosis and Binitarian Theology—From Priestly Tradition of the Second Temple Period through Ancient Jewish Mysticism (Los Angeles: Cherub, 2012). ↩
• ^[10] See Lee I. Levine, “The Ancient Synagogue in First-Century Palestine,” in Markus Tiwald (ed.), Q in Context II: Social Setting and Archeological Background of the Saying Source (Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2015), 24. Levine also maps there the Land of Israel locations where first-century synagogues are attested. ↩
• ^[11] Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke (I-IX): Introduction, Translation, and Notes, The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981), 524. ↩
• ^[12] See discussion of Luke’s conflated narrative’s possible sources in Fitzmyer, Luke, 526-528. ↩
• ^[13] Fitzmyer (Luke, 532) believes that in Luke’s story Jesus did not read the section previously assigned for that Sabbath, but deliberately sought out the passage from Second Isaiah. ↩
• ^[14] Shmuel Safrai, “Synagogue and Sabbath,“ Jerusalem Perspective 23 (1989): 8-10. ↩
• ^[15] R. S. Notley and J. P. García (“Hebrew-Only Exegesis: A Philological Approach to Jesus’ Use of the Hebrew Bible,“ in R. Buth and R. S. Notley [eds.], The Language Environment of First Century Judaea [Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014], pp. 353-356) discern in Jesus’ interpretation here application of the gezerah shawah method, which indicates that the sermon was originally delivered in Hebrew. ↩
• ^[16] Joseph Heinemann, Public Sermons in the Talmudic Period (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1982), 10. ↩
• ^[17] M. Megillah 4.2: ביום טוב חמשה ביום הכיפורים ששה בשבת שבעה אין פוחתים מהן אבל מוסיפים עליהם ומפטירים בנביא (“On a holy day five readers, on the Day of Atonement six readers, on the Sabbath six readers. They do not subtract from them but they may add to them. And they conclude with the Prophets”). Among other witnesses, Safrai referred to m. Sotah 7:7-8; m. Yoma 7:1; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4:109, Philo, Every Good Man is Free 81-82. ↩
• ^[18] See Shmuel Safrai, “Synagogue,” in Shmuel Safrai, Menahem Stern and W. C. van Unnik (eds.), The Jewish People in the First Century, vol. 2 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1976), 929-930; David Bivin, “One Torah Reader, Not Seven!“ Jerusalem Perspective 52 (1997): 16-17. ↩
• ^[19] See Samuel Rocca, “The Purpose and Function of the Synagogue in Late Second Temple Period Judaea: Evidence from Josephus and Archaeological Investigation,” in Jack Pastor, Pnina Stern and Menahem Mor (eds.), Flavius Josephus: Interpretation and History (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 299. ↩
• ^[20] See Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer, “What Were They Doing in Second Temple Synagogues? Philo and the προσευχή,” in Lutz Doering and Andrew R. Krause (eds.), Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020), 216, 219-220, 230-231, who observes that for Philo the very emergence of the synagogue is intrinsically linked to the participation in the study of the Torah laws. She notes in this context Philo’s predilection to describe synagogues as “schools” (Spec. 2.62; Legat. 145). See also Daniel M. Gurtner and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (ed.), T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, vol. II (London et al.: T&T Clark, 2020), 766. ↩
• ^[21] The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, The Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1998), 509. ↩
• ^[22] Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar Zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, vol. 4/1 (München: C. H. Beck, 1928), 153-188. ↩
• ^[23] As Leonhardt-Balzer (“What Were They Doing in Second Temple Synagogues?” 231-232) notes there are no indications in Philo of pre-70 synagogue use of the Shema or the Eighteen Benedictions. ↩
• ^[24] H. Kee, “The Transformation of the Synagogue after 70 CE. Its Import for Early Christianity,” New Testament Studies 36 (1990): 18. ↩
• ^[25] On particular features of synagogues from the Hellenistic Diaspora, see discussion in Leonhardt-Balzer, “What Were They Doing in Second Temple Synagogues?” 215-237, esp. 230-231. For sermons as possibly part of Hellenistic synagogue Sabbath proceedings, see ibid., 221. According to Philo (Contempl. 25), the Therapeutae read from the Prophets and Psalms too. Also relevant may be the study (still unavailable to me) in the already referred volume on Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (237-252) by Helmut Löhr, “In Search of the Petichah: Some Thoughts on the Torah, the Prophets, and the Scriptures in the Synagogues and Beyond.” But see Levine, “Ancient Synagogue,” 32-33. ↩
• ^[26] Cf. Leonhardt-Balzer (“What Were They Doing in Second Temple Synagogues?” 226) who reaches the conclusion that “based on Philo’s account, it cannot be argued that the Palestinian synagogue and the Diaspora proseuchē were two different institutions.” ↩
• ^[27] Pace Fitzmyer (notes 23-24 above and discussion there), who postulates obligatory prayers already in the first century. ↩
• ^[28] See Shmaryahu Talmon, “The Emergence of Institutionalized Prayer in Israel in the Light of the Qumran Literature,” in Mathias Delcor (ed.), Qumran: sa piété, sa théologie et son milieu (Louvain: Peeters, 1978), 273-284; Bilha Nitzan, Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry (Leiden: Brill, 1994). ↩
• ^[29] See Leonhardt-Balzer, “What Were They Doing in Second Temple Synagogues?” 225-226. ↩
• ^[30] Leonhardt-Balzer, ibid., 220, 223-225, 227-229, who also makes a comparison with Josephus’—still not unequivocal—evidence in Antiquities 14:260-261. ↩
• ^[31] So even with Ezra Fleischer (“On the Beginnings of Obligatory Jewish Prayer,” Tarbiz 59 [1990]: 426-441), who argues for a relatively early fixation of basic Jewish liturgical texts. ↩
• ^[32] See discussion in Rocca, “The Purpose and Function of the Synagogue,” 295-300. For the mixed social and religious function of first-century synagogues, see also Levine, “The Ancient Synagogue,” 28; T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, vol. II, 766-767, where the possibility of prayers in synagogues is also addressed. Philo is distinguished by a terminological distinction between the Land of Israel (Essene) συναγωγή (Prob. 81) and the Diaspora προσευχή, see discussion in Leonhardt-Balzer, “What Were They Doing in Second Temple Synagogues?” 217. Cf. Martin Hengel, “Proseuche und Synagoge: Jüdische Gemeinde, Gotteshaus und Gottesdienst in der Diaspora und in Palästina,” in Gert Jeremias, Heinz-Wolfgang Kuhn, and Hartmut Stegemann (eds.), Tradition und Glaube: Das frühe Christentum und seine Umwelt. Festgabe für Karl Georg Kuhn (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1971), 177, who sees the observations on prayer as applying to the Land of Israel synagogues at large. ↩
• ^[33] With some of the formulations it uses to be eventually absorbed in the Kaddish and The Eighteen Benedictions (Shmoneh-Esreh). See Davies-Allison, Commentary on Matthew, 595-597; Gerald Friedlander, Jewish Sources of the Sermon on the Mount (London: Routledge & Sons, 1911), 137; Joachim Jeremias, The Prayers of Jesus (Norwich: Fletcher & Son, SCM Press, 1967), 76; Eduard Schweizer, The Good News according to Matthew (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975), 151; Anton Vögtle, “The Lord’s Prayer: A Prayer for Jews and Christians?” in Jacob J. Petuchowsky and Michael Brocke (eds.), The Lord’s Prayer and Jewish Liturgy (London: Burns & Oates, 1978), 95-97. David Flusser (“Jesus and Judaism: Jewish Perspectives,” in Harold W. Attridge and Gaohei Hata [eds.], Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism [Leiden: Brill, 1992], 85-86) argues that the three petitions of Matt. 6:9-10 depend on an older version of the Kaddish. Cf. Benedict T. Viviano, “Hillel and Jesus on Prayer,” in James H. Charlesworth and L. L. Johns (eds.), Hillel and Jesus: Comparative Studies of Two Major Religious Leaders (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), 449. ↩
• ^[34] This section relies on the discussion in Serge Ruzer and Mila Ginsburskaya, “Matt 6:1-18: Collation of Two Avenues to God’s Forgiveness,” in Hans-Jürgen Becker and Serge Ruzer (eds.), The Sermon on the Mount and Its Jewish Setting (Paris: Gabalda, 2005), 158-159, 170-171. ↩
• ^[35] E.g., m. Sheq. 5.6. See Hans D. Betz, The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Including the Sermon on the Plain (Matthew 5:3-7:27 and Luke 6:20-49) (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 338. ↩
• ^[36] For example, b. Bath. 9b. Cf. Kari Syreeni, “Separation and Identity: Aspects of the Symbolic World of Matt. 6:1-18,” New Testament Studies 40 (1991): 529-531, who sees in Matthew here a strategy of a closed community: with its observances differing from those of outsiders, it fears disclosure and chooses concealment. Cf. Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 360, who suggests that “the reason for the secrecy is to protect one’s eschatological reward.” Friedlander (Jewish Sources of the Sermon on the Mount, 109-110) viewed the emphasis on secrecy here as linked to the words of Isaiah and thus one more indication of Jesus teaching’s eschatological character. ↩
• ^[37] Y. Ber. 4.4 [8c]; 5.1 [8d-9a]; b. Ber. 7b-8a; cf. Isa. 26:20. ↩
• ^[38] Y. Ber. 5.1 [8d-9a]; b. Ber. 6b. ↩
• ^[39] M. Ber. 5:1; t. Ber. 3:18; Sifre Deut. on Deut 11:13. See also b. Taan. 8a; b. Ber. 30b; Midr. Ps. on Ps 108:1. ↩
• ^[40] On the instances of prayers at crossroads, see Augustin George, “La justice à faire dans la secret: Matthieu 6, 1-6 et 16-18,” Biblica 40 (1959): 593; Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7: A Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), 358-359. ↩
• ^[41] E.g., Matt. 14:23; 26:39, 42, 44 and pars; cf. 2 Kgs. 4:32-35; T. Jos. 3:3, T. Jacob 1:9, b. Taan. 23b. ↩
• ^[42] For example, in Luke 8:10-13, the prayer of the publican in the Temple is highly approved. See Viviano, “Hillel and Jesus on Prayer,” 434; W. F. Albright and C. S. Mann, Matthew: New Translation with Introduction and Notes, The Anchor Bible (New York and London: Doubleday, 1971), 75; Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 361, 373-374; William D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988), 584-586. Joseph Heinemann (“The Background of Jesus’ Prayer in the Jewish Liturgical Tradition,” in The Lord’s Prayer and Jewish Liturgy, 86-87) considers the Pater Noster as comprising the features of both public and private Jewish prayers. ↩
• ^[43] See discussion in Talmon, “The Emergence of Institutionalized Prayer,” 273-284. ↩
• ^[44] See Matt. 5:47. ↩
• ^[45] For example, Sir. 7:14; b. Ber. 61a (“A man’s words should always be few towards God”). For biblical precedents, see Eccl. 5:1-2; Isa. 1:15, 65:24. For Hellenistic sources, see Davies-Allison, Commentary on Matthew, 586-588; Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 366-367. ↩
• ^[46] Y. Ber. 4.1 [7b-7c]. Cf. b. Ber. 5b. Mekhilta Beshalah 1 argues that there is a time to prolong and a time to shorten prayer. For a further discussion, see Israel Abrahams, Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels, 2 vols. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1917/1924), 2:86-88, 102-103; Friedlander, Jewish Sources of the Sermon on the Mount, 113-118. ↩
• ^[47] Ruzer-Ginsburskaya, “Matt 6:1-18: Collation of Two Avenues,” 159-160. ↩
• ^[48] E.g., Sir. 34:25-35:3, 35:11-36:8; Tob. 12:8-10. Cf. Gos. Thom. 6, 14; 2 Clem. 16. See also Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 337-338; Samuel T. Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1987), 338; Davies-Allison, Commentary on Matthew, 575. See William D. Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 305-308. ↩
• ^[49] See Luke 11:1-4, cf. Didache 8:2. For the relation between the two versions and a variety of models aiming to explain their development and divergence (most scholars see Matthew as closer to the original in the wording and Luke in the general form), see Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 370-375; Luz, Matthew 1-7, 369-371; Joachim Jeremias, The Lord’s Prayer (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), 9-10. For further discussion, see references in Ruzer-Ginsburskaya, “Matthew 6:1-18: Collation of Two Avenues,” 153, n. 8. ↩
• ^[50] Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 350-351, 363, 369-370; Luz, Matthew 1-7, 352; Davies-Allison, Commentary on Matthew, 575, 590-592; Berger Gerhardsson, “The Matthean Version of the Lord’s Prayer (matt 6:9b-13): Some Observations,” in idem, The Shema in the New Testament (Lund: Novapress, 1996), p. 85. ↩
• ^[51] Davies-Allison, Commentary on Matthew, 572-573; Luz, Matthew 1-7, 354; Betz, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, 349-350. ↩
• ^[52] Later tannaitic sources attest to a distinction between the reward in this world and that meted out in the world to come, e.g., m. Avot 2:16; m. Peah 1:1. See also Joseph Bonsirven, Palestinian Judaism in the Time of Jesus Christ (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), 108-109; Ephraim E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1987), pp. 349-351, 417, 439-441. ↩
• ^[53] Cf. Donald A. Hagner (World Biblical Commentary: Matthew 1-13, Vol. 33A [Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1993], p. 145): “The fact that it interrupts the flow of the larger passage (vv. 1-18) suggests that the evangelist regarded its content as of great importance.” ↩
• ^[54] Betz, Commentary of the Sermon on the Mount, 400 and note 478, also 416; Luz, Matthew 1-7, 383 and note 94. Supplication for forgiveness of sins features prominently in later Jewish liturgical parallels, e.g., the Sixth Benediction of the Amidah, Avinu Malkenu, and Havinenu. ↩
• ^[55] Cf. Luke 11:5-12, where having outlined the prayer, the Gospel writer highlights instead the issue of the “daily bread.” ↩
• ^[56] 11QPs^a xxiv, 4-7. ↩
• ^[57] See Ruzer, Mapping the New Testament, 11-34. Cf. Jörg Frey (“The Character and Background of Mt 5:25-26: A Case Study for the Value of Qumran Literature in New Testament Interpretation,” in The Sermon on the Mount and Its Jewish Setting, 3-39), who, relying inter alia on Qumran parallels, argues that Matt. 5:25-26 should be viewed as originally a piece of sapiental instruction for everyday life rather than relating to the Last Judgment. ↩
• ^[58] Ruzer-Ginsburskaya, “Matt 6:1-18: Collation of Two Avenues,” 166-168. ↩
• ^[59] Ruzer-Gisburskaya, “Matt 6:1-18: Collation of Two Avenues,” 168-172. Criticism of the “improper” observations of the practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting is likewise attested elsewhere in the Synoptic Gospels, i.e., Luke 18:10-14, 20:47; Matt. 23:14, 25. ↩
• ^[60] See discussion in Flusser, Jesus, 84-85; idem, “A New Sensitivity in Judaism and the Christian Message,” in his Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988), 469-489. ↩
• ^[61] E.g., m. B. Qama 8:7; b. Yoma 22b-23a; b. Taʽanit 25b; Pesiqta Rab. 38 (cf. Matt. 18:15-18, 21). Cf. b. B. Qama 92a, where the reward for Abraham’s readiness to forgive Abimelech is Sarah’s conception; b. Meg. 28a, where the ability to forgive is recompensed with a “good old age.” In b. Berakhot 20a, Beruriah, the wife of R. Meir, offers the explanation to Ps. 104:35 (“Let sin[ner]s be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more!”) as a prayer for annihilation of sin, not sinners, and for the repentance of the latter. See Charles F. D. Moule, “...As we forgive...: A Note on the Distinction between Deserts and Capacity in the Understanding of Forgiveness,” in idem, Essays in New Testament Interpretation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 279-280; Friedlander, Jewish Sources of the Sermon on the Mount, 156-157; George F. Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of the Tannaim (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), 152f. ↩
• ^[62] Thus, for example, in b. Beza 32b: “He who is merciful towards all men (הבריות) thereby shows himself of the seed of Abraham.” ↩
• ^[63] Ben Sira 7:8-10: “Do not commit a sin twice; even for one you will not go unpunished. Do not say, ‘He will consider the multitude of my gifts, and when I make an offering to the Most High God he will accept it.’ Do not be fainthearted in your prayer, nor neglect to give alms.” ↩
• ^[64] For example, Matt. 3:1-2, 8 and parallels; Matt. 4:13, 9:13, 11:10-11, 12:41; Mark 2:17, 6:12; Luke 5:32, 10:13, 11:32, 13:3-5, 15:7-10, 16:30. Cf. Luke 17:3-4. The centrality of metanoia is especially emphasized by the author of Luke-Acts at crucial points of his double treatise (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:37-38, 3:19), see Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries, 518-519. ↩
• ^[65] B. Baba Bathra 9b: “The one who gives secretly is greater than our teacher Moses.” The rabbinic tradition interpreted צדקה from Prov. 10:2 (“Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness [צדקה] delivers from death”) as almsgiving. The fluctuation between the two meanings of צדקה and its Greek parallel δικαιοσύνη—righteousness and almsgiving—seems likewise to be present in the transition from Matt. 6:1 to Matt. 6:2. ↩
• ^[66] Serge Ruzer, Mapping the New Testament: Early Christian Writings as a Witness for Jewish Biblical Exegesis (Leiden: Brill, 2007). ↩
• ^[67] Serge Ruzer, Early Jewish Messianism in the New Testament: Reflections in the Dim Mirror (Leiden: Brill, 2020). ↩