Rabbi Jacob Neusner, Jesus and Persecution

I am grateful for Rabbi Jacob Neusner's thought-provoking book on Jesus. Many passages express great understanding of Christianity and Christ. More importantly, throughout, Neusner expresses great respect for Christianity, and he deserves no less in return. Therefore it pains me to criticize Rabbi Neusner's work.

One shortcoming I see is that Neusner does not acknowledge the Christian belief that Jesus is the Word of God. Perhaps he assumes this knowledge on the part of his audience, but if that were brought out into the open, that would seem to clarify and dissolve a great deal that Neusner sees as creating a division between Jesus and Judaism.

It would also solve the riddle of why Jesus ends his beatitudes, which seem uncontroversial enough, with a warning of coming persecution. "Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:12) Rabbi Neusner muses in chapter 2 of A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, "I hear echoes of controversy, but see no cause for it." Well, why were the prophets persecuted? Because they spoke the Word of God. If we follow Christ, who is the Word of God, then we too will be persecuted.

Jews have been a hated people throughout history. Time and again they have been driven from their homes into Assyria, Babylonia, and finally throughout the world in the diaspora. Why? The answer lies in their identity as God's chosen people. Scripture tells us that they were punished for failing to observe their faith. On the other hand, they have also been persecuted precisely because they were faithful. When they are faithful, then they are blessed by God but incur the wrath of the world. When they are unfaithful, they are blessed by the world but incur the wrath of God.

This is why Jesus states, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) (This passage is the basis of chapter 3 of Rabbi Neusner's book.) To follow both the Torah and to follow Christ means that we are separate from and in opposition to the world. This is confirmed in John's Gospel when Jesus tells us "if the world hates you, realize that it hated me first." (John 15:18-21)

Just as Holy Israel is separate from the world, so must Christ's followers be separate from the world. Just as faithful Christians have been persecuted for their fidelity to Christ, so have faithful Jews been persecuted for their fidelity to their faith as defined in the Torah. This is not mere coincidence, but fruit of the fact that Jesus is the Torah -- the Word of God made man.