(urth) Latro

[Lee]

>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes: Not to be argumentative, but, no, Jesus' ministry was *not* an attack on
>Judaism; to the extent that it was an attack at all, it was an attack on
>the hypocrisy of the priestly class. But Jesus did not see himself as
>destroying Judaism ("...not one jot or tittle of the Law shall be taken
>away...") but fulfilling it.


I won't take it as argument but as a point of discussion. It wasn't the main point of my post, so

I didn't elaborate. But in fairness I didn't just say "Judaism", I  said:



>Jesus' ministry was an attack on the prevailing Judaic religion of his time.



By which I meant the practice of Judaism as administered by the priestly class of Judea. The 

Sanhedrin made it clear they weren't happy with Jesus' ministry and considered it a threat. Even 

today, there are certain Christians AND Jews who deny Jesus was jewish.



I think there were times when the words of Jesus imply he considered his goal to be bringing

back a lost purity to Judaism. Though the Old Testament consistently implies that the Hebrews were 

a constant disappointment to God. (small wonder that guilt is an important part of being jewish ;- ))



But other times Jesus seemed to acknowledge that he was bringing something new to the table 

(even if fulfilling ancient prophecy). For some reason Luke 12:51 and Matthew 10-34 come to mind, 

where Jesus notes that he has not come to bring peace but rather division and a sword- setting family 

members against each other, etc.



I take this as a, if not transparent, then translucent way of Jesus saying that he expected his ministry

to create divisions between the jews who were doing things the current way vs. those planning to follow

Jesus and how he expected things to be done differently in the future.



What changes were expected? No more "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" but rather "turn the other cheek" 

to use the oft-cited example.  There are quite a few homophobic statements, acceptance of polygamy, 

glorification of war, use of maiming and dismemberment as legal punshments, etc. in the Old Testament, 

but not in the New Testament.



So I have to wonder how many wives those Judean priests had......