A list of corrections to The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions, a relevance-based commentar... more A list of corrections to The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions, a relevance-based commentary. Meant for readers and reviewers
The Pharisaic paradosis [legal materials of Pharisaic tradition called " Tradition (para... more The Pharisaic paradosis [legal materials of Pharisaic tradition called " Tradition (paradosis) of the Elders " ] is mentioned in Matthew 15:1-2 and Mark 7:3. 1 Mark's Gospel tells us Pharisees and all Jews obeyed this teaching while Matthew ascribes it just to the usages of Scribes and Pharisees. I wonder if Mark's source has an addition after " Pharisees " , (if " all Jews " is original then why bother mentioning Pharisees who are also Jews?) or perhaps he added it himself since he adds explanatory material here, or did another hand after Mark gloss it? While the matter of Mark's reading is curious my immediate focus here is to establish the use of paradosis as the equivalent of the Hebrew masoret.
This brief note is intended to show that 1000 years after the biblical use of Janus parallelism,1... more This brief note is intended to show that 1000 years after the biblical use of Janus parallelism,1 and more than 1300 years before moderns became aware of it, Hebrew liturgical poets deliberately used the device. I am not concerned here with anything else but establishing the use of clear Janus parallelism in the hymn recited on Sabbath morning, El Adon. This is not the place to speak of all the aspects involved in the scholarly textual analysis of the hymn or inquire if the author is in the line of continuous usage of Janus parallelism or imitates it. 2 Demonstrating Janus parallelism is the only issue.3 The alphabetic acrostic reads in lines
Errata Page 28.—last paragraph should read: A text from y. Šeqal. 6:3 reveals that " fulfill... more Errata Page 28.—last paragraph should read: A text from y. Šeqal. 6:3 reveals that " fulfill " (Hebrew: leqayyem) often refers to a hyperliteral reading of a scriptural rule or prophecy. The passages describes how King Solomon purified a thousand gold talents to make one single bar of pure gold from which to make the Menorah and its vessels. He did this in order to fulfill Exod 25:39, which, can be understood literally to mean that the Menorah and all its vessels in the Temple had to be made from a single ingot of the very purest gold: " It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold. "
Revue des études juives, 171 (1-2), janvier-juin pp. 173-180, 2012
My immediate focus here is to establish the use of paradosis (im Matt \nd ark) as the equivalent... more My immediate focus here is to establish the use of paradosis (im Matt \nd ark) as the equivalent of the Hebrew masoret. Then, on evidence independent of any connection to legal usage, we will discover that this Hebrew term (in general) can refer to anything relayed by word of mouth through a chain of narrators.
Rethinking D. Boyarin's response to my review of his English work in light of the appearance of h... more Rethinking D. Boyarin's response to my review of his English work in light of the appearance of his work in Hebew
While there is no shortage of books and articles showing the parallels between the New Testament ... more While there is no shortage of books and articles showing the parallels between the New Testament and rabbinic literature, all aiming to understand the former through the latter, there are markedly fewer publications to show how Jewish Studies benefit from study of the New Testament. The current offering attempts to show the rich gains that accrue by such an enterprise. I offer some samples to show how the New Testament can make us more aware of the precise usage of idioms in Jewish literature and of the likely antiquity of some Jewish practices where we only have relatively late Jewish evidence. The topics I present here are diverse and range from, to name a few, an oddity in the Ashkenazic rite of the Passover seder and the dating of a tradition in the late compilation of Midrash Psalms, to ancient Jewish funerary and circumcision customs.
Case of John 7:21-22. A widespread assumption of modern scholarship 1 relegates all uses of state... more Case of John 7:21-22. A widespread assumption of modern scholarship 1 relegates all uses of statements found in rabbinic literature when applied to the Gospels to the category of anachronism and the belittling claim of "parallelomania." I make the case here that a passage in the Gospel of John utilized a Greek (with vocabulary unknown to other New Testament passages) translation of a passage now only attested in Rabbinic literature.
This paper assumes the reader is familiar with the fundamentals of the literature of the rabbis i... more This paper assumes the reader is familiar with the fundamentals of the literature of the rabbis in the second to sixth centuries, especially as concerns the rabbinic methods of analyzing the text of the Torah. The traditions passed on at the beginning of the third century may have originated much earlier but were then edited by teachers and preachers in terse compositions to express well known ideas in novel ways.
Maimonides takes the antitheses at face value and argues Jesus was a dangerous renegade who had t... more Maimonides takes the antitheses at face value and argues Jesus was a dangerous renegade who had to be executed by the Jewish sages.In contrast, more recent Jewish scholars interpret Jesus to be portrayed as in line with rabbinic thought and its formulations. It is argued here Maimonides was familiar with the gospels and cites the golden rule subject to Jesus' own critique of the sages. He upholds what Jesus condemns.
A list of corrections to The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions, a relevance-based commentar... more A list of corrections to The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions, a relevance-based commentary. Meant for readers and reviewers
The Pharisaic paradosis [legal materials of Pharisaic tradition called " Tradition (para... more The Pharisaic paradosis [legal materials of Pharisaic tradition called " Tradition (paradosis) of the Elders " ] is mentioned in Matthew 15:1-2 and Mark 7:3. 1 Mark's Gospel tells us Pharisees and all Jews obeyed this teaching while Matthew ascribes it just to the usages of Scribes and Pharisees. I wonder if Mark's source has an addition after " Pharisees " , (if " all Jews " is original then why bother mentioning Pharisees who are also Jews?) or perhaps he added it himself since he adds explanatory material here, or did another hand after Mark gloss it? While the matter of Mark's reading is curious my immediate focus here is to establish the use of paradosis as the equivalent of the Hebrew masoret.
This brief note is intended to show that 1000 years after the biblical use of Janus parallelism,1... more This brief note is intended to show that 1000 years after the biblical use of Janus parallelism,1 and more than 1300 years before moderns became aware of it, Hebrew liturgical poets deliberately used the device. I am not concerned here with anything else but establishing the use of clear Janus parallelism in the hymn recited on Sabbath morning, El Adon. This is not the place to speak of all the aspects involved in the scholarly textual analysis of the hymn or inquire if the author is in the line of continuous usage of Janus parallelism or imitates it. 2 Demonstrating Janus parallelism is the only issue.3 The alphabetic acrostic reads in lines
Errata Page 28.—last paragraph should read: A text from y. Šeqal. 6:3 reveals that " fulfill... more Errata Page 28.—last paragraph should read: A text from y. Šeqal. 6:3 reveals that " fulfill " (Hebrew: leqayyem) often refers to a hyperliteral reading of a scriptural rule or prophecy. The passages describes how King Solomon purified a thousand gold talents to make one single bar of pure gold from which to make the Menorah and its vessels. He did this in order to fulfill Exod 25:39, which, can be understood literally to mean that the Menorah and all its vessels in the Temple had to be made from a single ingot of the very purest gold: " It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold. "
Revue des études juives, 171 (1-2), janvier-juin pp. 173-180, 2012
My immediate focus here is to establish the use of paradosis (im Matt \nd ark) as the equivalent... more My immediate focus here is to establish the use of paradosis (im Matt \nd ark) as the equivalent of the Hebrew masoret. Then, on evidence independent of any connection to legal usage, we will discover that this Hebrew term (in general) can refer to anything relayed by word of mouth through a chain of narrators.
Rethinking D. Boyarin's response to my review of his English work in light of the appearance of h... more Rethinking D. Boyarin's response to my review of his English work in light of the appearance of his work in Hebew
While there is no shortage of books and articles showing the parallels between the New Testament ... more While there is no shortage of books and articles showing the parallels between the New Testament and rabbinic literature, all aiming to understand the former through the latter, there are markedly fewer publications to show how Jewish Studies benefit from study of the New Testament. The current offering attempts to show the rich gains that accrue by such an enterprise. I offer some samples to show how the New Testament can make us more aware of the precise usage of idioms in Jewish literature and of the likely antiquity of some Jewish practices where we only have relatively late Jewish evidence. The topics I present here are diverse and range from, to name a few, an oddity in the Ashkenazic rite of the Passover seder and the dating of a tradition in the late compilation of Midrash Psalms, to ancient Jewish funerary and circumcision customs.
Case of John 7:21-22. A widespread assumption of modern scholarship 1 relegates all uses of state... more Case of John 7:21-22. A widespread assumption of modern scholarship 1 relegates all uses of statements found in rabbinic literature when applied to the Gospels to the category of anachronism and the belittling claim of "parallelomania." I make the case here that a passage in the Gospel of John utilized a Greek (with vocabulary unknown to other New Testament passages) translation of a passage now only attested in Rabbinic literature.
This paper assumes the reader is familiar with the fundamentals of the literature of the rabbis i... more This paper assumes the reader is familiar with the fundamentals of the literature of the rabbis in the second to sixth centuries, especially as concerns the rabbinic methods of analyzing the text of the Torah. The traditions passed on at the beginning of the third century may have originated much earlier but were then edited by teachers and preachers in terse compositions to express well known ideas in novel ways.
Maimonides takes the antitheses at face value and argues Jesus was a dangerous renegade who had t... more Maimonides takes the antitheses at face value and argues Jesus was a dangerous renegade who had to be executed by the Jewish sages.In contrast, more recent Jewish scholars interpret Jesus to be portrayed as in line with rabbinic thought and its formulations. It is argued here Maimonides was familiar with the gospels and cites the golden rule subject to Jesus' own critique of the sages. He upholds what Jesus condemns.
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