Block 2 - Fredriksen, Pages 42-73

Fredriksen begins with a portrayal of what a visit to the temple might look like. I get the impression she is trying to represent her view of what Jesus' trip to the temple at age twelve might have looked like (cf. Luke 2:42). A bit of translation in case you did not catch the Hebrew right off: Ya'akov = Jacob, Yehoshua = Joshua or Jesus, Moshe = Moses, Yosef = Joseph, Natzerat = Nazareth, Pesach = Passover. I am sure Fredricksen did this to give her presentation more of a Jewish feeling to it. Also worth noting, "stoa" is the Greek word for porch, and I am not quite sure why she would use that here, unless she wants us to think that maybe the Jews of Jesus' time would have referred to a section of the temple by its Greek name. On page 48 the reference to the purification pools being dark is because any large storage place for water needed to be out of the sunlight, because sunlight would encourage the growth of algae and and other contaminants.

The reason that Fredriksen offers this picture of temple activity is that for the average Jewish person, the temple was still the center of the Jewish religion. The Gospels put more emphasis on Jesus in the synagogues, and when Jesus is in the temple, most of the discussion is about either Jesus teaching or debating with representatives of other Jewish viewpoints (Pharisees and Sadducees). In all likelihood, the average Jewish person thought that the big deal was going to the temple for one of the annual Jewish festivals which are listed in the law. The synagogue was a recent innovation (or so historical critical scholars believe) in the time of Jesus. After the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the synagogue became the focus of Jewish religious life (though the home always came first). But in the time of Jesus, the temple is where the all important sacrifices took place. The synagogue was merely a place of prayer and instruction. You got right with God at the temple, not the synagogue.

On page 52, Fredriksen makes a good point that is often overlooked in Life of Jesus studies, at the time Jesus lived, the Jerusalem temple with its animal sacrifices was the center of Jewish life, and this phenomenon of animal sacrifices was just as true for all the pagan religions. The only place this would not hold true would be for those people who had latched onto a Greek philosophy as their primary religious viewpoint. But even such people would still participate in the annual pagan festivals that honored the patron gods of their home city, and that would include eating meat that had been slaughtered at a pagan temple.

Fredriksen does a very nice job explaining the basic outlines of the rules of Jewish purity. On pages 68-70, she does a nice job explaining a set of rules that are based on a mindset (pure vs. defiled) that often does not make much sense to modern Americans. As much as I have read about the topic, it still seems a strange way of thinking to me. You would think that contact with a "Gentile" (pagan) would be defiling, but they are not. But I think the basic reason why they are not is that within a Jewish mindset, nobody outside their group really matters. It is as if they do not exist. But since they do not belong, they must be excluded from all places that are "members only" (that is, set aside for a sacred use). Thus the existence at the Jerusalem temple of the court of the Gentiles, but the warning of death to Gentile trespassers into the next area.

It is interesting that for the early Christians that they very quickly decided that participation in the temple sacrifices was no longer necessary after understanding Jesus' death as the final sacrifice for sins. However, the debates about the rules of purity continued for several decades. The first two chapters of Paul's letter to the Christians in Galatia are evidence of this debate, and the fact that by the time he writes Galatians, there are still numerous Christian missionaries advocating that converts to Christianity from paganism must adopt a Jewish lifestyle that includes following the rules of purity. After the destruction of Jerusalem ( 70 CE) the number of Christians advocating the necessity of living a Jewish lifestyle shrank in number and in the book of Acts this debate is played down because the matter is a done deal by the time Acts was written. No longer were there missionaries advocating that converts from paganism had to adopt the Jewish lifestyle.

On page 62, Fredriksen offers a nice summary of the main points of agreement among all Jews in the time of Jesus. In Fredriksen's discussion of Judaism, it is important to keep in mind that the only Bible at the time of Jesus that all Jewish people would agree upon is the Torah, referred to as the Law, which Christians know as the first give books of the Old Testament. Certainly the Pharisees considered the writings of the prophets (including Psalms) as worthy of being called sacred Scripture; this would also hold true for the Qumran Essenes, John the Baptist and Jesus, but many other Jewish people would not. Of course the Pharisees also had an additional set of rules, usually referred to at the oral law (which achieved its final oral form in 200 CE in a collection called the Mishnah and was written down sometime after that).

Overall chapter 2 on God and Israel is a good introduction to the mindset behind the Jewish way of life in the time of Jesus, and especially how this pertained to the actions of Jewish pilgrims in approaching the Jerusalem temple. However, it must be kept in mind, that Judaism is primarily a religion of the home. The daily prayers, the special prayers to begin the sabbath, and how the sabbath was celebrated primarily within the home (since no work was permitted). Even the passover was celebrated more often in homes without the lamb than in Jerusalem with the lamb. Also the responsibility of passing on the Jewish faith was the father's responsibility to teach his sons. Many modern scholars believe the practice of the town rabbi as the primary teacher of Hebrew and reading the Torah occurred long after the time of Jesus, maybe closer to 500 CE. But orthodox Jews would say this practice preceded the time of Jesus.