E. Ryden – 第 2 頁

To understand St Paul’s view of his ancestral religion we need to go back to the Babylonian exile and the ‘Second’ and ‘Third’ Scrolls of the Book of Isaiah (Is 40-66). This was a time for reflection. The Babylonians had destroyed the kingship, razed the temple and left
only the poor in the countryside. This defeat had been heightened when the last rump of the nation’s leaders had decamped to Egypt. Loss of the temple could have been equated with loss of ‘their’ God and led to the disappearance of the nation, its religion and culture.

Instead, the opposite happens. God is re-envisaged as the sole creator with power over all nations and over the whole of creation. While the Jewish people still see themselves as heirs of an eternal covenant, they begin to imagine that, one day, all nations will come
to believe in this one God. When that will happen remains unknown but that it will happen is assured:

I am coming to gather every nation and every language. They will come to witness my glory. I shall give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations, and from all the nations they will bring all your brothers as an offering to the Lord, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, the Lord says, like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to the Lord’s house. And some of them I shall make into priests and Levites, the Lord says. For as the new heavens and the new earth I am making will endure before me, declares the Lord, so will your race and your name endure. From New Moon to New Moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come and bow in my presence, the Lord says. (Is 66:18-23 New Jerusalem Bible).

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Jewish Sketches:
Judaism and Jewish-Catholic Relations
作者 Edmund Ryden 雷敦龢
出版者 Edmund Ryden 雷敦龢
地址 31141 新竹縣五峰鄉花園村六鄰花園 141 號
電話 03 585 1052
印刷者永望文化事業有限公司
台北市師大路 170 號三樓之三
02 2368 0350
頁數 1-416 頁
大小 15.0 cm x 23.0 cm x 2.0 cm
ISBN-13: 978-957-43-8155-5
初版初印中華民國 109 年 9 月
版權所有．翻印必究
Printed with Ecclesiastical Permission
V. Rev. P. Stephen Chow SJ, Provincial Superior,
Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus
16 September 2020

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The Gospels are the major source for our knowledge of Judaism at the time of Jesus. Modern literary criticism, however, is careful to look at the context in which any piece of literature is written and not only at its content. In the case of the Gospels the context follows the Jewish rebellion of 66 CE and the four-year war by the Romans, leading to the destruction of the temple. All of the Gospels are compiled in their final form after this date. In a study of the first three Gospels, called the synoptic Gospels, Robert Chazan notes that, in fact, the Gospels do present a fairly accurate picture of the complexities of the Jewish world in the time of Jesus.

Mark never uses the term ‘Jew’ except in the mouth of Roman officials or non-Jews. This Gospel highlights the contrast between the leadership and the masses in their reaction to Jesus. The leaders, persons of different groups, are invariably hostile; the general public
generally appreciative. It is only at the Crucifixion that the crowds become hostile. Chazan suggests that this was to ensure that blame for Jesus’ death was not laid on the Roman authorities whose support was to be sought in the days after 70 AD.5 Matthew gives both a more positive image of Judaism and the law than Mark and a more negative picture of the role of Jews in the Crucifixion. Luke, on the other hand, has the crowd of people present at the Crucifixion going home “beating their breasts” as a sign of repentance (Lk 23:48). In the following paragraphs, we will examine the presentation of the Jewish protagonists in the Gospels in more detail.

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作者: E. Ryden

Saint Paul’s New Understanding

The Gospels