Judeophobia & the New Testament

The Gospel of Matthew gives a version of Jesus with a positive and supportive attitude toward Orthodox Pharisaic Judaism, and apologists either ignore or mispresent what Jesus teaches about the Sages of the Judaism because of the way that it fails to conform to their own ideas about Jesus and the gospel.

Dr. Meredith Warren on the History Valley podcast

It was enlightening to hear Dr. Meredith’s Warren’s honesty about Pharisees and the depiction of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew on the History Valley podcast with Jacob Berman.

So often academics have what comes off as an "approved" narrative of first century Pharisees, and it effectively mandates that a person, who wants to be viewed in a certain positive light, must give lip service to. It's a view that forces an attitude of rejection, revulsion, and mandatory deconstruction when it comes to the perspectives preserved by the Sages of Judaism.

Dr. Meredith Warren is able to be honest about Pharisees without stifling her thesis or observations by catering to this increasingly mandatory view of Pharisees among other academics. Dr. Warren seems able to allow what the authors of Matthew say about Jesus to actually represent what their version of Jesus actually says when it comes to Judaism, the Oral Law, the Sages, and the Pharisees.

Dr. Meredith Warren has the audacity to be honest by allowing the Pharisees to define themselves (how dare she?) and to allow the author of Matthew to define his or their version of Jesus (who does she think that she is?). She is one of the few scholars to point out what Jesus says about the Sages is not a repudiation at all of their system of Oral Torah or their authority as Judges of Israel, as Tannaim, to make ruling that keeps the process of Torah revelation continuing in a limited and defined way.

“It also says that Jesus thinks that people should follow what the Pharisees actually say, right, so he agrees with their legal interpretation, he agrees with their interpretation of Torah, he think that people should follow what the Pharisees say you should do, he’s just criticizing their own behavior…”

Dr. Meredith Warren, History Valley Podcast

Most readers of the Bible, skeptical or believer, just “yadda yadda” their way through certain passages and the opening of Matthew 23 is one of them, but they “yadda yadda” through the best part to get to the parts that they can twist into something against Judaism or against being judged for one’s chosen actions.

By declaring, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ sit, therefore, do what they teach, but do not do what they do”, Jesus is supporting the authority of the Sages as heirs to Moses as Judges who have the ability to bind on earth and have in be “bound in heaven” in the World to Come when it comes to matters of Jewish Law.

The version of Jesus in Matthew is most certainly criticizing the Pharisees for not being stricter, and Dr. Meredith Warren is right about that. I’m not really sure how that gets lost on readers of the Gospel of Matthew, but perhaps it's that readers combine it with other passages so as to make it not contradict the rest of the New Testament. However, it does contradict the rest of the New Testament, minus maybe the forged Epistle of James, because Matthew’s author(s) have a specific version of Jesus that fits into and works within Orthodox Pharisaic Judaism.

The authors of Matthew did not intend for the teachings of the community of the disciples of Jesus to replace the rulings of the Oral Torah in what would become the Talmud through writing of the Mishnah and the Gemara. As a matter of fact, the teachings of Sages in the Talmud are not an affront to the teachings of Jesus according to the authors of the Gospel of Matthew but an irreplaceable part of putting Jesus’ teachings into action as a disciple.

To put it in modern Christological terms, the authors of Matthew did not only support “legalism” like the authors of Mark and Luke, but they did so in a way that included the so-called “legalism” of the whole corpus of Jewish Oral Law where the teachings of the Rabbis are integral to an individual's ability to be a disciple

“Legalism is a moving target,” Dr. Meredith Warren points out, which makes it a convenient thought terminating cliche for those who desperately seek to validate and assert Paul’s version of Jesus and his message. Yet again, Dr. Meredith Warren’s honestly about the subject matter is right on point:

“There’s a kind of a Protestant way of thinking about Christianity as sort of vibes, Christianity is vibes, if you have a good feeling about what you’re doing it’s probably what Jesus would’ve wanted you to do, right, it’ vibes, okay, if you’re focusing too much on what the text is saying or what the rules say then you’re focusing too much on the law and legalism and sort of the details, right, but the broad picture, the vibes, whatever I feel in my heart, you know, that not Pharisaic, that’s Jesus’ side.”

Dr. Meredith Warren, History Valley Podcast

But who needs “vibes” when you’ve got source texts? In the face of a basic literacy and familiarity with the most published and translated book in the history of the world, “vibes” are worthless, just worthless.

Who needs “vibes” when you’ve got honesty and integrity?

Full video of Dr. Meredith Warren's appearance of the History Valley podcast here:

Judeophobia and the New Testament: The Pharisees Examined | Dr. Meredith Warren