The Changing Character of the Torah: Jesus and the Scrolls

In this essay I suggest that the attitudes to Jewish law and the conflicting interpretations reflected by the early Jesus tradition are best understood within a landscape of change, in which the character of torah as instruction, guidance, and description gradually morphed into a more prescriptive a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kazen, Thomas 1960- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Journal of ancient Judaism
Year: 2025, Volume: 16, Issue: 1, Pages: 73-100
Further subjects:B Halakah
B Essentialism
B Jesus
B Qumran
B Formalism
B Torah
B Nomos
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Summary:In this essay I suggest that the attitudes to Jewish law and the conflicting interpretations reflected by the early Jesus tradition are best understood within a landscape of change, in which the character of torah as instruction, guidance, and description gradually morphed into a more prescriptive and judicial nomos. Although the tensions described in the sources usually concern Jesus and the Pharisees, a comparison with the legal interpretation in some of the texts from Qumran sheds light on the principled differences between the early Jesus movement’s understanding of the law’s character and function and that of its opponents. It is suggested that Jesus and his early followers saw no conflict between the Torah’s guidance and its pragmatic application, but objected to some interpretations associated with its transformation.
ISSN:2196-7954
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of ancient Judaism
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.30965/21967954-bja10065