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2 The Place of Jewish Scripture in Jesus’ Teaching Craig A. Evans The focus of Jesus’ teaching was not on himself but on the rule of God (i.e., the “kingdom of God”) and on the redemption of Israel, a redemption with profound implications for all of humanity. This proclamation was based on the earlier proclamation of God’s rule that we see in the prophet Isaiah, especially in chapters 40, 52, and 61. Accordingly, we must assess the place of Jewish Scripture in Jesus’ teaching if we are to answer the question, What did Jesus really teach? I begin where most of our participants will probably begin: with Jesus’ proclamation of the rule of God and the scriptural roots of this proclamation. I shall then inquire into how Jesus understood and applied the Jewish Scriptures. Did he understand and apply the Scriptures pretty much the way his contemporaries did? Was his understanding and application so similar to that of the church that followed him that we really cannot distinguish his use of the Scriptures from the church’s use? Finally, I shall inquire into the larger and more controversial question of Jesus’ relationship with the Judaism of his day, including the major tenets of Jewish faith and practice. Jesus’ Proclamation of the Rule of God The fundamental element of Jesus’ teaching was his proclamation of the reign (or kingdom) of God (Mark 1:14-15), by which he meant the powerful presence of God.1 This proclamation reflected the vocabulary and imagery of the scroll of Isaiah, especially as it was emerging in the Aramaic-speaking synagogue. Passages such as Isa. 40:9 (“herald of good news . . . say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’” [RSV]) and 52:7 (“who brings good news . . . 79 who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”), which in the Aramaic are paraphrased, “The kingdom of your God is revealed,” provide the scriptural backdrop to Jesus’ proclamation, while Isa. 61:1-2 (“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news”) identifies proclamation of the good news of God’s reign as the specific task of the Lord’s anointed one (or messiah). These prophetic passages provided the matrix out of which Jesus formulated the essence of his proclamation. Appealing to these very passages, Jesus reassures an imprisoned and discouraged John the Baptist that he is indeed the “one who is to come,” for “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt. 11:5 = Luke 7:22). The messianic and eschatological significance of the collocation of these words and phrases from Isaiah has been clarified by one of the scrolls from Qumran (viz., 4Q521), which appeals to these prophecies in the context of the appearance of God’s messiah, “whom heaven and earth will obey.” Like other Jewish teachers of his day, Jesus is called “rabbi” or teacher (Mark 4:38; 5:35; 9:17; 10:17; 12:14, 19). He teaches as opportunities afford themselves, seated in the presence of his disciples and crowds, whether in the outdoors or in someone’s home (Matt. 5:1; Mark 9:35; 12:41; Luke 5:3). Other times, he teaches in more formal settings, such as in the synagogue (Mark 1:21; 6:2; Luke 4:20). Although not a professional scholar, Jesus appealed to and interpreted Scripture in an ad hoc, experiential fashion, often reflecting the wording and interpretation of the Aramaic paraphrase (e.g., Isa. 6:9-10 in Mark 4:12; Hos. 6:2 in Mark 8:31; Zech. 14:20-21 in Mark 11:16; Jer. 7:11 in Mark 11:17; Isa. 5:1-7 in Mark 12:1-9; Ps. 118:22 in Mark 12:10-11).2 As Jesus understood it, the arrival of the reign of God entailed an escalation in the war between God and Satan. We are told that Satan has fallen from heaven (Luke 10:18), that his allies are now being trodden upon by Jesus’ followers (Luke 10:19-20), and that Satan himself has been bound by the 1. For helpful studies that provide good coverage of the Old Testament backdrop to Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom, see George R. Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986); M. Reiser, Jesus...

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