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By Cindy Wooden
Jewish Ledger
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
VATICAN CITY (CNS)-After the Gospel writers and the apostle Paul, the
author most quoted in Pope Benedict XVI’s new book is Rabbi Jacob Neusner, a
U.S. professor of religion and
theology.
In his book, "Jesus of
Nazareth," released April 16 in Italian, German and Polish, Pope Benedict joined
the literary dialogue that Rabbi Neusner invented for himself in his 1993 book,
"A Rabbi Talks With Jesus."
The pope said
that Rabbi Neusner’s "profound respect for the Christian faith and his
faithfulness to Judaism led him to seek a dialogue with
Jesus."
Imagining himself amid the crowd
gathered on a Galilean hillside when Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount, Rabbi
Neusner "listens, confronts and speaks with Jesus himself," the pope
wrote.
"In the end, he decides not to
follow Jesus," the pope wrote. "He remains faithful to that which he calls the
‘eternal Israel.’"
Pope Benedict said Rabbi Neusner makes painfully clear the
differences between Christianity and Judaism, but "in a climate of great love:
The rabbi accepts the otherness of the message of Jesus and takes his leave with
a detachment that knows no hatred."
The pope praised Rabbi Neusner for taking the Gospel of
Jesus seriously and, in fact, more seriously than many modern Christian scholars
do.
Jesus is the Son of
God, the unique savior, and not simply a social reformer, a liberal rabbi or the
teacher of a new morality, the pope said.
Pope Benedict wrote that in trying to understand who Jesus
was and his relationship with his Jewish faith and with the Torah, the law given
to Moses, Rabbi Neusner’s book "was of great help."
Rabbi Neusner, a prolific author and professor at
Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.,
told Catholic News Service in Rome that he did not want to talk about the
pope’s book until he had seen it. The English edition has just been
released.
In the introduction to the
revised and expanded 2000 edition of his book, Rabbi Neusner wrote, "If I had
been in the land
of Israel in the first
century, I would not have joined the circle of Jesus’ disciples. … If I heard
what he said in the Sermon on the Mount, for good and substantive reasons I
would not have followed him.
"Where Jesus
diverges from the revelation by God to Moses at Mount
Sinai, he is wrong and Moses is right," Rabbi Neusner
wrote.
In Pope Benedict’s treatment of
the Sermon on the Mount, 18 of the 25 pages refer to Rabbi Neusner’s
book.
"More than any of the other
interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount with which I am familiar, this debate
between a believing Jew and Jesus, son of Abraham, conducted with respect and
frankness, opened my eyes to the greatness of the word of Jesus and to the
choice the Gospel places before us," the pope wrote.
Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, presenting the pope’s book at an April 13
Vatican conference, said reading Rabbi
Neusner’s book was "one of the reasons" Pope Benedict decided to write
his.
"What Pope Benedict says about the
book (by Rabbi Neusner) is so essential for understanding his own book about
Jesus," the cardinal said.
"More than
discussions about exegetical methods" used to understand what the Scriptures say
about Jesus, Cardinal Schonborn said, the pope has "at heart the discussion with
the rabbi."
"Rabbi Neusner is so
important for the book of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI" precisely because he
accepts what Jesus says about himself in the Gospels, the cardinal
said.
German Father Joseph Sievers,
director of the Cardinal Bea Center for Judaic Studies at the Pontifical
Gregorian University in Rome, where Rabbi Neusner has been a guest speaker, said
the rabbi "takes very seriously the extraordinary claims of Jesus: He is not
just a rabbi teaching the golden rule."
Both Rabbi Neusner and Pope Benedict, Father Sievers said,
"have a high Christology," emphasizing the divinity of Christ even if Rabbi
Neusner cannot accept Christ’s claim.
"(Rabbi) Neusner, even when he spoke here, did not try to
find easy solutions or to bridge gaps" between Christians and Jews, Father
Sievers said.
In his book, Rabbi Neusner
said he hoped to contribute to Christian-Jewish dialogue by taking Christian
teaching and Jewish teaching seriously.
"It is one model for a starting point for dialogue — to
recognize differences and not try to make them disappear or to hide them,"
Father Sievers said.
Father Sievers said
Pope Benedict’s new book is a further sign that he "is strong on Judaism, he
respects it and he knows the contemporary scholarship."
"Basically, he loves a good discussion and so does (Rabbi)
Neusner," he said.
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