Mind The Gap: How the Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testament Help Us Understand Jesus - Matthias Henze - 2017 - Fortress Press - 248 pages

Rating: ★★★★ out of ★★★★★

The stated purpose of this book is given in the introduction:

"I did not recognize the Judaism of Jesus because all I knew was the Old Testament. But the religion of the Old Testament is not the Judaism of Jesus. While in the New Testament, Jesus studies and teaches in the synagogues, there are no synagogues in the Old Testament. While in the New Testament, Jesus’s disciples call him rabbi, there are no rabbis in the Old Testament. While in the New Testament, Jesus is often involved in conversations with the Pharisees, there are no Pharisees in the Old Testament. While in the New Testament, Jesus expels demons and unclean spirits, there are no demons in the Old Testament. The list goes on. These are not incidental matters in the life of Jesus. They all stem from the Jewish world to which Jesus belonged, a world about which I knew so little apart from what I had read in the New Testament." Henze sets out to make the reader aware of the "Jewish world to which Jesus belonged." 

I was excited to explore this world, but encountered statements such as the following with which I had to disagree: "There is a general consensus among biblical scholars, for example, that none of the four Gospel writers of the New Testament ever saw Jesus." (In the section on Vocabulary and Methodology) That is not a matter of consensus, and it certainly runs counter to research from Peter Williams and Richard Bauckham. 

On the whole, I found the book worth reading and would recommend it to those who would like to understand what was going on in Judaism in the period between the Old Testament and New Testament, to use Christian terms, which Henze also does after explaining their significance.

The lack of quotation or clear allusion by the Gospel writers to the inter-testamental writings, especially on the issues of Jesus as Messiah and the resurrection, was a problem for me. Re: the Messiah - Henze chooses Luke 4:14-22 for his point of comparison between the New Testament and the Messianic Apocalypse in their use of Isaiah and Daniel. But is this parallel development, similar to simultaneous but unconnected scientific discoveries, or reliance? This is made more acute in the case of Luke, the least "Jewish" of the gospel writers. To what degree did the Judaism of his day influence him.

Henze addresses the relationship between Jesus and the Law of Moses, where he correctly observes that Jesus is explicitly claims not to abolish but rather fulfill the Law. However, in surveying Paul's statements on the Law in Romans, he inexplicably entirely skips over Romans 7 and 8, which have a great deal to say about the value but also shortcomings of the Law.

This book assisted me in greater understanding of the development of Judaism from the time of the OT to the NT. It made me think about the cultural and thought world of Jesus and the earliest Church, for which I am grateful. We would do well to remember the diversity of that time, given the sharp disagreement on the supernatural world between Pharisees and Sadducees.  While the acts and words of Jesus take place within and use the language of this time, we must ask, from which "Judaism" they come, or are they something new and different.