Book Briefs: February 27, 1970

Jesus Through Jewish Eyes

Jesus, by David Flusser (Herder and Herder, 1969, 137 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Dwight Baker, missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission in Haifa, Israel.

The ideal tools for creative writing about Jesus of Nazareth include a familiarity with Jewish religious sources, a knowledge of the political, social and religious life and times of the first century, and a thorough understanding and appreciation of early Christianity. Add to this list fluency in reading and understanding ancient Hebrew as well as in speaking the modern version and you have the equipment that David Flusser, professor of religious history at the Hebrew University, brought to his latest work, Jesus. Without this rare combination of capabilities, such a book might never have been written.

Professor Flusser not only succeeds in his primary aim, “to present Jesus here and now to the reader,” but also navigates skillfully “between the Scylla of Judaism and the Charybdis of primitive Christianity” that so often results in a disconcertingly lean portrayal of the subject.

While accepting the Gospels as essentially historical, he probes beneath their Greek surface, searching for the underlying Hebrew meanings. He discovered a particularly rewarding vein in Luke’s gospel, which he vigorously mines. Following Dr. Robert Lindsey’s theory on Lukan priority (A Hebrew Translation of the Gospel of Mark, Dugith Publishers, Baptist House, Jerusalem) and rejecting the generally accepted Markan priority hypothesis, Flusser was able to uncover an almost certain early Hebrew source of gospel material, which Lindsey proves that Luke used. Lindsey discovered the existence of this early Hebrew source while working on a new Hebrew translation of the New Testament. Mark, he found, could not be translated into good Hebrew without distortions. Turning to Luke, he discovered that it translated easily into Hebrew, which indicated that the Greek text had been based on a Hebrew source. Mark, he found, contains numerous non-Hebraic words and phrases along with other problems of literary construction almost totally absent in Luke. Flusser wholeheartedly subscribes to Lindsey’s theory and accepts Luke as the most historically accurate Gospel.

Actually, Flusser has unlocked two ancient sources: the old Hebrew account behind Luke’s Gospel, identified by Lindsey, and the Sayings, which, unlike Paul’s vigorous kerygmatic statements, consist largely of Christian sayings. Each time he spots a Hebrew phrase or construction behind the Greek text of the Gospel, he uses that and not the literal Greek. Thus he is able to place Jesus more closely to his own time and to interpret his sayings meaningfully.

Professor Flusser’s book is one more strong argument that Jewish scholarship can bring fresh, authentic meaning to Christianity’s own book. As more theological dialogue between Jewish and Christian scholars takes place, our supply of such welcome fruits will increase.

One technique employed by Flusser that will make his book especially appealing to Christian readers may bring criticism from orthodox and conservative Jewish quarters. The author projects himself to a remarkable degree to a locus within Christianity, so that he appears to be writing through the eyes and understanding of an insider, not an outsider. Certainly this approach is not new in the field of comparative religion, but few have shown the ability to handle the holy objects of others with the gentle familiarity with which Professor Flusser touches his subject. He writes sympathetically of Jesus as a true son of Judaism and a respected member of the Family, and not as an unwelcome phenomenon to be fancifully explained away, as many non-Christian writers often attempt to do. In this respect, Flusser and Buber are in similar categories in their acceptance of the historical Jesus as an authentic Jew.

The chapter titles include: The Sources, Ancestry, The Baptism, The Law, Love. Morality, The Kingdom, The Son, The Son of Man. Jerusalem and Death.

In “The Baptism” Professor Flusser affirms some striking similarities between the Essene understanding and observance of baptism and that of John the Baptist and Jesus. He points out that the Essenes linked baptism with the forgiveness of sins as did the Baptist who, the author speculates, may at one time have been a member of their sect.

In his final chapter, “Death,” the author denies that the supreme court (Sanhedrin) sentenced Jesus to death. He did not even appear before it, says Flusser, but rather went before the Temple committee composed of the Temple elders and secretaries (scribes). In fact, he adds, Jesus was delivered up to be crucified without receiving a verdict from any earthly court, religious or civil. However, Flusser explains, that was not an uncommon practice under Pilate’s harsh rule. In this day of so many fanciful interpretations of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion—from Brandon, Eissler, and Schonfield, to mention a few—it is a great relief to have a simple presentation of the facts without the fancy.

In this same chapter, following his acceptance of the historical validity of the Gospels, the author affirms the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The crucifixion was no hoax. Earlier in the chapter he expresssly states that “there can be no doubt that the Crucified ‘appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time.… Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.’ Last of all, he appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.”

Jesus was first published early in 1969 in German. Later the same year the English translation appeared. Many will no doubt hope that 1970 will be the year of its publication in Hebrew. It is this reviewer’s opinion that widespread circulation of such an edition in this country would serve as an effective bridge to understanding between Jews and Christians by helping to dissolve erroneous concepts, hostile interpretations, and distorted fabrications concerning Jesus that are yet popular in Jewish belief. It might well be that the bridge to mutual appreciation and acceptance could be a paper bridge.

Summa Of ‘New Catholicism’

Sacramentum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Theology, Volumes I–III, edited by Karl Rahner, with Cornelius Ernst and Kevin Smyth (Herder and Herder, 1968–69, 421, 427, and 433 pp., $17.50 each), is reviewed by Leslie R. Keylock, assistant professor of religious studies, St. Norbert College, West De Pere, Wisconsin.

Every Protestant who has wanted to know what the “new Catholicism” has to say about a given theological topic will find his interests more than adequately met by this encyclopedia, at least if the first three volumes are at all indicative of the three to come. It is truly a summa of contemporary Catholic theology. Published simultaneously in English, Dutch, French, German. Italian, and Spanish, it reflects throughout the moderate, “progressive” influence and towering intellectual capacity of Karl Rahner, widely regarded as the greatest living theologian. There is the occasional conservative (i.e., “scholastic”) contribution, particularly by French Catholics; the more radical positions of many younger Catholic theologians, however, are reflected in few if any articles.

Broadly speaking the contents may be divided into four main groupings. Of special interest to readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY will be such specifically Protestant articles as Baptists (3 columns), Calvinism (10), dialectical theology (7), liberalism and liberal theology (10), and Lutheran churches (8). The spirit throughout is the irenicism of the Second Vatican Council, a truly happy replacement for the polemicism of the past. The article on Baptists, for example, though marked by several errors and omissions, is more accurate than the chapter on Baptists in Hardon’s pre-Vatican II study of Protestantism. Johannes Witte, the foremost Catholic authority on Calvin, turns Wesley into a Calvinist, but his article reflects a real grasp of the teachings of Calvin. And the positive contributions of liberal theology as well as its weaknesses are mentioned.

Articles that would be found only in a Catholic encyclopedia of theology include birth control (8 columns), celibacy (10), ecclesiastical law (49), indulgences (14), infallibility (11), and limbo (3). By and large they are concerned to avoid the extremes that Protestants often assume to be normative of Catholicism. The article on birth control, for example, written before the 1968 encyclical, notes that a growing number of moral theologians would not oppose a more widespread use of contraceptives. The focus of the article on infallibility is on the ecumenical aspects of the doctrine and on the whole church rather than solely the pope as the locus of infallibility.

The biblical articles, including Bible (57 columns), biblical chronology (5), biblical exegesis (31), biblical geography (5), biblical historiography (9), demythologization (10), form criticism (14), hermeneutics (8), and kerygma (6), reflect by both their length and content the effect of the biblical revival in Catholicism. The tone of almost all the biblical articles is moderately critical, and the bibliographies are heavily Protestant. The biblical section of the article on Jesus Christ is by Anton Vogtle, to my knowledge the first major Catholic Neutestamentler of a post-Bultmannian outlook.

As might be expected, of course, the majority of the articles are in what we would call systematics. They include discussions of such topics as baptism (21), church (48), dogma (32), ecumenism (42), eucharist (40), faith (32), God (40), grace (36), inspiration (11), Jesus Christ (71), justification (6), law (45), magisterium (16), and mariology (28), to mention only the more important items. It is surprising and perhaps even significant that law and ecclesiastical law receive almost one hundred columns but no entry occurs under “Gospel.” Though the content of these articles is distinguished by a thorough historical orientation, the tone is less irenic and the technical style of many of the articles will no doubt alienate all but the most seasoned theologian. Readers who have been disturbed by the role Mary plays in Catholic thought will be pleased to note that the article on Jesus Christ is almost three times as long, a ratio that compares quite favorably with that of several Protestant encyclopedias. And when a Protestant finds a Catholic making a case for justification by faith and for the justified man as simul iustus et peccator, he must conclude that Catholic theologians are truly making a genuine effort to correct what has seemed a seriously distorted emphasis in Catholic theology.

Pleasant surprises in this encyclopedia include treatments of such diverse subjects as Marxism (19), industrialism (5), and international law (5).

No Protestant college or seminary library should be without Sacramentum Mundi. The title admittedly seems somewhat anachronistic and ironic in the light of Vatican II’s changes. And some of the articles are so technical that their usefulness is limited. But these reservations do not negate the fact that this is already the best encyclopedia of contemporary Catholic theology available.

‘Old Myth’ Vs. ‘New Myth’

An Antique Drum: The World as Image, by Thomas Howard (Lippincott, 1969, 157 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Joan K. Ostling, Teaneck, New Jersey.

As an evangelical talent worth keeping one’s eye on, Thomas Howard has come of age in his second book, An Antique Drum. His first, Christ the Tiger, written with style and verve, was his up-from-fundamentalism odyssey: it excited some and nettled others. His second, an apologetic for the “antique” concept of world as image of the eternal, is written with stylistic urbanity, sure control, and maturity of thought.

His argument contrasts the “old myth” in which meaning lies behind the data of experience and the paradoxical freedom in restraint, with the “new myth” of positivism, autonomy, and the ironically intolerable prison of what it calls freedom.

The old myth, writes Howard, gave meaning to being with the ideas of hierarchy and correspondences, of image or metaphor (not allegory). The new myth stresses impersonal, abstract reductionism “as a chance concatenation of physical events.” Yet man, probably unawares, still organizes his experience as though the old myth were true, or at least useful. In this merely fanciful, or it is an index of the way things are?

Howard turns to imagination, ritual, aesthetics and sex to enlarge on how man organizes his experience by a sense of appropriateness, an argument from ceremony used by G. K. Chesterton, among others. Howard uses it well. His writing manifests a sharp gift for homely analogies and metaphors and a certain graceful exuberance reminiscent of C. S. Lewis.

Borzois, he points out, are noble dogs; if we were to see one rummaging for garbage, it would offend our sense of fittingness. To express our everyday experiences (such as eating) and our deepest ones (such as death), we turn to ritual. In all societies sex operates within a framework of sacred and profane. Until recently there has always been a correspondence between form and content. Now, with their divorce, art is forced into a concern with form in which it can turn only into itself for content—hence its mystical ring.

The autonomy toward which man has been working these past several centuries ends in irony. Man’s declaration of autonomy has resulted not in free, masterful men but in a race “described by its poets and dramatists only as bored, vexed, frantic, embittered, and sniffling.”

With the disavowal of the eternal the rhythms at the center of life have no meaning; in the frenzy to fill the vacuum comes ennui and anomie. “It is an ironic perdition, in that, in the name of the immediate, we have lost our grip on the immediate.” In turning aside the gods our fathers thought stood behind things “we suddenly found out that we may have become masters of something no more than a clinker.” So man chooses to live by the old myth or the new, seeing the humdrum as “pointless jumble of phenomena, or as the diagram of glory,” grinding toward entropy or joining the Great Dance.

Howard claims general indebtedness to such bookshelf familiars as Lewis, T. S. Eliot, Charles Williams. This reviewer is reminded especially of Lewis’s introduction to D. E. Harding’s The Hierarchy of Heaven and Hell, the essay “Bluspels and Flalansferes,” the last chapter of The Discarded Image. But the reminders are no debit under Howard’s achievement: Antique Drum is his own and an important book.

Modern-Day Prophets?

Twentieth Century Prophecy, by James Bjornstad (Bethany, 1969, 151 pp., $2.95), and Jeane Dixon, My Life and Prophecies, told to Rene Noorbergen (Morrow, 1969, 219 pp., $5.95), are reviewed by John E. Dahlin, professor emeritus of history and political science, Northwestern College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and editor of the “Discerner.”

Twentieth Century Prophecy is an attempt to present in an objective manner two of the leading exponents of psychical and mystical phenomena, Jeane Dixon and Edgar Cayce. James Bjornstad’s research and documentation give evidence of an honest and scholarly approach to this difficult task.

Bjornstad presents first those predictions of Jeane Dixon that have been fulfilled, and then in another chapter he lists many of her false prophecies. In his summary he points out that Mrs. Dixon falls short of the biblical standard for a prophet or prophetess.

The section on Edgar Cayce is an excellent presentation of the “sleeping prophet” whose writings are becoming increasingly popular today. Cayce’s clairvoyant discourses or readings, given while he was in a self-induced sleep, cover many areas of life with a special emphasis on health.

Bjornstad writes as a Christian and warns the reader not to tamper with any of the cultic teachings that have stemmed from Cayce’s readings. He points out that this strange mystic was a heretic when measured by scriptural doctrine. He believed in reincarnation, and he failed to recognize the cross of Christ as fundamental in God’s plan of redemption.

In My Life and Prophecies, Jeane Dixon tells her own story and reveals what she thinks about such matters as astrology, the prediction of future events, psychic phenomena, and reincarnation. Rene Noorbergen, to whom she told it, has served as a news analyst and correspondent for various newspapers and magazines and is well qualified to put the story in written form. But it seems he was carried away by some of Mrs. Dixon’s successful predictions, for in his prologue he omits any comments on her failures and miscalculations. Her predictions stretch out to the end of the century, and Noorbergen regards them as history pre-written.

Under twelve headings Jeane Dixon discusses her activities and achievements during the more than two decades she has lived in Washington, D. C. Without any hesitation she recounts the psychic visions that prompted her to predict coming events and what would happen to certain prominent personalities. But she too omits any reference to the unfulfilled predictions she has made through the years.

Jeane Dixon has sought to use what she feels is her gift for the good of mankind, and financial gain seems of little importance to her. She is dedicated to the organization she founded, “Children to Children,” and it points to her humanitarian motivation. But as long as she is absorbed in psychic phenomena, astrology, and occultism, she must be considered an unsafe guide.

Book Briefs

Praise the Lord for Tax Exemption, by Martin A. Larson and C. Stanley Lowell (McKay, 1969, 343 pp., $6.95). Facts and figures about the tax-exempt real-estate holdings and business enterprises of American religious institutions.

With the Spirit’s Sword, by Charles A. M. Hall (John Knox, 1970, 227 pp., paperback, $3.95). A study of the prominent place of spiritual warfare in the theology of John Calvin.

Prophet of the Black Nation, by Hiley H. Ward (Pilgrim, 1969, 222 pp., $5.95). An in-depth portrait of Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., the central figure in the efforts of the National Committee of Black Churchmen to advance a black theology.

Jesus, Why?, by Richard R. Caemmerer (Concordia, 1969, 93 pp., paperback, $1.95). The professor of homiletics at Concordia Seminary offers nine sermons for Lent and Easter.

Religion and the Soviet State: A Dilemma of Power, edited by Max Hayward and William C. Fletcher (Praeger, 1969, 200 pp., $6.50). This study of the state of religion in the Soviet Union sees the development of a surprising religious vitality in recent years.

Practical Studies in Revelation, Volume II, by Theodore H. Epp (Back to the Bible, 1969, 453 pp., paperback, $2.50). Covers chapters four through twenty-two.

Critical Quests of Jesus, by Charles C. Anderson (Eerdmans, 1969, 208 pp., $5.95). Traces the main movements in the study of the life of Jesus.

Day by Day with Andrew Murray, compiled by M. J. Shepperson (Bethany Fellowship, 1969, 119 pp., paperback, $1.25). Reprint of a valuable devotional work. Other reprints by the same publisher: Holy in Christ, by Andrew Murray, and The Cross Through the Scriptures, by F. J. Huegel.

The Gutter and the Ghetto, by Don Wilkerson with Herm Weiskopf (Word, 1969, 179 pp., $4.95). The brother of Dave Wilkerson continues the story begun in The Cross and the Switchblade.

The Psalms: Their Origin and Meaning, Volumes I and II, by Leopold Sabourin, S. J. (Alba House, 1969, 626 pp., $17.50). A Jesuit scholar offers a valuable study of the Psalms that will prove useful to Protestants as well as Catholics.

I Hate to Bother You, But …, by William E. Hulme (Concordia, 1970, 232 pp., paperback, $2.50). Reprint of a collection of actual counseling dialogues dealing with some of the most difficult personal problems faced by teen-agers.

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