Jesus the (Second Temple-era) Jew
“If we don’t understand the Judaism of Jesus’ time, how can we understand him and his message?”
A scholar of the texts of the Qumran community and early Judaism, Matthias Henze teaches at Rice University, where he is founding director of the program in Jewish studies. His books include Jewish Apocalypticism in Late First Century Israel and Mind the Gap: How the Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testament Help Us Understand Jesus.
You’ve focused on a period of biblical history that is sometimes referred to as “intertestamental,” since it covers the period after most of the Old Testament was written and before most of the New Testament was written. Scholars often use another term, “Second Temple Judaism,” to designate the Judaism that flourished in this period—after the rebuilding of the temple in 516 BCE until the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. How would you characterize Second Temple Judaism?
A number of things occurred during these roughly 600 years that changed Israel forever. It may not be an overstatement to say that Jesus and the early Jesus movement would have been inconceivable without the dramatic changes and transformations that took place in Second Temple Judaism.
