Jesus the Jew: Survey on the Cliché in Its Context

Yıl 2023, Cilt: 64 Sayı: 64, 47 - 70, 30.06.2023

Omer Faruk Kalinturk

https://doi.org/10.15370/maruifd.1275227

Öz

This essay pursues the studies pertaining to the Quest for the Historical Jesus, which began in the Enlightenment era, and focuses on the dominant discourse of this quest in the present-day scholarly works on Jesus the Jew. The late-coming acceptance of the Jewishness of Jesus is now a scholarly cliché. In the context of the Gospels, to say “Jesus was a Jew” is not a really shocking or unexpected idea. The problem with the Jewishness of Jesus is why it took until the 1970s for this idea to develop. The second problem is how the assertion of the Jewishness of Jesus could develop so tremendously in the contemporary academy. That is a difficult question to answer within the borders of mere theology. Therefore, in this essay, I will have recourse to the help of politics and anthropology, and ultimately will claim that the changing of the main discourse in the New Testament scholarship on Jesus the Jew has happened for several reasons, but the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars and the Prague Spring of 1968 have played more important roles than others, such as multiculturalism, the Second Vatican Council, and neoliberalism. These two events might show us the motivation for the sudden but widely accepted alteration. With the rise of the Jesus the Jew emphasis in Historical Jesus Studies, the intensity of Holocaust studies has also increased. Whereas until the 1970s there was no significant concentration of work on the Holocaust, since the 1970s this trend has been reversed and has taken a dominant place in modern academia. The Holocaust narrative has also been valorised by the changing geopolitics of the world, which has also influenced Historical Jesus Studies. With the rise of Israel in the region as a result of the Arab-Israeli wars, which made Israel one of the countries that could serve the world system, the emphasis on the Holocaust and Jesus the Jew became a kind of propaganda in the academy. However, it is not these movements that have ensured the success of this wind change. The event that led to the thawing of the Cold War was the Prague Spring of 1968. The ideal of a Socialism outside the example of the Soviet Union, which was trying to be created in Czechoslovakia, was crushed by Soviet tanks. Since the Soviet Union itself destroyed this attempt to heal the corruption within itself, the Soviet reaction must be seen as the suicide of Socialism. It is for this reason that the second power of the Cold War period ideologically withdrew from the scene. The crushing of the Prague Spring led to a spring in a different field of modern academia: the Quest for the Historical Jesus and Holocaust Studies.

Anahtar Kelimeler

The Quest, the Nazis, Arian, Holocaust, Prague Spring, Communism, USA, Israel.

Yahudi İsa: Bağlamı İçerisinde Bir Klişe Üzerine İnceleme

Öz

Bu makale, Aydınlanma döneminde başlayan tarihsel İsa arayışına ilişkin çalışmaları takip etmekte ve bu arayışın günümüzde yapılan akademik çalışmalarda karşımıza çıkan "Yahudi İsa" söylemine odaklanmaktadır. İsa'nın Yahudiliğinin geç de olsa kabul edilmesi artık akademik bir klişedir. İnciller bağlamında, "İsa bir Yahudi'ydi" demek gerçekten şaşırtıcı ya da umulmadık bir fikir değildir. İsa'nın Yahudiliğiyle ilgili sorun, bu fikrin gelişmesinin neden 1970'lere kadar sarkmış olduğudur. İkinci sorun ise İsa'nın Yahudiliği iddiasının modern akademide nasıl bu kadar muazzam bir gelişme gösterebildiğidir. Bu, salt teolojinin sınırları içinde yanıtlanması zor bir sorudur. Bu nedenle, bu makalede siyaset ve antropolojinin yardımına başvuracak ve nihayetinde Yeni Ahit çalışmalarında Yahudi İsa'ya ilişkin ana söylemin değişmesinin çeşitli nedenlerle gerçekleştiğini, ancak 1967 ve 1973 Arap-İsrail Savaşları ile 1968 Prag Baharı'nın çokkültürlülük, İkinci Vatikan Konsili ve neoliberalizm gibi diğerlerinden daha önemli roller oynadığını iddia edeceğiz. Bu iki olay bize bu ani ama büyük ölçüde kabul gören değişimin motivasyonunu gösterebilir. Tarihsel İsa Araştırmalarında Yahudi İsa vurgusunun yükselişiyle birlikte Holokost çalışmalarının yoğunluğu da artmıştır. 1970'lere kadar Holokost üzerine kayda değer bir çalışma yoğunluğu yokken, 1970'lerden bu yana bu eğilim tersine dönmüş ve modern akademide başat bir yer edinmiştir. Holokost anlatısı, Tarihsel İsa Çalışmalarını da etkileyen dünyanın değişen jeopolitiği tarafından da değerlendirilmiştir. Arap-İsrail savaşları sonucunda bölgede yükselen İsrail'in dünya sistemine hizmet edebilecek ülkelerden biri haline gelmesiyle birlikte Holokost ve Yahudi İsa vurgusu akademide bir tür propagandaya dönüşmüştür. Ancak bu rüzgar değişiminin başarıya ulaşmasını sağlayan bu hareketler değildir. Soğuk Savaş'ın çözülmesine yol açan olay 1968 Prag Baharı'dır. Çekoslovakya'da yaratılmaya çalışılan Sovyetler Birliği örneği dışında bir Sosyalizm ideali Sovyet tankları tarafından ezilmiştir. Sovyetler Birliği kendi içindeki yozlaşmayı iyileştirmeye yönelik bu girişimi bizzat kendisi yok ettiğinden, Sovyetler'in bu tepkisi Sosyalizmin intiharı olarak görülmelidir. Bu nedenle Soğuk Savaş döneminin ikinci gücü ideolojik olarak sahneden çekilmiştir. Prag Baharı'nın ezilmesi, modern akademinin farklı alanlarında bir bahara yol açmıştır: Tarihsel İsa Arayışı ve Holokost Çalışmaları.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Tarihsel Isa Arayışı, Naziler, Ari, Holokost, Prag Baharı, Komünizm, ABD, İsrail.

Kaynakça

• Agamben, G. Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive, trans. Daniel Heller Roazen. New York: Zone Books, 1999.
• Al-Haj N. Abu. Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self- Fashioning in Israeli Society. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
• Arnal, W. The Symbolic Jesus: Historical Scholarship, Judaism and the Construction of Contemporary Identity. London & Oakville: Equinox, 2005.
• Aslan, R. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Random House, 2013.
• Birkner, G. “Barnard Alumnae Opposing Tenure for Anthropologist.” New York Sun. November 16, 2006.
• Bloomfield, J. “The "Prague Spring" Re-assessed.” In Marxism Today, May 1978: 154-160.
• Borg, Marcus J. Jesus In Contemporary Scholarship. Pennsylvania: Trinity Press, 1994.
• Bruce, Childon and C. A. Evans. Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994.
• Bultmann, Rudolf. Theology of the New Testament I, translated by Schubert M. Ogden. London: SCM Press, 1952.
• ----------. Primitive Christianity: In Its Contemporary Setting, translated by R. H. Fuller. New York: Living Age Books, 1956.
• ----------. Jesus and the Word, translated by Louise P. Smith and Erminie H. Lantero. London: Collins, 1958.
• ----------. History of the Synoptic Tradition, translated by John Marsh. New York: Harper, 1963.
• Chamberlain, H. S. The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century. trans. John Lees. London: John Lane, 1912.
• Chomsky, A. N. & Achcar, G. Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy. ed. S. R. Shalom. Boulder & London: Paradigm, 2007.
• ----------. “Israel, the Holocaust, and Anti-Semitism.” In Chronicles of Dissent: Interviews with David Barsamian. New York: Common Courage Press, 1992.
• ----------. Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians. London: Pluto, 1999.
• Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediternian Jewish Peasant. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.
• Crossley, J. G. Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New American Century. London: Equinox, 2008.
• ----------. “Jesus the Jew since 1967.” In W. Blanton, J. G. Crossley and H. Moxnes (eds.), Jesus beyond Nationalism: Constructing the Historical Jesus in a Period of Cultural Complexity: 119-138. London: Equinox, 2009.
• De Gobineau, A. Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races. trans. Adrian Collins. London: William Heinemann, 1915.
• Eckhart, D. Bolshevism: From Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me. trans. William L. Pierce. Hilsboro: National Vanguard Books, 1999.
• Finkelstein, N. The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. London & New York: Verso, 2003.
• Funk, R. & Hoower, R. (eds.). The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
• Garber, Z. and Bruce Zuckerman. "Why Do We Call the Holocaust "The Holocaust?" An Inquiry into the Psychology of Labels." Modern Judaism 9/2 (May 1989): 197-211.
• Gregory, D. The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
• Grundmann, W. "Jesus of Nazareth and Jewry." In Anson Rabinbach, Sander L. Gilman (ed. and trans.), The Third Reich Sourcebook: 194-195. Berkeley: University of California Press, (1940) 2013.
• ----------. "Who Is Jesus of Nazareth?" in Mary M. Solberg (ed. and trans.), A Church Undone: Documents from the German Christian Faith Movement, 1932-1940: 453-469. London and New York: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, (1940) 2015.
• Hatch, E. and Henry A. Redpath. Concordance to the Septuagint and the Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament (Including the Apocryphal Books), volume I. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897.
• Harnack, Adolf. What is Christianity?: Lectures Delivered in the University of Berlin during the Winter Term 1899-1900, translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders. London: William and Norgate, 1901.
• Head P. "Susannah Heschel’s The Aryan Jesus: A Response." JSNT 32/4 (2010): 421-430.
• Herman E. S. & Chomsky, N. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. London: Vintage, 1988.
• Heschel, S. The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
• ----------. “Nazifying Christian Theology Walter Grundmann and the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life.” In Church History 63 (1994): 587–605.
• ----------. “The theological Faculty at the University of Jena as a Stronghold of National Socialism.” In Mordechai Feingold, History of Universities: 143-169. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Horowitz, D. The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Press, 2006.
• Huntington, S. P. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72 (1993): 22–49.
• ----------. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
• Jastrow, Jr., Morris; McCurdy, J. Frederic; Kohler, Kaufmann, and Ginzberg, Louis. "Burnt Offering." In Isidore Singer (ed.), Jewish Encylopedia III: 439-442. New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1902.
• Kershaw, I. Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. London: Penguin, 1999.
• Kidd, C. The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Kundera, M. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. trans. M. H. Heim. New York: Harper&Row, 1984.
• Künneth, W. "Jesus: Aryan or Jew?." In Anson Rabinbach, Sander L. Gilman (ed. and trans.), The Third Reich Sourcebook: 433-435. Berkeley: University of California Press, (1936) 2013.
• Lemkin, R. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress. Clark, N.J: Lawbook Exchange, 1943.
• Lewis, B. “The Roots of Muslim Rage.” The Atlantic. September 1990: 47–60.
• Liddell H. G. and R. Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon, edited by H. S. Jones. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968.
• Lindsey, H. & C.C. Carlson. The Late Great Planet Earth. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970.
• Maeir, A. M. “Review of Nadia Abu al-Haj, Facts on the Ground.” Isis 95 (2004): 523–24.
• Marsh, C. “Quests of the Historical Jesus in New Historicist Perspective.” In Biblnt 5 (1997): 403-37.
• McNutt, James E. July “A Very Damning Truth: Walter Grundmann, Adolf Schlatter, and Susannah Heschel’s "The Aryan Jesus."” The Harvard Theological Review 105/3 (2012): 280-301.
• Morgan, R. "Susannah Heschel’s Aryan Grundmann." JSNT 32/4 (2010): 431-494.
• Moxnes, H. “Jesus the Jew: Dilemmas of Interpretation.” In I. Dunderberg, C. Tuckett and K. Syreeni (eds.), Fair Play: Diversity and Conflicts an Early Christianity: Essays in Honour of Heikki Raisanen: 83-103. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
• ----------. “Schleiermacher’s Life of Jesus, 19th Century Nationalism, and the Present Challenge.” In W. Blanton, J. G. Crossley and H. Moxnes (eds.), Jesus beyond Nationalism: Constructing the Historical Jesus in a Period of Cultural Complexity: 27-43. London: Equinox, 2009.
• Novick, P. The Holocaust and Collective Memory. London: Bloomsbury, 1999.
• Oren, Michael B. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Pearson, B. A. “The Gospel according to the Jesus Seminar.” In Occasional Papers of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity 35 (April 1996): 42-42.
• Poliakov, L. The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. London: Chatto & Windus Heinemann for Sussex University Press, 1974.
• Porter. H. “The Land of the Free – but Free Speech Is a Rare Commodity.” Observer (Sunday August 13, 2006).
• Ricardus Divisiensis. “De Rebus Gestis Ricardi Primi.” In Richard Howlett (ed.), Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, volume III: 383-454. London: Logman & Co., 1886.
• Richard of Devizes. "The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes, concerning the Deeds of King Richard the First, King of England." In John Allen Giles and Thomas Johnes (trans.), Chronicles of the Crusades: Contemporary Narratives of the Crusade of Richard Coeur de Lion and of the Crusade of Saint Louis: 1-64. London: George Bell and Sons, 1888.
• Robinson, John. Redating the New Testament. London: SCM Press, 1976.
• Rosenberg, A. "Bolshevism: The Work of an Alien Race." In Anson Rabinbach, Sander L. Gilman (ed. and trans.), The Third Reich Sourcebook: 199-200. Berkeley: University of California Press, (1945) 2013.
• Said, E. W. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. London: Vintage, 1981.
• Sanders, E. P. Jesus and Judaism. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.
• ----------. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Penguin Books, 1993.
• Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress From Reimarus to Wrede, translated by W. Montgomery. London: A.& C. Black Ltd, 1911.
• Strauss, D. F. The Life of Jesus: Critically Examined I-III, translated by George Eliot. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972.
• Streicher, J. "Bolshevism and Synagogue." In Anson Rabinbach, Sander L. Gilman (ed. and trans.), The Third Reich Sourcebook: 724-725. Berkeley: University of California Press, (1941) 2013.
• Talbert, C. H. (editor). Reimarius: Fragments. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971.
• Trevor-Roper, H. R. [Introduction]. Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, trans. N. Cameron and R. H. Stevens. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973.
• Valenta, J. Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.
• Vermes, G. Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels. London: Collins, 1973.
• ----------. The Religion of Jesus the Jew. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1993.
• ----------. Providential Accidents: An Autobiography. London: SCM Press, 1998.
• Williams, K. The Prague Spring and its Aftermath: Czechoslovak Politics, 1968–1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.