Early Christianity originated as a Jewish movement but slowly broke away from Judaism in the first centuries. Scientists are looking at the how and why of this separation. They investigate the use of parables within both movements. Both rabbis and Jesus used these parables to explain complex lessons to their students. What are the similarities and differences?
Anyone who has any knowledge of the Bible knows the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Samaritans were a Jewish-related community from northern Israel. They did not recognize the Temple in Jerusalem, but they did recognize the first five books of the Old Testament:Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Samaritans also shared some commandments with the Jews, but nevertheless they were not friends with each other in ancient times.
In this parable, Jesus discusses the interpretation of the concept of neighbor in the Old Testament with a Jewish lawyer. After Jesus tells people that people must love their neighbors in order to have eternal life, the lawyer asks who his neighbor is. In Jesus' example, a Jewish traveler is ambushed and left for dead by the roadside. Both a priest walking by and a Levite (also someone who works in the temple) leave the wounded man lying down. The next passer-by is a Samaritan. He does have compassion and takes care of the man.
Theologian Albertina Oegema (Utrecht University):“Hearers of this story expected an Israelite to feel sorry for the wounded. The order of priest-Levite-Israelite is in fact common in Judeo-legal pronouncements in rabbinic literature. The audience therefore does not see this turn of the story coming and this shock effect is important. With this, Jesus shows that charity transcends ethnic and religious boundaries.”
New currents
Oegema is one of the scientists who researches parables within the research project Parables and the Partings of the Ways. With a whole team they collect, translate and analyze all parables in early Christian and rabbinic texts. “The early rabbinic movement arose after the Jewish Revolt (66-70) against Roman rule, which resulted in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The movement thus arose at about the same time as Christianity, but from the third century onwards it became the dominant movement within the older Jewish religion.”
From that century on, rabbis also produce a lot of literature. Their books mainly contain legal literature with discussions, for example about cleanliness, when certain prayers should be used or what the rules were around a feast.
Some of the early rabbinic texts discuss the first five books of the Old Testament. This textual explanation is called exegetical literature (midrash). However, the books themselves are much older than early rabbinic literature. They were written down in the sixth century BC and the oral tradition goes back even further. The rabbis in the new movement tried to solve problems through discussions and parables and to interpret them in the smallest details. Their textual explanation is not part of the Old Testament and is therefore not in the Christian Bible.
Find the clue
The scholars liken the early rabbinic parables to parables of Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus used parables to convince his disciples of a certain course of action, such as with the Good Samaritan, or to explain aspects of the Kingdom of God. His parables therefore do not have the exegetical context like most parables in early rabbinic literature. The parable of the Good Samaritan is an interesting exception to this, according to Oegema.
“Jesus tells this parable in a discussion of the interpretation of Bible texts from the Old Testament. Usually it is the rabbis where the parables serve the textual explanation, while those of Jesus are in rhetorical context. His parables contain an ethical message, explain the state of affairs in the Kingdom of God or concern the relationship between groups of Jews. With Jesus, disciples often have to figure out the point of the parable themselves, because he does not always explicitly mention the application.”
Parables appear in early rabbinic texts and in the New Testament they appear in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. They just do not appear in later Christian sources. The key question for the researchers is why both Jesus and the rabbis told similar parables when early Christianity no longer does. Oegema:“We think this has to do with what we call the partings of the ways or the growing apart of early Christianity and Judaism. There are several reasons for this.”
Murderers
In the period before the Jewish revolt (66-70) there were several movements within Judaism. Early Christianity was one of them. After the uprising there was already a bit of a separation. Christians may have identified less with this uprising and the influx of non-Jewish Christians shifted the center of gravity of the Christian movement outside Israel.
“Over the centuries, one movement within Christianity became dominant, the predecessor of today's Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. In developing its identity, this movement reacted against other early Christian groups and against Judaism. As a result of this deposition, Christians began to write negatively and stereotypically about Judaism. For example, Jews were seen as the murderers of Jesus. It was not until the fourth century that the division between Judaism and Christianity was more or less final. Under the Roman emperor Constantine (280-337) the Christian movement was first a permitted religion and at the end of the fourth century it even became the state religion.”
Jesus started?
A thesis of the parable project is that parables were mainly a custom in Galilee. From this region of northern Israel sprang both the Jesus movement and the rabbinical movement. Hence, parables appear only in the early Gospels. About forty parables can be found in Mark, Matthew and Luke. These books were probably written between the 1960s and 1990s. Oegema:“Later Christians were increasingly non-Jewish and came from areas of the Roman Empire other than Judea and Galilee. They may have had a different way of speaking that did not use parables such as those found in the New Testament and early rabbinic literature.”
More than a thousand parables can be found in the rabbinical texts, but the texts are also written over a longer period of time. Although these texts were not put into writing until the third century, the discussions in them are older. These discussions were handed down orally and later written down. So it is not that Jesus started using parables. This view arose in the nineteenth century and has persisted into the twentieth century. Oegema:“Researchers have returned to this because there are also some parable-like texts in the much older Old Testament and in Jewish texts from before the revolt against the Romans. We now think that the use of parables was more of a Jewish way of speaking.”
Excavations
Within the team that Oegema is part of, scientists look at various themes in parables. She herself investigates family relationships:“I place the story in a social context. For example, there are many parables with a father (God) and a son (the people of Israel). But how did fathers and sons get along in Galilee at the beginning of our era? To gain more insight into this, I traveled to Israel and participated in an archaeological excavation.”
Oegema's own excavations, but also the other excavations she visited, give her more insight into the daily life of two thousand years ago. “I was now able to see for myself what the environment and utensils looked like, for example the oil lamps that appear several times in the texts I study. I had never been to Galilee before and now I can better imagine life there, how warm the climate is, for example.”
Punishing father
The research has now been going on for two and a half years and the text-critical part is almost complete. Oegema sees differences in how fathers and sons treat each other in early rabbinic parables and in those from the New Testament. In the parables of some early rabbinic texts, the father mercilessly beats his disobedient son while in New Testament parables the father does not inflict harsh punishments on his sons.
“The reason behind this is not yet clear. It may have to do with the Roman father's influence on early rabbinic texts. In this period it was an almighty father who decided over life and death. The image is just not black and white. There are also early rabbinic parables that tell about a caring and protective father.”
She has found more similarities:“The parables within the various movements are similar in terms of content. Similarities between fathers and sons, slaves or a vineyard are recurring. The style of the parables is also similar. They are short, chronologically told stories without much detail and with a folkloric dualism. These texts are folk tales in which distinctions are sharply set, such as between wise and foolish virgins or obedient and disobedient sons.”
The research will continue for another 2.5 years, during which time Oegema will also delve into metaphors. When do the family relationships serve as a metaphor and how is this described? “The partings of the ways could be one of the ways to explain the differences between New Testament and Early Rabbinic parables. In the precise elaboration of family relationships in the parables and its application in the message of the parable, it can be seen that the early rabbinic movement is developing in its own direction.”
Albertina Oegema is a PhD student at Utrecht University. The NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) Parable Project consists of five subprojects, including three PhD projects. The PhD trajectories investigate different themes in early rabbinic parables and parables in the New Testament. Oegema is doing one of the PhD programs and is looking at family relationships in parables.
More information about the Parable project can be found on the accompanying website.