An interesting story happened more than 100 years ago in Germany. Rabbi Abraham Geiger presented a book that described Jesus in the context of Judaism. For the first time in almost 2,000 years of difficult Jewish-Christian relations, a rabbi opened the Gospel, examined it, and expressed a positive opinion about Jesus.

What was the response of his colleagues? His colleagues, many of whom were members of the Lutheran clergy, condemned his book. Why did this happen?

It happened because he described Jesus as he saw Him in the gospels. He saw Jesus born into a Jewish family. He saw Jesus living according to Jewish laws and traditions. He described Jesus as a good man, a teacher, and a rabbi. The fact that Jesus was presented as a Jew for the first time in world theology caused outrage and misunderstanding among Christian audiences because Abraham Geiger's readers had a certain understanding of Jesus that did not coincide with what was proposed in his book.

Where did the “Central European” stereotype of Jesus come from? We need to look at the Jewish and Christian approaches to communicating the Scriptures to people.

In Judaism, the Scriptures were read in synagogues on Saturdays, and a person, regardless of their level of education, listened to what was written in God’s Word. In medieval Christian Europe, the truths of the Bible were communicated somewhat differently. First, almost all parishioners were illiterate. Second, the Christian liturgy practiced before the Reformation period was not designed to communicate knowledge. In addition to that, the Christian Bible at that time was mainly in Latin and was perceived by parishioners as a chant, as part of the liturgy, but not as something to be studied and understood. How did the contents of the Bible become known to the people? It was done through pictures, which is why, until recently, biblical stories were so popular in the visual arts. For example, in the Russian Academy of Arts until the mid-19th century, it was generally not customary to paint genre paintings on subjects other than Greek legends or biblical stories. The same tradition can be traced in European art. Interest in antiquity began during the Renaissance, while the development of biblical themes was actively encouraged by the Church. The result of this parallel existence of two themes was eclecticism – a purely artificial combination of two styles. Walking through a museum where medieval European paintings are exhibited, it is often impossible, without knowing the title of the painting, to determine where and what actions are taking place. Both Greek and biblical subjects were usually depicted against a background associated with ancient Greco-Roman elements: colonnades, landscapes, colorful togas on the heroes, and European faces.

This approach to religion resulted in a “Hellenization” of the Christian mentality. As a result of these efforts, not only did Jesus “lose” his Jewish roots, but also Christianity deliberately widened and deepened the gulf, separating it from Judaism and exacerbating the difficult relationships. This approach was no doubt logically explicable when the Church sought dominance in Europe in the Middle Ages, but such an approach is completely unacceptable in the modern world. Representatives of various Christian churches are realizing this and rethinking their attitudes toward the Jewish origin of Jesus along with their attitudes toward Judaism.

What does a reader of the Gospels gain by understanding the Jewish origin of Jesus?

First, the reader gets the ability to deeply understand the biblical text written in a particular culture. Second, by understanding that Jesus was a Jew, the reader gets an opportunity to eradicate any types of religious and secular anti-Semitism. Third, such an understanding encourages a sound approach to the development of Christian doctrine.

Alexander Bolotnikov, PhD