Tuesday, September 27, 2011
TRUE JEW -- CAN HE BRING A DOSE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM?
I just want to remind everyone that I published True Jew: How Jesus Really Ended Up on a Roman Cross, How We Still Cover It Up earlier this year. The links to the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble are at right.
Ostensibly, it is about liberating ancient Jewish leaders and Judas from the myth that they had something to do with Jesus' death. The evidentiary case that they are innocent is tremendous. But the book is really about academic freedom, or rather the lack of it in historical Jesus studies and New Testament scholarship generally.
Everybody wants the historical Jesus to be a little bit Jewish, but not too much. He should be just Jewish enough that scholars can say, "See, we are no longer anti-Jewish", but not so Jewish that their essential image of him as a rebel or troublemaker in Judaism is threatened. They still believe in a Jesus who was offensive to other Jews of his time and they believe this was the chief cause of his death. And they further believe that we don't need no stinkin' evidence to prove this. It's just true. A priori. End of story.
Anyon who disagrees is out of order. No debate, no reasons, no evidence -- all dismissed, none of it allowed. Nothing can sway scholars. A Jewish Jesus in harmony with other Jews is forbidden.
Scholarship becomes a matter of silencing voices -- voices of the past, contemporary voices, and most of all, the evidence that disproves the mainstream position. Evidence can be a voice. But not to historical Jesus scholars.
True Jew is about un-silencing voices. It's that simple.
Leon Zitzer
I just want to remind everyone that I published True Jew: How Jesus Really Ended Up on a Roman Cross, How We Still Cover It Up earlier this year. The links to the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble are at right.
Ostensibly, it is about liberating ancient Jewish leaders and Judas from the myth that they had something to do with Jesus' death. The evidentiary case that they are innocent is tremendous. But the book is really about academic freedom, or rather the lack of it in historical Jesus studies and New Testament scholarship generally.
Everybody wants the historical Jesus to be a little bit Jewish, but not too much. He should be just Jewish enough that scholars can say, "See, we are no longer anti-Jewish", but not so Jewish that their essential image of him as a rebel or troublemaker in Judaism is threatened. They still believe in a Jesus who was offensive to other Jews of his time and they believe this was the chief cause of his death. And they further believe that we don't need no stinkin' evidence to prove this. It's just true. A priori. End of story.
Anyon who disagrees is out of order. No debate, no reasons, no evidence -- all dismissed, none of it allowed. Nothing can sway scholars. A Jewish Jesus in harmony with other Jews is forbidden.
Scholarship becomes a matter of silencing voices -- voices of the past, contemporary voices, and most of all, the evidence that disproves the mainstream position. Evidence can be a voice. But not to historical Jesus scholars.
True Jew is about un-silencing voices. It's that simple.
Leon Zitzer
