Almost three years ago an extraordinarily rich and interesting international colloquium was held entitled “Jesus and the Pharisees. An interdisciplinary review” organized by the Biblicum (Pontifical Biblical Institute) and the Cardinal Bea Center for Judaic Studies, hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University. Now, finally, the complete Acts, presented at the Biblicum, have been published in English, edited by Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, in the wake of the Italian language edition of 2021. Both contain the speech of Pope Francis to the participants in the congress held in May of the same year.
Pope Francis’ speech contains many references to the profound and positive connections between Jesus and the Pharisees, which disprove the trite negative connotations used in daily discourse and often in sermons. Here are some excerpts from his speech of May 9, 2019 at the Congress that was held on the 110th anniversary of the foundation of the Biblicum. Their extreme relevance to the reasons for the conversation and for this book justify some extended quotations from Francis’ message.
“One of the oldest and most damaging stereotypes is precisely that of ‘Pharisee’, especially when used to put Jews in a negative light”. “Therefore, the interdisciplinary research on literary and historical issues concerning the Pharisees addressed by this conference will help to acquire a more truthful view of this religious group, also contributing to the fight against anti-Semitism”. “If we take into consideration the New Testament, we see that Saint Paul counts among those who once, before meeting the Lord Jesus, were also his reasons for boasting the fact that he was’ a Pharisee as regards the law (Phil 3,5) “. “Jesus had many discussions with the Pharisees about common concerns. He shared with them the faith in the resurrection (cf. Mk 12: 18-27) and accepted other aspects of their interpretation of the Torah. If the book of the Acts of the Apostles states that some Pharisees joined Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem (cf. 15.5), it means that there must have been much in common between Jesus and the Pharisees. The same book presents Gamaliel, a leader of the Pharisees, who defends Peter and John (cf. 5.34-39) ”.
Francis also mentions other parallels between Jesus’ teachings and the “Pharisaic” religion which was his lifelong inheritance and provided the roots of his thinking. “Rabbi Aqiba, one of the most famous rabbis of the second century, heir to the teaching of the Pharisees, pointed to the passage of Lev 19:18: ‘you will love your neighbor as yourself’ as a great principle of the Torah. According to tradition, he died as a martyr with the ‘Shemà’ on his lips which includes the commandment to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and strength (cf. Dt6,4-5). Therefore, as far as we can know, he would have been in substantial harmony with Jesus and his interlocutor of his scribe or Pharisee. Similarly, the so-called golden rule (cf. Mt 7:12), although in different formulations, is attributed not only to Jesus, but also to his older contemporary Hillel, usually considered one of the leading Pharisees of the time of him. This rule is already present in the Deuterocanonical book of Tobias (cf. 4:15) ”.
The Pope closes his speech with a blessing: “In fact, to love our neighbors better, we need to know them, and to know who they are we often have to find a way to overcome ancient prejudices. For this reason, your conference, by relating faiths and disciplines in its attempt to arrive at a more mature and accurate understanding of the Pharisees, will allow them to be presented in a more appropriate way in teaching and preaching. I am sure that these studies, and the new paths they will open, will positively contribute to relations between Jews and Christians, in view of an ever deeper and more fraternal dialogue. May it find a wide resonance within and outside the Catholic Church, and may your work be granted abundant blessings from the Most High or, as many of our Jewish brothers and sisters would say, from ‘Hashèm’. Thank you. “
The publisher (Eerdmans) of “The Pharisees” describes the nearly 500 pages and 25 chapters, with contributions from international scholars from around the world, as “a multidisciplinary assessment of who the Pharisees were, what they taught and how they were represented in the course of history “. In the recent presentation of this precious compendium to the Biblicum, Professor Joseph Sievers, professor of Hebrew history and literature of the Hellenistic period at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and former director of the Cardinal Bea Institute for Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, declared: “A “Such a demanding work would not have been possible without considerable external support. It was cited above by the American Jewish Committtee, represented by Rabbi David Rosen and his representative in Rome, Lisa Palmieri Billig”. He also thanked the Italian Episcopal Conference (Don Christian Bettega, Don Giuliano Savina, Monsignor Ambrogio Spreafico, respectively directors of the National Office and President of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue); the Gregorian University Foundation (Reverend Alan Fogarty SJ); Verbum – Faith Life, Inc. (Craig St. Clair); and the Cardinal Bea Center for Jewish Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Professor Etienne Veto CCN, director).
Why does a conference on the Pharisees who lived 2,000 years ago attract so much multidisciplinary interest today? The main answer is given by the two editors, Sievers and Levine, in their preface. “For nearly 2,000 years, different Christian churches have presented the Pharisees as an elite of hypocrites, legalists, money-hungry and xenophobes, but while historical-critical research on the representation of the Pharisees in the Gospels has made some corrections to these toxic stereotypes, the distorted image – taken from selected passages from the New Testament and exacerbated by anti-Jewish theologies – continues to infect not only Christian preaching and biblical studies, but also popular culture…. the negative descriptions of the Pharisees spill over into anti-Semitic discourses. In fact, the pejorative use of the term ‘Pharisees’ or ‘Pharisaics’ in common discourse as a synonym for ‘Jews’ is quite common.
Yet, as the symposium and this book reveal and as Pope Francis intimated, both modern Judaism and modern Christianity have progressed and evolved side by side and nourished their common roots in Pharisaic Judaism. In 2019, Amy-Jill Levine, co-editor of this compendium, stayed in Rome and taught at the Biblicum, as the first professor of Jewish religion to teach a New Testament course at that institution. She in the United States teaches at Vanderbilt Divinity School as an undergraduate professor of New Testament and Hebrew Studies and is Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Hebrew Studies. In a chapter full of examples of pedagogical tools, entitled “Preaching and teaching the Pharisees” she writes, “This volume describes how over time the Pharisees have been associated with the Jews and how both the Pharisees and the Jews have come to embody evil. It details the causes, gives examples, and in many cases suggests corrections. This contribution, building on the precedents, describes in detail the scaffolding that leads to anti-Semitism and then offers suggestions on how this superstructure can be dismantled and how preaching and teaching can be built on a more solid and non-prejudicial basis. ” Amy-Jill Levine’s specialty, in fact, is to research and reveal correct interpretations of difficult passages, whose true meaning is often buried under the errors and superficiality of translations from the original.
Its chapter includes a compendium of “good practice” suggestions.
To give an idea of the appeal and usefulness of the book’s content, let’s take a quick look at the topics covered in its 25 chapters by a variety of leading international scholars. It begins with an examination of the meaning and interpretation of the name “Pharisees” itself and moves on to a historical reconstruction of the origins of the Pharisees. This is followed by archaeological insights, considerations on the Pharisaic Halachah, then “The Pharisees according to Flavius Joseph”, “Paul, the perfectly just Pharisee”, followed by “Pharisees and Sadducees together in the Gospel of Matthew”, “The controversy against the Pharisees in Matthew 23 “, a chapter on” Luke – Acts as a source for the history of the Pharisees “, one on” The Pharisees in the Fourth Gospel and a special Pharisee, “and some interesting essays on” Converging visions on the Pharisaic law in the Gospels and in tradition rabbinical “” How close were Jesus and the Pharisees? ” “The Pharisees and the Rabbis”, “The ‘Pharisees’ and early Christian heresiology”, “The forgotten Pharisees”, “The ‘perushim’ in the conception of medieval Jewish sages”.
A section on other repercussions of misinterpretations follows: “The Pharisees in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin”, “A Brief and Personal History of the Oberammergau Passion” written by Christian Stuckl, the director of the famous and long-contested, highly problematic version of the Passion, who lives in Oberammergau and has participated in the annual performance since childhood. Through dialogue with friends representing Jewish organizations, notably the AJC and the ADL, he gradually moved towards a deeper understanding of what the hype against the old version was. He played a central role in the transformation of the work. Then, two essays concerning the world of art and cinema: “The Pharisees in filmography” and “The Pharisees in modern research”.
The final section brings us back to the present, and concerns the problems and solutions that can be applied to teaching and preaching in the context of the contemporary age. “A case from a school textbook: the Pharisees in the textbooks of the Catholic Religion” and “Preaching and teaching the Pharisees”. The respective authors are Amy-Jill Levine, and Massimo Grilli together with Joseph Sievers.
We hope that those charged with informing the minds and hearts of new generations will make full use of this book to enrich their interpretations of the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible, thereby helping to create a society in which anti-Semitic prejudices become a reminder of the past.
* Representative in Italy and liaison to the Holy See of the AJC – American Jewish Committee