Jesus is THE Faithful Jew

Unlike the conversion of the gentile and pagan nations, the conversion of the Jews to the Catholic Faith will come about through their Jewishness, as a fulfillment.

In a recent article, Philip Primeau argued that Jesus should not be considered a “faithful Jew.” Primeau has a very rightful concern that this turn of phrase feeds religious indifferentism and thereby discourages evangelism. Primeau is a good friend of mine, and I think he has nothing but good intentions in his article. Indeed, from our conversations about this, I think we agree with much of the substance of the matter. Nonetheless, I disagree entirely with his framing of the question. Not only was Jesus a faithful Jew, He was the most faithful Jew to ever live. This is important to make clear when we evangelize to Jews.

Primeau rightly concedes that Jesus was an ethnic Jew and that He followed the law of Moses. Nonetheless, Primeau distinguishes this sort of Judaism from Rabbinic Judaism, and he argues that Jesus was not faithful to this latter sort of Judaism. While there is some truth regarding the need to distinguish between biblical and Rabbinic Judaism, this distinction is overstated by Primeau.

Since many would be skeptical of modern sources on this subject, let us turn to what the Angelic Doctor has to teach about this. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, God gratuitously elected a certain people, the Jews (populus Iudaeorum), to be the recipients of the Old Law (ST I-II, q. 98, a. 4). The purpose of this law was to form them into the sort of people who could fittingly bring forth the Messiah, as well as to foreshadow the Messiah. Thus, Jesus, as the Messiah, perfectly conformed His entire life to the law (ST III, q. 40, a. 4). This is important since it means that the religion that Jesus followed during His earthly life can properly be called Judaism.

It might be objected at this point that this does not mean Jesus followed Rabbinic Judaism. However, two important points of reply must be brought here. First, what constitutes being a “faithful Jew.” It seems to me the essence of Judaism is that religion that God established with the populus Iudaeorum. Thus, to be a faithful Jew is to follow Judaism as faithful to the way God established it.

Second, while I am not saying we ought to accept as binding any later Rabbinic beliefs, it is notable that St. Thomas did not consider there to be some major rupture between biblical and Rabbinic Judaism. Consider, for example, what he says about the toleration of Jewish religious rituals:

From the fact that the Jews observe their rites, which, of old, foreshadowed the truth of the faith which we hold, there follows this good—that our very enemies bear witness to our faith, and that our faith is represented in a figure, so to speak. For this reason they are tolerated in the observance of their rites. (ST II-II, q. 10, a. 11)

If Rabbinic Judaism were some entirely different religion, related only genealogically to biblical Judaism, then St. Thomas would not say that their rites prefigure the Catholic Faith in the way the rites of the Old Law did. Since they do though, it seems that the rites Jews practice are genuinely the rites of the Old Law. Thomas does critique the Jewish misinterpretation of the law (ST II-II, q. 10, a. 6), but it is a misinterpretation precisely because Jewish rituals are really from God and thus have a true interpretation.

Nor can it be argued that this was only before the Church found out about the Talmud. First, Aquinas would have been aware of the development of Jewish oral tradition simply from the New Testament itself. Second, he came to Paris in 1245, only a few years after the Talmud became widely known through the Disputation of Paris, so he certainly knew about it from this. Finally, a very similar statement appears in the current Catechism, showing the Church’s reception of St. Thomas’ teaching on this point: “A better knowledge of the Jewish people’s faith and religious life as professed and lived even now can help our better understanding of certain aspects of Christian liturgy” (CCC 1096, emphasis added).

Of course, there are developments we may not agree with. Nonetheless, these differences are not so essential that it ceases to be Judaism in the eyes of the Church.

In considering the objections to whether Jesus properly followed the law, Thomas considers two general objections: kashrut (ST III, q. 40, a.4, obj. 2) and the sabbath (obj. 1, 3). Regarding kashrut, Thomas points out that Jesus did, in fact, follow the law and only disagreed on whether uncleanliness was ontological or symbolic (a disagreement still present between later Jewish theologians). However, this pertains only to the teaching, not action.

Building on what St. Thomas says here, it should be pointed out that the Pharisees only critiqued “some of his disciples” for not washing their hands (Mark 7:2). That implies that Jesus Himself did follow this tradition. Jesus critiques the Pharisees only for placing their traditions on this point above the divine law, not for having them in the first place. Interestingly, contemporary Jews agree that the ritual of handwashing is only a rabbinic commandment, not part of the Torah.

A similar point comes up in Matthew 23:23:

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone.

There is no biblical commandment to tithe mint, anise, and cummin, yet Jesus says they ought to have done it and kept the divine law (cf. Thomas’ commentary on this verse in his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, c. 23, l. 2, n. 1869-71). It is this latter point that Jesus is often focused on when He critiques traditions. Too frequently, Catholics think Jesus’ complaint with the Jews is that they were not sola scriptura. Again, this is not to say I agree with everything in the Talmud (there is much I disagree with in it), but there is some important nuance needed even when discussing later rabbinic traditions.

Regarding the Sabbath, Thomas gives a number of replies—but most notably, that they needed to pluck grain to eat (ST III, q. 40, a.4, ad 3). This is the principle of pikuach nefesh, that the letter of the law in many circumstances, such as the keeping of the Sabbath, may be overridden for the sake of the preservation of life. While some of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day criticized Him for this, the Talmud records a very similar debate and ends up making the same ruling as Jesus on this (Yoma 85b). Thus, according to Jewish law even today, a Jew is obligated to break the Sabbath to preserve a life.

Since the Sabbath is the only area Jesus appeared to deviate from the law, it would seem, then, that Jesus lived His entire life in perfect conformity (at least in His actions) to Orthodox Judaism. While He disagreed on teachings, it is notable that Judaism lays a stress on actions more than belief. Of course, since Jesus instituted the Catholic Church and most Jews did not enter it, it is obvious He did not teach the same things Orthodox Jews today believe. But His life was not so different. He lived His life as the most faithful Jew to ever live.

Why is it important that Jesus was a faithful Jew? Aquinas gives four reasons:

And Christ, indeed, wished to conform His conduct to the Law, first, to show His approval of the Old Law. Second, that by obeying the Law He might perfect it and bring it to an end in His own self, so as to show that it was ordained to Him. Third, to deprive the Jews of an excuse for slandering Him. Fourth, in order to deliver men from subjection to the Law. (ST III, q. 40, a. 4, c.)

These four reasons are very important when it comes to evangelizing Jews. Anyone who has tried to evangelize Jews knows that it is very different than speaking to those of any other religion. The Jewish people see themselves as the bearers of an ancient revelation from God intended to begin the process of the world’s redemption and to be completed by the Messiah who will come from them. While other religions make claims about their followers, too, we usually do not agree with those claims. With the Jews, we do agree with at least these claims they make about themselves.

When we speak to Jews, we are telling them that the Messiah they await has, in fact, come. Thus, they will look at their own Scriptures to make sure this Messiah conforms to what divine revelation says about the Messiah. It is necessary, therefore, that Jesus perfectly followed the law. It is from there, then, that we begin to show how, through types and shadows, Jesus can be found on every single page of their Scriptures and, thus, “show that it was ordained to Him.”

If we present Jesus to Jews as just a generic figure, they will have no interest in following Him. Indeed, it was going to the Holy Land as a Jewish (albeit an atheist one) teenager that first placed the life of Jesus firmly in my mind. Jesus is the King of the Jews. He is the fulfillment of all that was promised to the Jews. Despite their rejection of Him, Jesus never forgot His own people; and thus, all the Church Fathers testify that the Jews will one day come to accept Him as their Messiah. The great love Jesus has for His kinsmen according to the flesh can be seen even in those speeches where he harshly criticizes their errors.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:37-39)

While it is true that we need to be concerned about religious indifferentism in its lack of evangelistic zeal toward Jews, it is also important that our zeal be one according to knowledge. I know many converts from Judaism, and I can tell you that it is precisely discovering the inner Jewishness of the Gospel which often leads to their conversion. After Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, they met him again in Egypt; but they did not recognize him because he was dressed as a Gentile. It was only after he revealed that he, too, was a son of Israel that they repented of their mistreatment of him.

So, too, do most Jews see nothing but Gentile idolatry when they look at the Catholic Church. It is up to us to reveal its Jewish essence—as great scholars like Brant Pitre have recently done and which can be seen in the works of Doctors of the Church like St. Thomas Aquinas, as I showed above.

Primeau also deals with the question of whether the apostles were faithful Jews and, therefore, whether or not Jesus now calls ethnic Jews to be faithful Jews. I agree with him fully that Jesus calls everyone, including Jews, to be Catholic. Nonetheless, we should remember that when St. Paul was questioned about his identity before the Jews in the book of Acts, he declared “I am a Jew” and “I am a Pharisee,” both in the present tense (Acts 22:3, 23:6).

Likewise, when St. Edith Stein was sent off to the gas chamber by the Nazis, she told her sister, “Come, let us go for our people.” She was martyred both for the Church’s vocal opposition to Nazi eugenics and for being part of the Jewish people. Saints from Jewish backgrounds very frequently see their conversion not as opposed to their Jewish identity but the very fulfillment of that identity.

What it means from a Catholic perspective to be faithful today, then, is of course very different than what an Orthodox Jew would imagine it means to be a faithful Jew. Our Judaism is transfigured in the light of Christ into the Catholic Faith. Nonetheless, I refuse to concede to Orthodox Judaism what it means to be Jewish. Really, there is nothing more Jewish a Jew can do than embrace the fulfillment of their Judaism in the Catholic Church.

I look forward to that day when the veil is lifted from the eyes of the rest of my kinsmen according to the flesh, so that we all together might say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” I ask my Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ to help aid the coming of that day through prayer and evangelism.

 

• Gideon Lazar received a BA in Classics and Medieval/Byzantine Studies from the Catholic University of America. Having grown up in a Jewish family, he was baptized in 2018 and received into the Catholic Church in 2019. He is currently an MA Theology student and the institute coordinator for the St. Basil Institute for the Study of the Theology of Creation. He writes about theology on his Substack and creates YouTube videos on his channel The Byzantine Scotist. He lives near Seattle with his wife and kids.

 

Source: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/jesus-is-the-faithful-jew