Did Jesus Ask the Original Jewish Question?

[mjpc88]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_o ... _Samaritan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woes_of_the_Pharisees

Historically, the question of, "Who is a Jew?" has been treated as having racial implications. Not only were the Jews exiled from their homeland for so many centuries, but they were divided among Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Mizrahim nevermind Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed. Plenty of Jews became atheist as well, and the definition of Hebrew culture involved the bloodlines of faithful Jews intermingling with faithless Jews.

Jesus, however, identified an intra-group rather than inter-group problem about Jewish identity, and he saw it without needing to refer to bloodlines. He saw how different Jews had different attitudes from how they interacted with others whether on a partial or impartial basis. The impartial ones were Samaritans who descended from the Northern Tribes going back to the Kingdom of Israel after Jeroboam's Revolt. The partial ones belonged to one of a few sects: the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots. Each of these sects had their own interpretation of liturgy and tradition rather than appreciating how piety defines faith before tradition (which is why Jesus called the Pharisees "legalists"). The rivalry between the Pharisees and Sadducees was dramatically climactic with the Hasmonean Civil War as well which lead to the loss of Jewish independence won from the Maccabean Revolt.

(Details on the Pharisees and Sadducees can be found here:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1507734
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43048268

It would be prudent to remember that even though the Sadducees were more aristocratic and the Pharisees were more populist, that doesn't conform to modern anti-Trump versus Trump left versus right politics.)

The descendants of the Northern Tribes, however, were defined by a legacy, not by birthright. They followed Jeroboam's Revolt against Rehoboam who followed Solomon's advice to tax harshly for Solomon's construction projects. The Jews were warned about this by the prophet Samuel as well who said such harshness and revolt would happen from their demand to be ruled by a king. The Revolt resulted in a division of the United Monarchy into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, and even though the Southern Tribes of Judah defeated the Northern Tribes of Israel in battle, the Southern Tribes never subdued the revolutionaries even though the Northern Tribes started worshiping false religions just to maintain their distinguished identity from Judah's control of Jerusalem. It was after this drift in faith that the Northern Tribes would be conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire before all of the Holy Land was later conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Babylonian Exile happened.

The Samaritans were descendants of the Northern Tribes who managed to evade exile, but their problem was they were shattered by the invasions. Their numbers were far and few between and they had no concentrated population (which is a problem that continues to today). in contrast, once the Second Temple Period arose, the Pharisees became the dominant sect although they still contended with the other partial sects. It wasn't until the Jewish-Roman Wars that they would exclusively define rabbinic tradition because the Romans slaughtered all the other sects while some Pharisees escaped.

The dominance of Pharisaic rabbinic tradition has further problems though.

First is the Pharisees' loyalty to Herod the Great who issued the Massacre of the Innocents when Jesus was born to prevent the prophecy of him living his life. Like Solomon and Rehoboam, Herod had his own widespread construction projects which included reconstructing the Temple. While doing so, he added a golden eagle to represent submission to Roman authorities which was chopped down by believers as an idol. In response, Herod slaughtered the entire male lineage of the Hasmonean Dynasty before him which the Pharisees supported since the Pharisees were against Hellenization while the Hasmoneans were renowned for continuing the Hellenization of the Jewish people. This becomes especially noteworthy when considering how Jesus deliberately turns the Greeks away when they request to hear his message because Jesus doesn't want the Greeks to suffer or perish from his own crucifixion. Instead, he recognizes the virtue of Greek Hellenization and wants his disciples to spread the message to the Greeks after his death which is recorded in Paul's epistles.

Second is how the Pharisees were a necessary but insufficient condition for Jesus' crucifixion. The Jews didn't kill Jesus, but the Pharisees framed him as a blasphemer following their debates against him along with his second cleansing of the Temple and the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen where he associated the Pharisees with workers trying to seize the means of production. In that Parable, Jesus portrays himself as the killed son of a landowner who was sent to check in on the harvest after those workers had previously killed any number of stewards. Jesus then asks the audience rhetorically about what will happen after the father finds out his son has been killed while the Pharisees in audience see he's referring to them as the workers. It should be noted that the first cleansing of the Temple put Jesus in their favor because the Temple was originally occupied by Sadducees, but Jesus didn't want any partial sect to exploit faith. It was from this framing that the Pharisees riled up the mob to evoke the Roman authorities to crucify him (while releasing Barabbas no less).

Third is how scripture was translated into Greek to form the Septuagint during the Second Temple Period by the request of Ptolemy the Great from 6 scholars of each of the 12 tribes. This is a problem because Ptolemy existed long after both Jeroboam's Revolt as well as the Babylonian Exile but before the Maccabean Revolt. In turn, it means either some descendants of the Northern Tribes (who would have been Samaritans) remained or that the scholars recruited from them were frauds. Regardless, it's recognized as a miracle that the scholars involved reached a consensus independently of each other on the proper translation of Hebrew into Greek. On the other hand, the Septuagint is often criticized by rabbinic tradition and much of what's written is excluded from Jewish canon.

(There are more problems than these as well, but I don't grasp those problems clearly enough yet to really comment on them. For the time being, just know there is considerable reason to believe the Pharisees were opportunists in playing the leaders of Rome and Parthia off each other for their own power. There is also considerable reason to see them excluding Alexandrian and Babylonian Jews as not being Jewish enough whether because of Hellenization or because of power struggle between Herod the Great ((descendant of Antipater who befriended Julius Caesar)) and Hyrcanus the Second ((descendant of Alexander Jannaeus, and theorized to be the Teacher of the Righteous)) as well as Antigonus the Second ((descendant of Aristobolus the Second who was the brother-rival of Hyrcanus, and theorized to be the Wicked Priest)). An abundance of drama among these characters can be seen as derived from Salome Alexandra who was Queen of Judea and ally of the Pharisees. Clarification might be found here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1509816 )

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The bottomline here is yes, Jesus asked about who the truly Jewish people are. No, he didn't judge this from a racial viewpoint. He judged this from an attitudinal viewpoint.

[mjpc88]

A few other considerations:
https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry-repor ... c-history/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1455003
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/ ... r_fac_pubs
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202005/ ... get-along/

Very long one here:
https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewco ... sertations

[mjpc88]

Some might notice there's a gap in what I'm talking about - what happened to the Southern Tribes after the initial Assyrian Exile but before the Babylonian Exile?

The answer is the reign of King Hezekiah which the Prophet Isaiah coincided with. The Book of Isaiah is often used as a source that shows how Jesus fulfilled so many Messianic prophecies as well. Hezekiah's reign is treated as a golden age of Jewish culture, but it eventually succumbed over and over until the reign of King Zedekiah which preceded the Babylonian Exile.