This book is now fifteen years old, but it remains one of my favorites, and I wanted to share it. Stephen Wylen is a rabbi at Temple Beth Tikvah, Wayne, NJ, and I so enjoyed his book that I asked him to contribute a back-cover blurb for my own book. He did even more: he contributed a full review: http://www.thewayithappened.com/reviews.shtml. I’m indebted to him, but luckily, his is an easy book to recommend.

Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, and this book does a great job of describing the world Jesus lived in. His world can hardly be understood without some background of Jewish history, both political and religious. The two are interrelated: As the Jews were surviving the period of the Maccabees and Hellenistic integration, they were also seeing the age of prophecy transition into Messianism and Apocalypticism. Wylen spends a great deal of time discussing first-century Judaism: the Synagogue, Sabbath observance, ritual purity, and so on. Jewish understanding of God, Satan, Logos, and their practice of prayer and worship differed from neighboring nations, but did not escape subtle influences. Judaism itself was also fragmented, between Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots and Pharisees.

Wylen also discusses the trial of Jesus. From what the Mishnah tells us about Jewish law there are some problems with the trial story as it stands. For example, the gospels say that the Sanhedrin found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, yet none of Jesus’ words or deeds are blasphemous according to Jewish law. Nor could Jesus have been tried on a capital offense in the manner told in the gospel. According to the Mishnah there were many judicial rules designed to protect defendants accused of a capital crime. The trial had to be held before a full court. The sentencing and hearing had to occur during daylight hours. They could not convict on the day of the trial, as described.

For these reasons and more, Wylen concludes Jesus must have been tried by a kangaroo court called together by the high priest Caiaphas, acting on orders from the Romans. Pilate then convicted Jesus of being a revolutionary and sentenced him to crucifixion, just as he slaughtered numerous other innocent Jews.

Wylen delves into why Jesus was killed, whether Pilate was guilty or innocent, how the crowd felt about Jesus, and how much of the passion story is historically true. An excellent and informative book, written in an easy-to-understand style. ( )

NO OF PAGES: 215 SUB CAT I: First Century Judaism SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: The teaching of Jesus, his life story, his relationships, the things that were said of him by early Christians--all are best understood against the backdrop of Jesus' own time and place. Understanding Jewish life in the first century will help us betterNOTES: SUBTITLE: An Introduction

Understanding Jesus by understanding the forces of 1st century B.C.E. in the Jewish world

Understanding Jesus by understanding the forces of 1st century B.C.E. in the Jewish world

The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction is a great book that reads as a survey of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism written by Rabbi Stephen M. Wylen. The teachings of Jesus, his life story, his relationships, the things that were said of him by early Christians – all are best understood against the backdrop of Jesus’ own time and place. Understanding Jewish life in the 1st century will help us better understand Jesus’ mission and how it relates to our own religious concerns today. The book is a good starter for anyone interested in understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity.

It covers a timeline of Jewish history roughly from the successful revolt of the Maccabees against the Selucid (Persian) empire in around 168 BC and the beginnings of the Second Temple era to the failed revolt against the Romans around 70 AD and the Romans’ total destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. It generally covers Jews and Judaism throughout the era of the Second Temple. This time period of Judaism was strongly oriented towards `the Law’ of the Torah.

I enjoyed the section that discussed the splintering groups of Judaism under Roman rule and its monarchs such as the lineage of Herod the Great. Judaism fractured into different sects the most prominent were the Sadducees, the Essenes, the Pharisees (who are split between the camp founded by Hillel the more liberal and tolerant, and the camp founded by Shammai the more strict on the points of the law) and then the followers of Jesus. Paul of Tarsus is believed to be a follower of Shammai before his conversion.

All the topics in the book help put Jesus in the context of a diversity of Jewish practices and beliefs and gives a good understanding of the religious, cultural and political scenes during the time of Christ. Wylen covers a variety of sources of the time like the apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, the Mishna, and the Talmud. This book gains value by being a popular survey rather than a scholarly treatment of Ancient Judaism. This book I would greatly recommend to any student desiring an introduction to Second Temple Judaism in ancient Palestine during the time of Jesus. ( )