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Abstract:
Among Jewish scholars, Leo Baeck was the first to refer (in 1938) to the Gospels in general as “a Jewish book among Jewish books.” This statement has some plausibility for Matthew or Mark. But could it also be true for Luke, long regarded as the hero of “Gentile Christian” theology? This paper explores this question beginning first with some problems mainly concerning terminology: Does Luke have “anti-Jewish” tendencies (as postulated by many scholars)? Of what relevance is the “parting of the ways” paradigm in recent discussion? And finally, what bearing does Christology have on the “Jewishness” of the Lukan text? A second section explores motifs common to Luke and the Jewish literature of his time, such as the form of biographical narration, the validity and function of the Torah, religious institutions and geographical constellations. The final portion of the paper attempts to locate Luke anew in his world. I argue in particular that there are good reasons to see him as a diaspora Jew present somewhere in Greece, whose Jewish tradition is inherited, but whose Hellenistic education is acquired. His writing thus reflects a form of religious literature much more complex and nuanced than simple labels can attest.
For a long time the apocryphal Ladder of Jacob was accessible only in arbitrarily selected translations. Without a critical edition and a comprehensive study of the whole textual segment, scholars were unable to evaluate its significance for Early Jewish and Christian literature. Since 2015/17, with the publication of a new critical edition and German translation (accompanied by a detailed introduction, footnote commentaries and appendices with related texts), a new approach to this important but hitherto widely unknown text has been made possible. This approach verifies the different layers or strata in the text, which are: a supposed Jewish apocalypse (mid-second century), a Christian expansion of the angels speech in light of the praeparatio evangelica tradition (fourth–seventh centuries), a Jewish mystical prayer (eleventh century) and the incorporation of this narrative block into the Tolkovaja Paleja together with a series of exegetical commentaries (end of the thirteenth century). In the light of the new approach, it can be said that the Ladder of Jacob is most of all an outstanding example of mutual relations between Jewish and Christian theology.