The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus and the Death, Burial, and Translation of Moses in Judaic Tradition

by Roger David Aus

Overview

A widespread early Palestinian Jewish saying was 'As the first redeemer of Israel, so the last redeemer of Israel': as Moses, so the Messiah. This was the major reason why the death, burial, and translation of Moses to heaven in primarily Palestinian early Jewish tradition greatly influenced the descriptions of numerous accounts in the Gospels. The most significant examples of this are Jesus' burial by Joseph of Arimathea in Mark 15:42-46, and the narrative of the empty tomb in 16:1-8. Striking new insights into the background and significance of these episodes are gained here through an analysis of early Jewish materials.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761840879
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	08/26/2008
Series:	Studies in Judaism
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Roger David Aus, Ph.D., is pastor emeritus of the Evanglische Luther-Kirchengemeinde Alt-Reinickendorf in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of ten other books on the New Testament and a member of the Society of New Testament Studies and the Society of Biblical Literature.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 I. The Death of Jesus, and the Death of Moses in Judaic Tradition
Part 3 II. The Burial of Jesus, the Burial of Moses, and the Well
Part 4 III. The Resurrection of Jesus and the Translation of Moses
Part 5 IV. Haggadah and the Questions of Historicity and Truth in the Gospels
Part 6 Summary

Editorial Reviews

Who was Jesus? The earliest people to ask that question were all Jews, and naturally enough they tried to answer it by ransacking the scriptures stored in their memories—not the Bible in the "original" settings of its sources so eagerly sought by moderns, but the living, multiple, open-ended word reverberating in the complex echo chamber of traditional interpretation. To re-hear some of those echoes today requires meticulous study of difficult texts—looking for deposits, often centuries later, of those traditional readings. Not many students of the New Testament have made the attempt; fewer have succeeded. Roger Aus has devoted great energy and skill to this task for many years. The result has been a series of books that seek to embed episodes of the Gospel stories in that rich haggadic matrix known to the first tellers of the Jesus tales. This latest volume brings us to the most central and generative story of all: Jesus' death and resurrection. Those who first asked the meaning of that paradox, Aus shows, turned for the formative motifs of their narrative answer to the accounts of Israel's primal hero, its First Redeemer, Moses.

Wayne Meeks

It's always a pleasure to read such a careful and well researched book. But it's a special pleasure to read Roger David Aus's brave and interesting setting of the Gospel narratives in their early Jewish context. It heralds a promising new direction in scholarly investigation of the Gospels which finally takes Jewish, especially Rabbinic sources seriously.

Alan F. Segal

Roger Aus reads a bewildering variety of texts relating to Moses and Jesus creatively. Fresh exegetical insights and interpretive suggestions challenge conventional readings and advance the scholarly debate on disputed cruxes. This book exemplifies critical scholarship at its best. It shows how the masterly reading of Jewish, especially Rabbinic, texts can inform—and enrich—the New Testament and Christian origins.

Carl R. Holladay

Roger Aus sows the seed of the New Testament Jesus tradition into the fruitful soil of midrash/ haggadah and harvests a fascinating new understanding of age-old narratives.

Peter von der 'sten-Sacken

There has been plenty of analysis of the resurrection and empty tomb story this past decade, and this one by Aus is the most learned and the most convincing I have come across.

Review of Biblical Literature - James Crossley

Roger Aus sows the seed of the New Testament Jesus tradition into the fruitful soil of midrash/ haggadah and harvests a fascinating new understanding of age-old narratives.

Peter von der Osten-Sacken