ABSTRACT
In the twentieth century Jewish students of the New Testament such as Martin Buber, Leo Baeck,and Hans Joachim Schoeps have sought to revise the negative evaluation that characterized the age-old Jewish attitude toward Jesus of Nazareth. These scholars have tended to regard Jesus as a representative of the prophetic tradition. Buber even referred to Jesus as a brother. Nevertheless, as Gunther Bornkamm has observed, Paul is still regarded as a stranger standing outside of the mainstream of Jewish life of his time.' Whether Paul is seen as a Hellenistic Jewalien to the authentic traditions of the Palestinian heartland or as more pagan than Jewish, he is usually regarded as one of the personalities most responsible for the Iudeo-Christian split. There is also a very strong tendency to ascribe to Paul a large measure of responsibility for the religiously inspired antisemitism that has brought so much sorrow to the Jewish people. "Jesus, yes; Paul, never!" would seem to be the watchword of much of the thoughtful Iewish New Testament scholarship in modern times.
