Ancient Context, Ancient Faith: Jesus and the Jewish Festivals
Review by Kenneth E. Bailey, Special to The Layman, December 6, 2012
Gary M. Burge, Jesus and the Jewish Festivals (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012) What if Luke had accompanied Thomas in his missionary journeys to the East rather than follow Paul in his travels to the West? Had that happened Aramaic and Syriac culture and language would be the basis of our understanding of the Christian faith. We would have instinctively understood our need to look at the text of the Gospels through Middle Eastern culture in order to penetrate the deeper levels of the person and teachings of Jesus. But that is not what happened. For centuries we in the West have studied the Gospels in the light of the Latin and Greek worlds and have assumed that by the time of Jesus, three hundred years of Hellenism in the Middle East guaranteed that there is little serious need for us to peek over the cultural wall into the Jewish, Semitic world of Jesus.
Thus it is thus with delight that I read Dr. Gary Burge’s new book Jesus and the Jewish Festivals. What everyone understands, no one seeks to explain. The authors of the Gospels assume a readership that understands the Jewish festivals and thereby never elucidate them or comment on their importance.
This book includes 101 attractive, full-color pictures and five very helpful diagrams. Burge’s style is clear and engaging. The work is not burdened with ponderous footnotes and his lucid prose is mercifully free of the cobwebs of academia. The seven chapters cover a general introduction to the “festivals of Judaism” and go on to present Jesus and the Sabbath (John 5), the Passover (John 6), the Tabernacles (John 7-9), Hanukkah (John 10), his Final Passover (John 13-19) and conclude with reflection on “The Early Christians and the Jewish Festivals.”
Burge astutely observes that we in the West “have failed to recognize the gulf that exists between who we are today and the context of the Bible. We have forgotten that we read the Bible as foreigners, as visitors who have traveled not only to a new geography but a new century. We are literary tourists who are deeply in need of a guide” (p 11).
As Burge makes clear, the festivals relate to the agricultural year and at the same time connect with Israel’s sacred history. The Passover celebrates the “early harvest” while commemorating the “escape from Egypt.” Pentecost remembers the “end harvest” and recalls the “arrival at Mt. Sinai and the covenant and law.” The Feast of Tabernacles has to do with the harvest of fruits and vines and also points to the “wilderness wanderings” with its desert shelters. So the pious Jew who builds and sleeps in an “booth” for a few nights in the fall is both celebrating the end of the yearly harvest when shelters must be built in the fields to protect the crop from thieves, and also brings to remembrance a people on the move in the wilderness on their way to the promised land.
Burge is the author of a study of The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition (Eerdmans: 1987) a Guide to Interpreting the Gospel of John (Baker:1992) and a fine Commentary on the Gospel of John (Zondervan: 2000). This background gives special depth to his observations on how an understanding of the Jewish festivals enriches our understanding of numerous passages in John’s Gospel.
I know of no work that so clearly summarizes and clarifies the importance of understanding the Jewish festivals as a background for interpreting the Gospels (particularly in the Gospel of John). I highly recommend it to all.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Th. D., is the Professor of New Testament at the Ecumenical Institute (Emeritus) and author and lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament Studies. He resides in New Wilmington, Pa. This is the first of six reviews by Bailey of the Ancient Context, Ancient Faith series.
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The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministries published “The Gospel in the Feasts of Israel” many years ago, also recommended. I believe it’s still in print with a shortened name like “The Feasts of Israel.”