James Tabor

From Daily Planet Staff Reports

As a Jew, Jesus was a provocateur and revolutionary who challenged the status quo with his apocalypic vision, according to noted religious scholar James Tabor, who spoke Feb. 11 at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center.

Tabor, who addressed “What Kind of Jew Was Jesus? How the Texts and Archaeology Tell Us a New Story,” drew a standing-room-only crowd of around 300 people. Following his talk, Tabor fielded questions from the audience for more than 30 minutes. The program was sponsored by UNCA’s Center for Jewish Studies.

Tabor, who holds a doctorate from the University of Chicago, is department chairman of religious studies at UNC Charlotte.

He explored the historical Jesus within the context of his Jewish first century environment, based on textual and archaeological evidence.

Tabor has combined his work on ancient texts with extensive field work in archaeology in Israel and Jordan, including work at Qumran, Sepphoris, Masada, Wadi el-Yabis, the “John the Baptist” cave at Suba and the “Tomb of the Shroud” in Jerusalem. He is currently involved in excavating at Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.

Tabor is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including his newest book, “The Paul Factor: How Paul Shaped All We Think about Everything,” which will be published this year.

He has also been featured in several TV documentaries, including PBS Frontline’s “Apocalypse!” and “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” on Discovery Channel.

Tabor began by exclaiming, “What a title!” in a reference to his talk and “What a crowd!”

Turning to the subject at hand, he said, “Some words have an edge to them. ‘Jew’ is one of those words, good or bad ... ‘Jesus’ is another such word.”

Tabor noted that he had spent about half his life rereading and focusing on “a few lines from the Apostles Creed, including “born of the virgin Mary” and “suffered under Pontius Pilot.”

He reiterated, “I’ve spent much of my life in this space... We call this space the difference between theology and history.”

Tabor defined theology as “the confessional faith I just read you,” while history “is much different from theology.

“Tonight we’re looking at” the life of Jesus and the confession of faith that “we think Jesus, as a Jew, would be quite familiar with.” He said Jesus’ familiary with the Jewish shamanic tradition “pretty much marks him as a Jew.”

“Some of you here tonight are probably interested just in the historical Jesus ... Tonight, we’re trying just to do history. In theology, we call this “the quest for the historical Jesus.”

Tabor noted that, “for some Christians, he (Jesus) is barely Jewish.” However, “technically, yes,” he was a Jew, “but he moved on.” In turn, Tabor said, “For some Jews, Jesus is barely Christian.”

He then asked, “What can we learn about Jesus, the man?”

There are two ways to explore his humanity, including text and historical evidence, or archaeology, he said.

Tabor reviewed the following five archaeological subjects he personally has been involved in that informed his knowledge of Jesus the Jew:
• Discovery and understanding of Sepphoris, the urban capital of Galilee. Tabor said he learned that Jesus grew up looking out his window at Sepphoris, exposing him to Greco-Roman culture of the highest order.

• Herodian Jerusalem, which included Herod’s palace, where Pontius Pilot would have lived. Excavation is now in progress there, indicating palatial mansions, where the rich lived, Tabor said. “These were the people who wanted Jesus killed — primarily Jews ... Jesus is a complete disruption to them. He preached to the poor for a social egalitarianism. Jesus was not that kind of Jew” who lived in palaces.

“This was what he termed ‘a den of robbers,’ ripping one another off. These are Jews cursing other Jews.” In contrast, Jesus was saying “the temple is profaned by the love of money” of “those clothed in fine garments who live in the king’s palaces.”

• Throne of Pilot, for which Tabor said, “Think of Jesus growing up just outside Sepphoris” and rising to a prominence where “he confronts the powers that be, in their most vulnerable points, their riches.”

• Discovery of the only remains of a crucified Jew, including a heel bone with a nail in it. Jesus “suffered the death of a Jew,” Tabor said. “He was actually tried for insurrection — he was a disturber of the peace.”

• Rock-hewn tomb with a small entrance, where the skeletal remains of a jew in a burial shroud was found.

“I’ve been involved in all five” projects, Tabor said. “You really get a framework” from them on what Jesus was really like.

To that end, he said Jesus was “living in a small village outside an urban area. Judaism was not a monolithic whole during Jesus’ time. Until modern times, it was looser.” With a grin, Tabor said modern Jews have three options: bad Jew, lapsed Jew and orthodox Jew.

He summarized what he termed “the old view” as “basically, it’s a good world and God rewards the virtuous and punishes the wicked ... Jesus clearly belongs on the side of the new views. He’s an apocalyptic kind of thinker.”

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, “we start getting much information, like a bell-ringing. This is the time for preparing for the way of the wilderness. So it’s a community that talks about a new covenant,” including repenting and being baptized for the remission of one’s sins.
This new thinking said that the way a sanctuary of men is built with the individual serving as the temple and “atone for sins without the sacrifice of burnt offerings, but rather through prayer,” Tabor said.

“The problem with that is if you read the scrolls, you’ll find many ideas that are anathema to Jesus ... Jesus seemed to be less strict, by far, than this community.”

For instance, the belief was that “if an animal falls into a ditch on Sabbath Day and is in pain, leave it there.” Jesus said, ‘Break the Sabbath and go help the animal.”

He added, “What you find in his (Jesus’) own version of the future” are the following:
• A sense that God cares for the heart and the individual.
• A prophetic vision of Israel’s future and “how it will bring the kingdom of God.”
In concluding, Tabor said, “We really have the sources to place” Jesus “in that diverse mileau of Judaism.”