This page contains a post by Joseph Nobles to the BAS General Discussion Forum where he summarizes the book by Christy Cobb Judeophobia and the New Testament: The Undergraduate Classroom (Christy Cobb, pp. 21-28) and The Seminary (Tom de Bruin, pp. 29-34)
Noble’s Disclaimer: The contents of this post are not my [Joseph Nobles, BAS member] original work. I am summarizing the chapters in Judeophobia and the New Testament, ed. Sarah E. Rollens, Eric M. Vanden Eykel, and Meredith J. C. Warren (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2025). I have sometimes modified the chapter questions to apply to an online forum. If you want to dig into these chapters, I’m happy to quote more from the book or give my own thoughts.
The Undergraduate Classroom
As a professor in both a “historically Christian liberal arts college” and a “research university,” Cobb has needed to confront “rampant” Judeophobia “rooted in what [Cobb views] as a misunderstood view of Christian theology as well as what some call a ‘literal’ interpretation of scripture.” Here are the top myths she deals with constantly, along with a brief counter. She recommends they be introduced in an appropriate class in the first year of undergraduate work “in order to counter anti-Jewish rhetoric in class discussions.”
Myth #1: Jesus Was The First Christian
“Jesus was Jewish. The texts of the New Testament are clear that Jesus was indeed Jewish during his life, ministry, and death. At no point did Jesus abandon Judaism in order to start a new religion.” Cobb cites Luke 4:16, Luke 2:41, and Mark 6:56/Matt 9:20 as clear indications of Jesus’s Jewishness. “Jesus’s expectations and teachings about the end times are firmly rooted in Jewish apocalyptic thought.”
Myth #2: Jews Killed Jesus and Are Responsible For His Death
“All four canonical gospels acknowledge that the condemnation and death of Jesus required the approval of the Roman government, who was in control of the region of Judea during the first century,” though it was “affirmed by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.” The scene where Pilate releases a prisoner to the Passover crowd “was not historical,” according to scholars like Amy-Jill Levine; “the Roman Empire would not release a political prisoner during this festival, which celebrates the release of the Israelites from slavery. That would be too much of a risk.”
Myth #3: Paul Rejected Judaism in Order to Convert to Christianity
“Paul was Jewish and remained Jewish throughout his life and ministry,” as both his letters and the narrative of the Book of Acts make clear. Paul’s experience on the Damascus road is comparable to that of Heliodoros in 2 Maccabees 3 and is not a “conversion.” He continued to interact with Jewish synagogues throughout his known life, and his advocacy of including non-Jews (Gentiles) into the religious community and ekklesia …he is helping to build, he does not reject his own religion and culture of Judaism.”
Myth #4: Ancient Jews (Including Pharisees and Sadducees) Were Legalistic and Misguided
We “do not have a full understanding of these religious groups” including the Essenes, but “only a small number of Jews were a part of these groups, so they do not represent the views of the majority of the Jews within this period.” Between the gospel accounts and Josephus, the main sources of information on them “was written by outsiders.” For the gospels’ part, they craft “a story about Jesus and his teaching.” They are “not attempting to recreate a historical picture of first-century Judaism.”
Myth #5: Jewish Women Were Not Liberated and Were Drawn to Christianity because of Its Egalitarian Views
Both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament books include stories of powerful women like Deborah, Huldah, Esther, Judith, Priscilla, and Junia. “One scholar, Bernadette Brooten, carefully and undisputedly proves [Jewish women were leaders in the synagogue] through analyzing inscriptions from the Roman and Byzantine periods from locations in Palestine, Italy, Asia Minor, and even Egypt.”
Myth #6 Despite the Many Messianic Prophecies in Scripture, Jews Did Not Recognize Jesus as the Messiah
“Some Christians, both historically and today, read the Hebrew Scriptures in light of what they already know about Jesus from the gospels. When they do so, they turn to passages such as Isaiah 53 and find within it prophecies that match the presentation of Jesus from the canonical gospels,” connections the gospel writers likely intended to make. “It is true that some Jews in the first century were eager for someone to deliver them from their current situation of oppression and suffering. …Josephus names six individuals who were viewed as prophets and perhaps understood by their followers to be a messiah. …Yet also, other Jews in the ancient world did not anticipate this type of messianic figure. The Jews who were Jesus’s followers” had to grapple with how they understood messianic prophecies when a general resurrection of the dead did not follow Jesus’s resurrection (as described in 1 Thessalonians) and the texts and their later interpretations found their way into the gospels.
Myth #7: Early Christians Rejected Judaism as They Embraced Christianity
“In the years after Jesus’s death, the majority of his followers remained Jewish, just as they had been during his ministry.” Paul describes in Galatians part of the complicated path for “the treatment and inclusion of gentiles” in this new religious community. It took several centuries for this new religious group to “[morph] into what we know of as Christianity, which is not Judaism; members of the Christian community were mostly gentile. This was a messy process and not one that can be simply stated …as rejection and conversion. …Acknowledging that the texts of the New Testament developed out of its ancient Jewish context is vital. So, too, it is imperative that Christians today not appropriate aspects of Judaism for their own gain, nor view Christianity as a superior religion, which could be perceived as invalidating Judaism. Finally, it is important to recognize that texts from the New Testament have been interpreted as anti-Jewish and have been used to incite violence against Jews for hundreds of years.”
The Seminary
De Bruin recounts being lectured by a fellow student in his first days as a seminary student when he spoke up in class about a Judeophobic reading of the Bible. The student “lectured me at length on how salvation had passed from the Jews to the gentiles after the stoning of Stephen, the Israel of the flesh versus the Israel of the spirit, [and] how the Old Testament laws were a type to Jesus’s ministry.” This chapter will “explore these issues, highlight some common Judeophobic trends in Christianity, and will challenge you to think how you can engage with Judaism and Judeophobia in your faith and ministry.”
“The Bible, for most Christians, consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. …Neither of these Testaments were written by Christian people, nor for a Christian audience, but rather have become significant for Christian communities as time went on.” The claim over a collection of texts of another group by Christians is problematic but here we look at the term “Old Testament.” It “implies that there are two stages of revelation to humanity: an old, and thus outdated and expired, revelation, and a new and improved one.” This view is easy to read into the New Testament with passages like Hebrews 8:16-13, Luke 22:20, and so on. Common Christian statements like “’The Old Testament God is much more violent than the New Testament one’ …are seen by many to be Judeophobic. But that does not mean that Christianity or a Christian worldview has to be!” [bullet formatting is mine]
- Supersessionism, or “thinking that the church superseded Israel,” is “the most obvious” theological concept that “undergirds and reinforces Judeophobic readings of scripture.” It’s sometimes called “replacement theology” or “fulfillment theology.” “R. Kendall Soulen suggests there are three forms of supersessionism, each with different mechanics: punitive, economic, and structural.” The first two are “the easier to understand and recognize.”
- Punitive supersessionism “focuses on Israel’s disobedience in the Old Testament and the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.” God gives them up and “grace moves to the church.”
- Economic supersessionism sees this exchange as the plan all along, with the Old Testament as a “placeholder.” People expressing this idea may also point to the “Old Testament sacrifices [being] effective only because they prefigured Christ’s death on the cross.”
- Structural supersessionism is “more subtle.” There is no “explicit teaching that Christianity displaced Judaism,” but the “voice of the Old Testament is diminished or ignored in comparison to the New Testament, and the Jewishness of Jesus and other New Testament figures is downplayed.” The “eternal and universal meaning of Scripture” is emphasized above any acknowledgment that the Old Testament scriptures “were written for the people in that time” and “continue to represent the final revelation of God for many Jews today.”
- There are some moves toward Christian “postsupersessionist theologies” which “argue that the covenant between God and Israel remains” and is “theologically significant for the church in a variety of ways.”
“When some churches divide the biblical history into periods (e.g., dispensationalism, historicism, covenant theology), there is a danger of stigmatizing the period before the New Testament.” The doctrine that revelation is progressive is another idea that is “inherently supersessionist, and can lead to more overt Judeophobia. People might claim that Christians are fundamentally better able to understand God than the Israelites were.” Many churches hold a special place in their teachings, especially in eschatology, for the nation or state of Israel, going as far as to expect the nation of Israel to confess Jesus to be the Messiah. “Most of these interpretations show at the very least evidence of structural supercessionism.” It may seem impossible to imagine “theology that is completely free of supersessionism,” but “antisupersessionist theologians might remind us that God made a covenant with Israel first, that Jesus’s primary concern was to minister to the people of Israel, and that Paul portrays gentile believers as grafted onto the first covenant (Rom 11). Thus, Christians might better focus on the grace that is afforded them through Jesus Christ: an invitation to enter covenanted life with God, first established with Israel.”
Questions
- Add another myth to the list of myths and then critically analyze it and offer a different way of understanding the topic. Incorporate scripture and historical references, if possible.
- Why is it important for readers of the New Testament to address these myths and reject views that are Judeophobic?
- Read Romans 11:11-32; how does this text enlighten the relation between the church and Israel? Does Paul being a Christ-following Jew affect how we read this passage?
- Does your faith tradition or denomination (present or past) have any doctrines or statements that refer to Judaism or Israel? How do they resonate with concerns raised by this chapter?
Exercise:
Go to a web search page and utilize the autocomplete feature by typing in phrases about a group (religious or otherwise) in which you identify. Some suggestions (fill in the name of your group): “Why don’t Baptists…”, “Why are Adventists…”, “Why do atheists…”, and then reflect on the generalized statements in the auto-complete. Do you see where they are coming from? Do they reflect your identity and practice? Choose the two most negative and reflect on how they make you feel. Now, read these New Testament text and reflect how repeating them stigmatizes (aspects of) Judaism and reinforces Judeophobic readings of the New Testament: Matthew 23:1-15 and John 8:31-47. What options do you see for interpreting these texts without reinforcing Judeophobia? If you like, share your experience, conclusions, and concerns here.
