Finally, matters are beginning to come clear. Who is Jesus? Jesus is a counter-cultural confrontational rabbi. He was not an apostate from Jewish tradition but a radical interpreter of it.
When Toynbee provocatively characterizes him as a Pharisee he is, in effect, emphasizing that Jesus is learned in the Law and the Prophets. But unlike his pharisaic counterparts who rely on the citation of their teachers, Jesus on the contrary teaches with personal authority. He is fearless in taking on and contesting the prevailing views of the scribes and Pharisees.
I say counter-cultural because Jesus violates Jewish laws of purity by eating with tax collectors and sinners and thereby deeply offends opposing pharisaic interpretations. When his disciples pluck some grains to eat while strolling through the grain fields, they are accused by Pharisees of breaking the law of the Sabbath forbidding work on the Sabbath. Jesus utters the retort, “the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” This episode is present in all three of the synoptic gospels.
When Jesus heals the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, he too is condemned by powerful Pharisees of a breach of the Divine Law. Jesus is a dissident within the mainstream community and is a threat to the pre-eminence of the pharisaic party opposed to him. Accordingly, they conspire to destroy him.
Let me anticipate the charge of anti-semitism by making clear that identifying the Jewish involvement in the crucifixion of Jesus has nothing to do with Jews through the ages or of today. It is not contemporary Jews who come under condemnation but those Christians who bear religious offices analogous to the Pharisees and high priests of Jesus’ day – Popes, bishops, moderators, theological teachers.
There is much more to say about Jesus. Even taking into account the perceptual and interpretive filters of the evangelists and even of the earlier oral tradition of the eye witnesses, some of the healing stories are credible and impressive. Jesus was a powerful, charismatic, never-to-be-forgotten character in one’s encounter with him. Despite the many differences among the gospels, none would dispute this assertion.