Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Christian M. M. Brady" <cbrady AT tulane.edu>]

On 6/13/02 9:47 AM, "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu> wrote:

> 
> The problem that many people have is that the NT provides Jesus'
> genealogy
> as descending from the Judean kings, and then it has him say that
> Jews are descended from the devil. Since people don't want to have Jesus
> himself be descended from the devil (!) they go through all kinds of
> convolutions
> to deny that the Kings of Judah are Jews!

Liz,

This would quickly be booted from the list, so I am sending it to you
privately. I understand what you are trying to say and that some Christians
have read the NT this way, but you have grossly misrepresented the Gospel
passage to which you refer.

The passage is John 8 and Jesus does not say that the Jews are descended
from the devil, but he accuses the Pharisees of being "from your father the
devil" because they are lying and misleading the Jewish people. This is
polemic against the religious teachings of a select group, not a rejection
of the Jewish people as a whole. The rabbis had similar harsh words and
rejection of those they felt were heretics and misleading Jews.

So in many ways your post is "problematic" and is bad exegesis at best.

Yours,

-- 
Cb
cbrady @ tulane.edu

(Below is a quote that was randomly selected by Entourage.)

Writing bows one's back, thrusts the
ribs into one's stomach, and
fosters a general debility of the body.
                       Ancient Colophon