How Jewish Was Jesus?

Beginning of article

THERE IS A CONSENSUS AMONG BIBLICAL SCHOLARS that Jesus and the New Testament can only be understood in the context of the ancient Jewish sociocultural system. However, Christian theologies over the centuries have largely developed in synthesis with Greek philosophy. This synthesis has led to many distortions of the teachings of Jesus and the practices of the Church.

One of the most important consequences of adopting Greek categories of thought has been the influence Greek thinking has had on the ways Christians have developed their understanding of human nature. The Greeks thought of human beings as consisting of two distinct parts: body and soul. For instance, the neo-Platonists …