Reflection for January 29

Discussing the engagement of Jewish scholars in the study of the New Testament, Amy Jill-Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler quote Mishnah Pirkei Avot: “Any controversy waged in the service of God shall in the end be of lasting worth, but any that is not shall in the end lead to no permanent result.” Levine and Brettler continue, “Such study can also have a much loftier result. The late Krister Stendahl, a Lutheran scholar... coined the term ‘holy envy’ to express the idea that a religious tradition different from the one we pratice may express beautiful and meaningful notions. No religion contains all wisdom expressed perfectly and there is much in the New Testament that we find both beautiful and meaningful” (Editor’s Preface, The Jewish Annotated New Testament).