Jesus and the Fundamentalists of His Day: the Gospels, the Bible, and Jesus, by William Loader, Melbourne: Uniting Education, 1998.

The contention of this book is that religionists in Jesus’ day who ordered their lives by a strict observance of the law, and were prone to put those laws above people, were therefore ‘to be found mostly not on the side of Jesus but among his opponents.’ For Jesus, ‘people are people, and people matter most, not ideologies.’ For Jesus and Paul, some of God’s commands are more important than others. These battles are still being fought among Jesus’ followers.

The earliest Christians had three views about the relationship between the two divine authorities – Jesus and the Bible. Either Jesus is seen as a further authority, beside the authority of Scripture; or both Jesus and the Scriptures have absolute authority, and are in harmony with each other; or Jesus replaces the authority of Scripture. Loader examines five early writers, or collections of writings – Mark, Q, Matthew, Luke and John, and find some unique approaches to the question of Jesus’ authority in each.

An early story (Q 7:1-4, 6-9; Luke 7:1-10, Matthew 8:5-13) describes the request by an army commander for Jesus to heal his sick servant. The commander notes that ‘I am not worthy to have you come under my roof’ – assuming that as a strict observant Jew Jesus would refuse to enter the house of a Gentile. Peter had to confront this issue later with another army commander, Cornelius (Acts 10-11). But it was more important for Jesus to display compassion for people, so he crossed many of these religious boundaries – particularly, when he (and John the Baptist before him)

alientated his countrymen by pronouncing people’s sins forgiven.

Similarly, the purpose of the Sabbath according to Jesus was not to restrict people, but to benefit them. ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’ is Jesus’ response to legalism, quoting Hosea 6:6. God and God’s compassion are central, not what is written. The spirit of the law is far more important than the letter of the law.

For Mark, Jesus has authority to forgive sins; he is lord of the Sabbath; and his authority is displayed in his power over demons. To reject Jesus is to reject God (Mark 8:38). Where Jesus collided with the teaching of the Pharisees was in his teaching that God loves both Jew and Gentile without discrimination. The Pharisees could not cope with this idea. For Jesus ethical purity in the context of love for God and neighbour was crucial – not ceremonial purity alone. Jesus went beyond the Mosaic law and ‘declared all foods clean’ (Mark 7:19).

In Q, there is at least one instance Jesus is more strict than the law: divorce (Q 16:18, cf. Luke 16:18, Matthew 5:32). Our author believes ‘this coheres with [Jesus’] attack on divorce which represented an abuse of women, often for monetary gain’ (p. 60).

Matthew goes beyond Mark and Q: Jesus says he has not come to ‘annul the Law and the Prophets. but to fulfil them.’ Loader asks: ‘Who could have thought otherwise? Perhaps some who had read Mark might have thought so’ (p. 80). Again, the Hosea quote about mercy and sacrifice is mentioned twice (9.13, 12:7).

For Luke, obeying the law is essential for a true follower of Jesus. But in the parable of the Good Samaritan we have some religious leaders who have missed the point of what, for Jesus, religion is all about. For Jesus human well-being is understood primarily in terms of relationships and community. The religious leaders’ failure to give highest priority to justice and God’s love amounted to a betrayal of their tradition.

And in John? ‘The Word is John’s Bible. The Word is Jesus’ (p. 126). ‘Linking Jesus with the image of the Word or Wisdom made a lot of sense to many Jewish Christians in the early decades of the Church. It was a way of saying: what we identified as God’s Wisdom we find in Jesus’ (p. 127). ‘In Jesus, John is telling us, we see God (p. 129). Further: ‘The Law is not the light, Jesus is. the Law is “their – the Jews’ – law”, a common phrase in John.’ (p. 134). ‘The Law. was God’s interim gift until the Word came. The Law and the Scripture is not the life, the light, the truth, the way, the water, the bread, and so on, but at most the witness to Jesus who is all these things’ (p. 137). John’s people are not people of the book; ‘they are people of the Word’ (p. 137).

So, in summary: the gospel-writers affirm, in different ways, that it is compassion for people which is the underlying principle in interpreting Scripture, rather than obedience to commands.

Conclusion: ‘For Jesus people mattered most, compassion was uppermost. This is the nature of God’s being.’

A Question: ‘Paul knows only a few sayings of Jesus’ (p. 45). How does Loader know? (But yes Paul only quotes a few of Jesus’ sayings).

Interesting: ‘Divisions among churches over orders of ministry, liturgy and celebration, forms of government, reflect the passions of those who would have experienced Jesus. as a threat’ (p. 47)

(There are several ‘typos’ in the book: it must have been a rushed job – ‘follow’ for ‘following’ p.24; ‘her’ for ‘he’ p.26; Gentiles for Gentile, p. 40 etc.).

The book reads like the author’s lecture-notes (rather than, say, his preaching), but if one is interested in the subject, it’s a good read, though not always an easy read. Studying the books of the NT as products of different faith-communities – a generally-accepted assumption by just about all NT scholars – is quite challenging. More challenging: who are the fundamentalists who’d crucify this Jesus today?

(William Loader is an Australian Uniting Church minister, and an Associate Professor of New Testament at Murdoch University, Perth.)

Rowland Croucher

November 2004..