Matthew Novenson | Faculty Spotlight

Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament

Judaism in the New Testament

The New Testament is the more obviously Christian part of the Christian Bible, since the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh) is scripture to Jews, as well. But as a great deal of recent research has shown, even the New Testament is full of evidence for Judaism in the late Second Temple period: the Judaism of Jesus and the apostles. An important challenge for Christian interpretation, therefore, is to read the New Testament as Christian scripture without turning Jews and Judaism into a caricature or a foil.