Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Jesus Wasn’t Unique

Jesus Wasn’t Unique

Last updated on: January 4, 2021 at 5:19 am by James F. McGrath

Jesus Wasn’t Unique 2021-01-03T08:50:16-05:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The New Testament does not claim that Jesus was unique. That may be a shocking claim, but I think you will find it to be true nonetheless.

He stood out from a crowd, from among his peers. Many people do. We might sometimes say certain people have a unique aptitude or are uniquely gifted, but we don’t mean that literally. We mean they excel relative to the population in general.

I have been thinking about this as I’ve worked on my book What Jesus Learned from Women, trying very hard to emphasize clearly that even when Jesus disagreed with his contemporaries about matters of purity, for example, he was not “arguing against Jewish purity rules” but arguing as one Jew among many about Jewish purity rules. What he offers is one possible Jewish understanding of purity, and the view that he held was not unique to him alone.

Some might say that he stood out by being “sinless.” That is not a claim that every New Testament author makes, nor one that a historian can verify. Depending what is meant, it could either be a way of saying he was righteous to a level that excelled others, or a form of denial of his humanity. If the point is seeking to do what is right and obey the commandments, then Jesus was not alone in doing that. The Book of Job may be a fictional tale, but its main character is said to have been righteous above his contemporaries, not lacking in the normal human desires and inclinations that, if followed unchecked, lead to sin. If honoring father and mother counts then Jesus both defended the commandment (Matthew 15:4) and to not care for one’s father and ensure honorable burial (a duty of a child who honors their parent) if it keeps you from leaving home to follow Jesus (Matthew 8:22).

I also found myself at Christmas thinking about this cartoon about bumper stickers, imagining what Joseph and Mary might have had on theirs:

Best Bumper Sticker Ever: Our Son is God

I write in my forthcoming book, What Jesus Learned from Women, discussing the story of the Syrophoenician woman:

Ultimately the question should not be whether Jesus used an especially bad insult in speaking to this woman, but whether he insulted her, period. He did. Comparing someone to a household pet may not be as bad as comparing someone to a wild scavenger, but both are dehumanizing. We sometimes find ourselves inclined to pretend otherwise because of an instinct many of us have to defend Jesus’s reputation if not indeed his perfection and infallibility.

Amy-Jill Levine (The Misunderstood Jew, p.121) writes:

The social-justice Jesus who promotes a healthy interpretation of the Torah, peaceful response to oppression, the healing of women’s bodies, and the recognition that the God of Israel is the God of the Gentiles as well is enormously appealing, and enormously useful. The image may also be substantially true. The problem emerges, however, when these observations are enhanced by the depiction of Judaism as rejecting such concerns. Jesus was not the only Jew to care about these issues; his social-justice interests make him a Jew rather than distinguishing him from Judaism.

Paula Fredriksen has written (in more than one place):

A Jesus who rejects his own religious culture turns out to be a 20th-century person in ancient garb—a modern secular liberal offended by impurity’s sharp lines.

A Jesus who lives coherently within late Second Temple Judaism is worse than too Jewish: He is too different. Perhaps here, then, on this point, at century’s end, we can see the beginning of yet another phase in the quest for the historical Jesus: one seeking to grasp how Jesus understood his own culture, rather than using him as a reflecting surface for understanding our own.

This issue also came up in connection with a New York Times op-ed that elicited a response from several major New Testament scholars, who wrote in The Daily Beast:

Writing in The New York Times on Christmas Eve, Peter Wehner, like so many Christians before him, sought to make Jesus relevant to contemporary readers by mapping present-day concerns onto first century texts to describe what his article calls The Forgotten Radicalism of Jesus Christ. His barrier-shattering, social justice warrior Jesus may be appealing, but this depiction is faithful neither to the Gospels nor to history.

Wehner yanks Jesus out of Jewish context and then falsely categorizes the Judaism of Jesus’ time as representing the toxicity of today’s contemporary culture. The piece is not only bad journalism; it is bad theology and bad history.

See also the article in the Times of Israel (for which I was interviewed) about the new book by Marc Brettler and Amy-Jill Levine, The Bible With and Without Jesus, about the different ways that Jews and Christians read the same texts in the Bible.

Often the assertion of Jesus’ “uniqueness” has been associated with exclusivism and even antisemitism. Yet anyone who does not esteem Jesus above other teachers and examples presumably does not deserve the label “Christian.” What’s the solution? One can be fully committed to a particular understanding of God, a particular set of scriptures, or an individual without it meaning we have to denigrate others or cannot be open to learning from them. That’s what people do with respect to human beings when they get married: they commit to fidelity to one person. In terms of this comparison, religious exclusivism ends up looking a lot like the “Billy Graham Rule,” reflecting a lack of dedicated commitment that views other people or other creeds as too tempting to be around. A pure pluralist eclecticism parallels those who seem unwilling to ever commit and settle down. Between the extremes it is possible to live a life that is faithful to one and yet does not need to achieve that fidelity by insisting that all others are disgusting.

I think that’s an appropriate approach to Jesus for whose who follow him, in particular because I think that’s what Jesus did and would do. He is firmly committed to the God of Israel, and at the same time recognizes faith in Gentiles who do not share that commitment.

We can still sing and say that there is none like Jesus, just as we might say that about the person that we’ve committed to spending our life with. It isn’t a literal statement (except in the case of my own spouse, obviously), but an expression of devotion. The point is not to figure out ways to say things that so set Jesus apart that one is led to treat all others as worthless garbage (not what Jesus would do!) but to be uniquely committed to following him.

This is an important point to make not least because in our time we have so many examples of people who will talk about the uniqueness of Jesus and will praise the Bible with superlatives, and yet they are clearly not committed to actually following and living what the implications of their rhetoric would lead one to believe. In Jesus’ teaching, it isn’t saying “(unique) Lord, (incomparable) Lord,” but actually doing what he taught that is what he seeks (Matthew 7:22).

Also of possible related interest:

https://trinities.org/blog/letter/

https://historyforatheists.com/2021/01/2020-a-year-in-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2020-a-year-in-review

How Beautiful on the Mountains are the Feet of Jesus

Also on a related note, I tried for a while to arrange for Anthony Le Donne and Larry Behrendt to appear on my podcast to talk about their book, Sacred Dissonance. It never came about, but let me draw attention to the book and some blogging others engaged in about it:

The Need for Enlightened Jewish-Christian Dialogue

Review by Simon Joseph

Anthony LeDonne blogged about it himself as well

Previous Post

January 3, 2021

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks

Next Post

January 5, 2021 Tenet

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz