THE FOUNDATIONS

The Gospels

The Jewish world into which Jesus was born was one of great diversity and variety. Geographically, the Jews were dispersed over a large part of the Mediterranean world; politically, the sources of authority in Judaea were uncertain, resting on a balance between the controlling power of Rome, the permitted rule of the family of Herod, and the traditional institutions of Israel—which in very recent times had achieved a considerable measure of independence under the Hasmonaeans; and theologically, the Jews were pursuing a quest along many different paths for the meaning and application of their faith. In fact, there is a sense in which it is true to say that at the time when Jesus was born there was no such thing as ‘Judaism’; instead there were a variety of ways in which Jews sought to define what Judaism ought to become and be, in their own time and generation. There was, of course, an enormous amount of common ground: there was, above all, the common acceptance of the discovery and experience of God in history, which issued in the recognition as ‘scripture’ of certain documents recording that discovery and experience. It is true that there was, as yet, no complete agreement on what books belonged to Scripture. The basic books, Torah and the Prophets, were generally (though not universally) accepted, but there was no final agreement on the other ‘Writings’.