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Editorial

I believe in Jesus Christ,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead and buried...

Christian faith is rooted in history. Jesus of Nazareth was a human person who lived for a limited number of years in a certain geographical space. During the past two hundred years New Testament scholars have been engaged on a search for the historical Jesus. However frustrating the outcome of this endeavour, it can no longer be denied that Jesus really existed. He is revealed as a man of his own time and place - first century Palestine. The amazing discoveries of the past fifty years, especially the Dead Sea Scrolls and significant archeological finds, have opened up this past and raised new questions about Jesus and his background that have excited scholars and lay people alike. Jews and Christians are found in both groups.
Jesus is part of the histories of both the Jewish and the Christian communities even though his place is very different in each of them. Scholars are used to sharing and benefitting from each other's research but their findings must be made available to a wider public at a different level. They must inform and enlighten Christian religious education and their consequences for the understanding of the Gospels be drawn out and explained. For Jews a new appreciation of the person of Jesus has been under way for some time, whether he be understood as a "Jew among Jews" (Leo Baeck), a proto-rabbi (P. Sigal), a good Jew of his time (D. Flusser), a Galilean Hasid (G. Vermes), "my elder brother (M. Buber) "my Jewish brother" (Ben Chorin), a Jew sharing the fate of his people (M. Chagall) etc. The awareness of the Jewishness of Jesus and the new knowledge of the Judaisms of first century Palestine are leading Jews and Christians to a new look at Jesus the Jew.
Professor James Charlesworth is one of the leading scholars in this research. He is doing a great service in making pre-70 CE sources available to a wide public. Jesus emerges as "a man of his time", sharing much of the outlook and concerns of his contemporaries. However the distinctiveness of his teaching also begins to appear. As Prof. Charlesworth writes:
It is startling to discern how true it is that the genesis and genius of earliest Christianity and the one reason it became distinguishable from Judaism is found primarily in one particular life.
But as Professor Schwartz makes clear, and as Professor Daube illustrates, Rabbinic tradition can still throw light on the teaching of Jesus and the concerns of the Gospels. Even though the early Rabbinic traditions were edited at a later date, form and redaction studies are revealing that they (like the Gospels) contain pre-70 traditions. This is very relevant to Jews and Christians today. Not only did Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity emerge from the same background but the Gospels and the Rabbinic tradition show a certain continuity. This is important for relationships between these two communities today.
The search for a more profound understanding of the historical Jesus must continue. Jewish and Christian scholars are both playing their part in this. It is true that faith and theology go beyond history but when divorced from history they easily degenerate into superstition. Jesus was a first century Palestinian Jew who was "at home" in Second Temple Judaism with its religious and political complexity. If Christians do not take not take this seriously the potential for anti-judaism remains. Sidic and its readers will be eager to absorb and foster this "Jesus research".
The Editors

JESUS OF NAZARETH
He spoke the language
both of earth and of heaven, But if he'd had no love
it would have been so much old iron. He was a prophet who could explain all the wonders and secrets of God. He was wise with all knowledge,
He had faith so complete
he could have moved mountains. If he'd had no love
it would all have been worthless. He gave everything he possessed even his life as a martyr for what he believed; If he had been without love
it would have gone for nothing.
He was never in a hurry
and was always kindness itself. He never envied anyone at all, and never boasted about himself. He was never snobbish
or rude or, selfish.
He didn't keep on talking
about the wrong things other people did; Remembering the good things
was happiness enough for him.
He was tough - he could face anything and he never lost trust in God
or in men and women. He never lost hope and he never gave in!

Hubert J. Richards and Alan Dale (from I Corinthians 13)