2
emphases of the four Evangelists. Thus, in chronological sequence, we begin with John
the Baptist.
John the Baptist
From John's perspective, certain Jewish leaders represented the major example of
false teachers whom he encountered. In Matthew 3:7, he addresses "many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees" as a "brood of vipers" who are in danger of imminent judgment
(vv. 9-10) if they do not begin producing "fruit in keeping with repentance" (v. 8). John's
warning appears to go largely unheeded, however, for in Luke 7:30, we read, "But the
Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had
not been baptized by John."
In an age appropriately sensitive to the horrific anti-Semitism that characterized
various eras of church history, we do well to remind ourselves that nowhere do the
Gospels condemn all Jews, all Jewish leaders, or even all members of one of the
leadership sects.
4
In fact, they present positive models in each of these categories--most
notably Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and the Pharisees who warn Jesus about
Herod's plotting against him (Luke 13:31). Nevertheless we do perceive a general trend
among Pharisees, Sadducees, and the scribes of both groups to reject the claims of both
John and Jesus.
The flurry of research into first-century Palestinian Judaism that the last
generation of scholarship has produced continues to debate vigorously the precise
theologies of this movement, but the following generalizations seem secure. (1) A major
swath of Jewish belief can fairly be described by what E. P. Sanders dubbed "covenantal
nomism"--that is to say obedience to the Law was viewed as the means by which ethnic