How Ought a Jew View Christian Beliefs About Redemption?
Menachem Kellner
University of Haifa
kellner@research.haifa.ac.il
In this essay I take as my text Paul’s Letter to the Romans. My point of departure is Paul's use of Habakkuk 2:4, “the righteous shall live by his faith,” to express the view that redemption comes through faith. I will then discuss what I take as two Jewish alternatives to this reading:
a) that of Rav Simlai in the Talmudic tractate Makkot who apparently sees the faith spoken of by Habakkuk in terms of loyalty to the commandments and
b) that of Maimonides who apparently sees the faith spoken of by Habakkuk in terms of correct intellectual apprehensions.
Paul focuses on the individual (what a person must do in order to be saved from damnation) while Jewish thinkers have traditionally focussed on what the Jewish people must do corporately to achieve redemption.
The prophet Habakkuk said, …zaddik be-emunato yihyeh. Literally: "…The righteous [individual] lives [or, will live] through [i.e., by virtue of] his faith" (Hab. 2:4).
All three of the Hebrew words need explanation, as does their relationship. What is a zaddik (righteous person)? Is she defined as righteous by her faith or by her actions or by some combination of them? Is the life referred to life in this world, or perhaps in the world to come? Is the verse telling us how a zaddik lives (a life characterized by emunah, faith) or is it telling us that emunah, faith, is a pre-requisite for achieving life in the world to come? Finally, and crucially, what is the nature of that emunah which characterizes the righteous life or through which the righteous individual earns life?
The verse from Habakkuk is cited only once in the Talmud. It appears at the end of the following discussion:
R. Simlai expounded: ‘Six hundred and thirteen precepts were communicated to Moses, three hundred and sixty-five negative ones, corresponding to the days of the solar year, and two hundred forty-eight positive ones, corresponding to the number of members of a human's body. . .’.
R. Simlai here tells us that the Torah contains precisely 613 commandments. R. Simlai continues: "David came and reduced them [the six hundred thirteen commandments] to eleven. . ." Here R. Simlai cites Psalms 15, in which he finds eleven characteristics of the person who seeks "to sojourn in the Lord's tabernacle and dwell in the holy mountain." The exposition continues; Isaiah is cited as having reduced the 613 to six, Micah to three, and Isaiah, again, to two. The passage ends as follows:
Amos came and reduced them to one, as it is said: ‘For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me and live.’ To this R. Nahman ben Isaac demurred, saying [Might it not be taken as meaning,] Seek Me by observing the whole Torah and live? But it is Habakkuk who came and based them all on one, as it is said, ‘But the righteous shall live by his faith’.
As I see it, the Talmud teaches here that the faith (emunah) through which one achieves righteousness and life is expressed through the fulfillment of the 613 commandments of Judaism. To the extent that Talmudic Judaism has a settled doctrine about how redemption is to be achieved, the route is through fulfillment of the commandments.
How does the Apostle Paul read Habakkuk? In Romans 1:16-17 we read: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith'." The salvific context is explicit here. Paul never connects the faith which makes for righteousness and which leads to salvation to fulfillment of divine commandments. We are dealing here with two very different religious sensibilities that lead to two different understandings of redemption.
Paul is consistent on this point:
But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift… (3:21-23).
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God (4:2).
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his descendents through the law but through the righteousness of faith (4:13).
So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy (9:16).
'The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (10:8-9).
These verses teach the following doctrine: All humans are sinners and as such have no right to salvation nor any reason to expect to be saved. No matter how many righteous deeds are performed, one cannot earn salvation.
It seems fair to read the Talmudic passage cited above from Makkot as teaching that a righteous person is defined as such by his or her faith and that through that faith the righteous person lives. The faith which defines a righteous person as such, moreover, finds expression in the fulfillment of as many of the 613 commandments as one can fulfill. Paul understands Habakkuk to mean that faith alone makes one righteous and leads to salvation.
Moses Maimonides (1138-1204), presents a highly influential doctine of salvation of the individual and redemption of Israel, and through Israel, of the world. Maimonides believed that righteous individuals are both defined by their faith and achieve life in the world to come through it. He understands faith to be the affirmation of true claims (as opposed to an understanding of faith as trust in God as expressed through behavior). Maimonides was thus led to ask: Which specific beliefs constitute the faith of the righteous Jew and grant that Jew access to the world to come? He phrased the answer to that question in his famous Thirteen Principles of faith. Acceptance of these principles is the key to individual salvation. Rejecting any of the principles, or even doubting them, costs one his or her share in the world to come.
How can a Jewish thinker say this? Maimonides is locked into this. He interprets Habakkuk, as it were, to define righteousness as faith; he defines faith as assent to a set of propositions. If one denies (or even doubts or questions) any one of these propositions, one's faith is deficient and so is one's righteousness. Maimonides even demands assent to these propositions as a prerequisite for being a Jew in the fullest sense of the term, regardless of one's actions.
But this is not the whole story. Individual salvation for Maimonides, then, is a matter of holding a particular set of doctrines in a particular fashion. In order to hold these doctrines properly, one must attain a high level of moral perfection. As he says, "…the moral virtues are a preparation for the rational virtues, it being impossible to achieve true, rational acts -- I mean perfect rationality -- unless it be by a man thoroughly trained in his morals and endowed with the qualities of tranquillity and quiet." One must be trained. Moral training comes through the performance of the commandments.
But what about the redemption of the Jewish people and of the world? Maimonides predicates the coming of the Messiah upon the world-wide acceptance of at least the philosophical underpinning of his Thirteen Principles and furthermore makes the necessary understanding of these principles dependent in most cases upon fulfilling the commandments of the Torah.
Maimonides makes a remarkable claim in his description of the conditions necessary for the coming of the Messiah. In a passage censored from all pre-modern editions of the Mishneh Torah, his great law code, Maimonides writes:
But if he does not meet with full success, or is slain, it is obvious that he is not the Messiah promised in the Torah. He is to bregarded like all the other wholehearted and worthy kings of the House of David who died and whom the Holy One, blessed be He, raised up to test the multitude, as it is written, "And some of them that are wise shall stumble, to refine among them, and to purify, and to make white, even to the time of the end; for it is yet for the time appointed" (Daniel 11:35). Even of Jesus of Nazareth, who imagined that he was the Messiah, and was put to death by the court, Daniel had prophesied, as it is written, "And the children of the violent among thy people shall lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they shall stumble" (Daniel 11:14). For has there ever been a greater stumbling than this? All the prophets affirmed that the Messiah would redeem Israel, save them, gather their dispersed, and confirm the commandments. But he [Jesus] caused Israel to be destroyed by the sword, their remnant to be dispersed and humiliated. He was instrumental in changing the Torah and causing the world to err and serve another beside God. But it is beyond the human mind to fathom the designs of the Creator; for our ways are not His ways, neither are our thoughts His thoughts. All these matters relating to Jesus of Nazareth and the Ishmaelite [Mohammed] who came after him, only served to clear the way for King Messiah, to prepare the whole world to worship God with one accord, as it is written, "For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent" (Zephaniah 3:9). Thus the messianic hope, the Torah, and the commandments have become familiar topics --topics of conversation (among the inhabitants) of the far isles and many people, uncircumcised of heart and flesh. They are discussing these matters and the commandments of the Torah. Some say, "Those commandments were true, but have lost their validity and are no longer binding"; others declare that they had an esoteric meaning and were not to be taken literally; that the Messiah has already come and revealed their occult significance. But when the true King Messiah will appear and succeed, be exalted and lifted up, they will forthwith recant and realize that they have inherited nothing but lies from their fathers, that their prophets and forbears led them astray.
In this text Maimonides explains that Christianity and Islam have a messianic role. By preparing the world to accept ideas concerning messianism, Torah, and commandments, they help pave the road on which the Messiah must travel. How so? Among the tasks of the Messiah will be "to prepare the world to worship God with one accord." This will be accomplished through natural means: "Let no one think that in the days of the Messiah any of the laws of nature will be set aside, or any innovation be introduced into creation. The world will follow its normal course." But to convert the world to pure monotheism overnight (to say nothing of acceptance of the Torah and its commandments) would be an "innovation into creation," a miracle of unprecedented proportions, extending over the face of the entire world and persisting forever. Maimonides believes that the role of Christianity and Islam is to wean idolaters away from idolatry. It is their job to prepare the larger world to accept faith in God and in his Torah in order "to call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent" (Zeph. 3:9) when the true Messiah comes.
For Maimonides salvation of the individual and redemption of the world both depend upon a complicated interaction between fulfillment of the commandments and true philosophical understanding.
R. Simlai and Maimonides, for all their differences, illustrate that a Jewish view of redemption must emphasize a number of issues: this-worldliness, good works, and truth. Paul’s view of redemption as expressed in Romans seems to be wholly other-worldly, divorced from good works, and focussed entirely on truth. Paul seems to be answering the following question: what doctrine must a person accept as true in order to be saved? Maimonides is the first Jew ever to ask even a similar question (but for Aristotelian, not Pauline, reasons); but even he is drawn by the Jewish tradition to focus on good works in this world as well.
How are to understand Paul’s position, which seems so divergent from the faith of his fathers and mothers? The answer relates to the question of original sin. Since for Paul “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” they can now only be “justified by his grace as a gift…” (3:21-23). Grace cannot be earned; it can only be bestowed by God as a gift and accepted as such by he or she happy enough to recognize it and receive it. On this question the Jewish view seems well expressed by the Mishnah (Sanhedrin X.1): “All Israelites have a share in the world to come…” -- since humans by their nature do not fall short of the glory of God, they are by nature worthy of a share in the world to come. Thus, by nature, humans are redeemed. The Jew's problem is not his or her individual salvation, but how to bring redemption to the world.
How, then, ought I as a Jew, and as an heir to the Jewish tradition, view Christian beliefs about redemption as expressed in Paul’s letter to the Romans? The answer, I submit, is as follows: because of his revolutionary, un-Jewish view of human nature as necessarily falling short of the glory of God, Paul was led to ask the wrong question. The question which Jews must ask is: what must we do in order to make the world messiah-worthy?
Books For Further Reading:
Menachem Kellner (ed.), The Pursuit of the Ideal: Jewish Writings of Steven Schwarzschild (Albany: SUNY Press, 1990).
Joseph Klausner, The Messianic Idea in Israel (New York: Macmillan, 1955).
Yeshaiahu Leibowitz, The Faith of Maimonides (New York: Adama Books, 1987).
Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism (New York: Schocken, 1971). Kenneth Seeskin, Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed (W. Orange: Behrman House, 1991).
