Preface to the Second Edition

We are pleased to be able to introduce this fully-revised and extensively augmented second edition of The Jewish Annotated New Testament. Numerous Christian groups and individual Christians across the church spectrum — Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, mainline Protestants and conservative Evangelicals — hailed the 2011 publication of the first edition as a ground-breaking and much needed resource. Similarly, Jews, from Orthodox to secular, found the volume to be of significant value. The Jewish Annotated New Testament represents the first time a gathering of Jewish scholars wrote a complete commentary on the New Testament. It reached a wide Jewish and Christian audience, and in doing so it has begun to increase both Jewish literacy of the New Testament and Christian awareness of the New Testament’s Jewish context. It has become widely used in colleges, universities and seminaries, as well as in Jewish, Christian, and joint Jewish-Christian study groups. Many Christian clergy and religious educators from different Christian denominations and church settings have told us that they have integrated the insights of this book into their preaching and devotion. Because of this volume, we have been told numerous times, sermons have been corrected, anti-Jewish teaching and preaching have been avoided, and Christians in churches and classrooms and Bible studies have learned more about Jesus and his followers. Jewish readers have told us how the volume has encouraged them to read the New Testament for the first time, to begin to consider the complex relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and how better to understand both their Christian neighbors and their own Jewish history.

Many people have also offered us constructive criticism — they have motivated us to edit this revised and enlarged second edition. We have expanded each of the annotations on biblical books; where the first edition often listed Jewish texts, the second edition includes numerous quotations from Jewish primary sources (e.g., Philo, Josephus, Dead Sea Scrolls, pseudepigrapha, rabbinic literature, targumim). We have also added basic introductions to each canonical section of the New Testament to orient readers to the genres of the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation, so that this second edition may be used as an introduction to the New Testament.

The largest change is in the essays. The first edition contained thirty essays, each of which has been revised and expanded, often considerably. (Geza Vermes, the author of “Jewish Miracle Workers in the Late Second Temple Period,” died in 2013; his essay was revised by Gideon Bohak.) In addition, based on requests from readers, the number of essays has nearly doubled, to fifty-four, as we commissioned many new contributions on topics ranging from “Mary in Jewish Tradition” to “Scripture Fulfillment” and “The New Testament and Jewish-Christian Relations.” As in the first edition, all of the contributors to this volume are Jewish, representing a wide range of Jewish scholars raised or teaching in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Israel. Some readers might find it easier to enter into the world of the New Testament via these essays; others may prefer to begin with the New Testament texts themselves.

This second edition of The Jewish Annotated New Testament, like its predecessor, involved extensive teamwork at many levels. Both of us reviewed every word of each annotation and essay as well as corresponded extensively, over many months, with each contributor. We also worked closely with Donald Kraus, executive editor of Bibles at Oxford University Press, and Steve Wiggins, editor of Bibles and Biblical Studies at Oxford University Press. The care that Don and Steve lavished over this project is clear on every page. We would also like to acknowledge Claudia Dukeshire, Production Editor; Lisa Grzan, Production Manager; Theresa Stockton, Team Leader; and Erina Zadra, Manufacturing Controller, all of Oxford University Press, and all of whom attended to the multitude of details required for any publication of this kind. Peachtree Editorial Services prepared the manuscript for production and proofread all of the pages with their usual care and attention. 2Krogh Typesetters of Denmark prepared the design and typeset the book. We express our gratitude to all.

By tradition, Oxford University Press Bibles lack dedication pages. But we would like to acknowledge our families who have lived with two editions of this project, often learning more about the New Testament and its Jewish background than they expected, or perhaps wanted to: Jay, Sarah Elizabeth, and Alexander David Geller; Tova Hartman, Talya and Ezra Brettler. Your nourishing support, love and understanding makes such projects possible for each of us.

It is our goal that this second edition will have the same impact as the first edition: leading all readers to a better understanding of the New Testament, and members of different religious communities to a deeper appreciation of what we have in common, and where we differ—and how we might better coexist despite our differences. We firmly believe that better understanding of each religion’s sacred Scriptures is crucial in this global society, and we believe that this book, in a small way, facilitates the type of understanding and cooperation that is so needed as we attempt to navigate the twenty-first century.

Amy-Jill Levine

Marc Zvi Brettler

24 Tishrei 5777 / 26 October 2016