D.A. Chwolson as an Expert Witness and Student of Abraham Geiger: Three Chapters from a Scholarly Biography

Abstract

study of the New Testament and early Christianity anticipated a turn that would become mainstream in the latter half of the 20th century. univer-sal. assimilated religious one of the Greek the attitude of the Pharisees toward Jesus Christ is drawn in the wrong light. [. . .] The attitude of the Pharisees toward Christ was undoubtedly amicable, and . . . His teaching in no way contradicts the teaching of the best and most noble men of the Jewish people. German theologians, however, distorted and interpreted in the worst light everything found in the Synoptic Gospels in favor of this view; they even interpreted the Pharisees’ friendly warning to Christ about the danger threatening him from His enemies as a hostile action against him. [. . .] There never were fundamental points of contention between Christ and the Phari‑ sees [emphasis mine — D.B.]; there were only minor disagreements, like those that have occurred by the hundreds, even thousands, among rabbis of all time (Khvol’son 1911, 16–18).