Jesus regularly engaged the law and its interpretation in his interactions with both crowds and other teachers. While many scholars have interpreted his teaching as criticizing legalism, nationalism, or externalism, in this study of Jesus and the law in the Synoptic Gospels, Paul Sloan suggests an alternative.
Sloan argues that the proper framework for understanding Jesus's teaching is Israel's Scripture and Second Temple expectations of the restoration of the covenant between God and Israel. Consequently, this book focuses on the Gospels' depiction of Jesus as both the herald of this restoration and the authoritative interpreter of the law. Within this perspective, Jesus's legal disputes constitute interreligious debate about the law's interpretation and his claim to be the divinely commissioned herald of the restoration. In addition to legal disputes, Sloan interprets Jesus's action in the temple and his crucifixion within this restorationist context, and he concludes by showing congruity between Jesus's teaching of the law and the use of the law in Acts and in Paul's Letters.
This thorough yet accessible book contributes to the ongoing discussion of Jesus and the law in the first-century Jewish context. It will challenge students of the Gospels and readers of the broader New Testament to reconsider some common understandings of the law and its reception in early Christianity.
