David Flusser
David Flusser | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jesus by David Flusser | |
| Born | |
| Died | September 15, 2000 |
| Occupation | Academic |
| Spouse | Chana |
David Flusser (1917-2000) was a professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and received the Israel Prize in 1980 for his academic achievements. Lawrence Schiffman, chairman of the Skirball department of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, credited him with pioneering "the modern study of Christianity in the state of Israel in a scholarly context".
Biography
David Flusser was born in Vienna on September 15, 1917. He grew up in Pribram, Czechoslovakia and attended the University of Prague. There he met a pastor who piqued his interest in Jesus and Christianity.[1] Flusser immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1939, and completed his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1957. He later taught in the Comparative Religions department for many years, mentoring many future scholars.
Flusser died in Jerusalem on September 15 2000, on his 83rd birthday.[1] He was survived by his wife, Chana, and two sons, Yochanan and Uri, and seven grandchildren.
Scholarship
Flusser was a devout Orthodox Jew who applied his skills in Torah and Talmud to the study of ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic texts, as well as the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He scrutinized the ancient Jewish and Christian texts for evidence of the Jewish roots of Christianity. While critically distinguishing the historical Jesus from the visionary portrayal in the Gospels and other Christian writings, Flusser advocated Jesus as an authentic Jew, though misunderstood by his non-Jewish followers. David Satran, a professor of comparative religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said, "Dr. Flusser was rather remarkable in his strong insistence that not only was Jesus a Jew from birth to death, but that Jesus did nothing that could be interpreted as a revolt or questioning of the basic principles of the Judaism at the time." [2] Personally, Flusser viewed Jesus as a tsadik with keen spiritual insight and with a "high selfawareness" that near-contemporaries similarly expressed, such as Hillel in the Talmud and the "Teacher of Righteousness" in certain Dead Sea Scrolls.
Flusser pursued his research at a time when many Jews blamed Christianity for Nazism. During the trial, the Gestapo officer Adolf Eichmann refused to take an oath on the New Testament, insisting he would only swear "in the name of God". Flusser commented in an editorial in the Jerusalem Post: "I do not know who is the God in whose name Eichmann swore, but I am certain that it is neither the God of Israel nor the God of the Christian church. It should now become clear to the strongest Jewish opponents of Christianity that Christianity per se imposes limitations, and that the greatest crime against our people was not committed in the name of the Christian faith".
Flusser has published over 1000 articles in Hebrew, German, English, and other languages. The results of his many academic writings can be found in his book, Jesus (1965), whose augmented second edition (1998) was updated to incorporate his latest research.
Published work
- Jesus, second ed. augmented (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1998) ISBN 965-223-978-X.
- Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988) ISBN 965-223-627-6.