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David Flusser

David Flusser, born 15 September 1917 in Vienna and died on 15 September 2000 in Jerusalem , was a scholar of Israel , a specialist in early Christianity , of Judaism and the period of the Second Temple. Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, in 1980 he received the Israel Prize for his body of work. Lawrence Schiffman, chairman of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic studies at the University of New York , saw him as a pioneer of "the modern study of Christianity in the State of Israel in an academic setting.."

/ / Biography

Pribram

David Flusser was born in Vienna September 15, 1917. He spent his youth in Pribram , in Czechoslovakia , and attended the University of Prague. There he met a pastor who has awakened in him an interest in Jesus and Christianity. Who immigrated in 1939 in Palestine then under British mandate, he completed his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1957. Subsequently he taught for many years in the department of comparative studies of religions, forming many future researchers.

He died in Jerusalem September 15, 2000, the day of his ^83rd birthday, leaving a wife, Chana, two son, Yochanan and Uri, and seven grandchildren.

Research

Flusser was an Orthodox Jew and devout who used his deep knowledge of the Torah and Talmud to the study of ancient Greek texts, Roman and Arabic, as well as the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He sifted through the old Jewish texts and Christians to find evidence of the Jewish roots of Christianity. While distinguishing critically the historical Jesus of visionary portrait given by the Gospels and other Christian writings, Flusser saw Jesus as a Jew but authentic disciples misunderstood his non-Jewish. David Satran, a professor of comparative religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: "Dr. Flusser was rather remarkable for his strong insistence that not only was Jesus a Jew from birth to death, but that he did nothing that could be interpreted as a revolt against the fundamental principles of Judaism at that time or as they called into question. "Personally, Flusser saw Jesus as a tzaddik with deep spiritual views and a high sense of what must be one that his contemporaries expressed almost the same way as Hillel in the Talmud and the " Teacher of Righteousness " in some Dead Sea Scrolls.

Flusser has done his research at a time when many Jews to Christianity reproaching about Nazism. During his trial, Eichmann refused to swear on the New Testament, insisting he would not swear that "the name of God." Flusser made the comment in an editorial in the Jerusalem Post : "I do not know who is the God in whose name Eichmann swore, but I'm sure this is not the God of Israel nor the God of the Church Christian. It should now become clear to the Jews most opposed to Christianity as Christianity itself imposes limits 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 findings of numerous scholarly books can be found in his book, Jesus (1965), the second enlarged edition (1998) has been updated to incorporate its latest research.

Trivia

One can read on the website of the University of Leipzig :

Here is what the Dominican Marcel Dubois , who was the first Catholic professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University, told on the third anniversary of the death of Flusser. One night Flusser received a telephone call, in French. "I am Jesus Christ and I want to talk to Professor Flusser. Flusser hung up but remained shocked and did not arrive for several hours to calm down until it says: "It certainly was not him, otherwise he would have spoken with me in Hebrew ^{Publications In French}

Jesus, Seuil, 1970

Jesus, Shine, 2005

Sources of Jewish cristiane primitive, Shine, 2003

St. Paul (with Peter Geoltrain , Erich Lessing and Edward Schillebeeckx ) Hatier, 1980

English

Jesus, second ed. augmented (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1998) ISBN 965-223-978-X.
Judaism and the Origin of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1988) ISBN 965-223-627-6.