On scroll-making in ancient Jerusalem

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring, 2003 by Walter Brueggemann

There is no doubt that this same scroll-making, scribal teaching that came to characterize Judaism lies at the base of the Christian movement. The issue is, of course, complex; there is no doubt, however, that Jesus functions as a scroll-interpreting rabbi who engages in playful dispute about how old texts must now be re-rendered. It is clear that the Christian movement is in one important aspect a durable practice of the same scrolling activity that characterized Judaism. In Matthew 4 and Luke 4, for example, Jesus offers three quotations from the Book of Deuteronomy as a refutation of the tempter:

   But he answered, "It is written, One does not live by bread
   alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
   God" [Matt 4:4].

   Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, `Do not put the Lord
   your God to the test'" [Matt 4:7].

   Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
   "Worship the Lord your God; and serve only him'" [Matt
   4:10].

The narrative suggests that the scroll is the best "weapon" against every assault on faith, even against the power of the devil who seeks to undermine the radical claims of faith embodied by Jesus.

As the Deuteronomic movement that was a scroll-making operation established the primal character of Judaism and offered a key practice for Christianity, so it is finally to be insisted that the Jeremiah-Baruch-Shaphan "junta," an alternative government in exile, were doing "public theology" of the most extraordinary kind. In the end, the core teaching of Torah testimony that is rooted in holiness and aimed at neighbor is lodged here, a gift of Jews, but no monopoly of either Jews or Christians. The scroll continues to subvert every penultimate pretense, perhaps no pretense of ultimacy more lethal and more urgent than our own current U.S. pretense as a superpower, thus a scroll tradition perhaps currently addressed to taxpayers in the last superpower with its shameless arrogance.

Who would have thought that such a little scroll movement would matter decisively in all thinkable futures? Surely the Levites did not imagine their work to be so abidingly important, nor did Jeremiah, nor did Baruch, nor did Shaphan. That lack of recognition on their part, however, perhaps simply attests to how urgent, how abiding, and how dangerous a book can be. This particular circle of books has a life and a powerful future of its own. No wonder Jews and Christians dare to claim in different ways that the literature is "inspired." We need not make too much of the claim of "inspiration," for such phrasing clarifies very little. It is enough to honor the warning label on every subversive script, "Let the reader beware." Always let the reader beware, whether in ancient Jerusalem or in contemporary America. Because what the reader will endlessly discern is that such a scroll, even when contemptuously shredded by Jehoiakim, speaks its own terrible threat and its wondrously alternative life in the world. A scroll is so innocent and so dated, so outrageous, and even yet so durably powerful!