Introduction
Ed Parish (E. P.) Sanders (1937-2022) was one of the foremost scholars of Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity of our time. Born in Grand Prairie Texas, Ed developed a strong interest in ancient history and religion during his undergraduate studies at Texas Wesleyan College (1955-59). Later, as a student at the Perkins School of Theology, he encountered William Farmer, who urged him to spend a year abroad studying Hebrew. On this advice, and with the generosity of a local church as well as a synagogue, Ed was able to spend some time in Oxford, studying with rabbinics scholar David Daube, and in Jerusalem, studying modern Hebrew with Mordechai Kamrat. He later completed his doctorate at Union Theological Seminary in New York under the supervision of W. D. Davies, and during this time he was able to take courses also at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
By all measures, Ed was an outstanding scholar. He authored 10 books, and numerous articles and book chapters, and held prestigious research grants and fellowships. Ed was a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and held honorary doctorates from the University of Oxford, University of Helsinki, and Southern Methodist University. Ed taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada from 1966-84, at Oxford University in England from 1984-90, and at Duke University in Durham from 1990-2005.
Through his studies, he became convinced of four main points: (1) New Testament scholarship then (as now) paid too much attention to theology and not enough attention to religion. (2) To know one religion is to know none. The human brain comprehends by comparing and contrasting, and consequently comparison in the study of religion is essential, not optional. (3) New Testament scholars ought to study Judaism. (4) Scholarship on the New Testament, second temple, and rabbinic Judaism must be conducted on the first-hand study of the primary sources in their original languages.[1]
Ed did not just preach these four points but practiced them. Although his books on Paul, Jesus, and Judaism paid considerable attention to theology, their aim was historical. Most of them involved comparison, as is most obvious in what many consider his magnum opus, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977). From his graduate student days, he was committed to studying Judaism, not as background to the New Testament, but on its own terms, and to do so in the languages in which their sources are written. As Ed’s doctoral student at McMaster (1978-83), I absorbed these points as well, with one added point. I realized that it is not only important for New Testament scholars to study Judaism, but for scholars of first- and second-century Judaism to know something about the New Testament and New Testament scholarship.
Underlying much of Ed’s work was the conviction that New Testament interpreters had completely misunderstood Paul and Jesus by situating themselves over against Judaism rather than within it. Particularly striking was his analysis, in Paul and Palestinian Judaism and other writings, of the history of Pauline and New Testament scholarship as inflected and shaped by Christian theology. Ed impressed upon us that the offensive description of Judaism as an outdated, barren, legalistic religion of works-righteousness was a function of centuries of primarily Protestant theology that owed much to Martin Luther. It is thanks to his work that these views are no longer ubiquitous in New Testament scholarship, though these and other anti-Jewish ideas can still be found here and there.
When news of Ed’s death reached me immediately after the 2022 SBL annual meeting in Denver, I thought it would be fitting to organize a session in his honor and memory for the 2023 meeting in San Antonio. The main goal was to assess Ed’s contribution to four areas of the field: Second Temple Judaism, Historical Jesus research, the Pauline epistles, and rabbinic Judaism. The four talks that resulted were so interesting, and so substantial, that it seemed worthwhile making them widely available.
[1] See E. P. Sanders, “Comparing Judaism and Christianity: An Academic Autobiography,” in Redefining First-Century Jewish and Christian Identities: Essays in Honor of Ed Parish Sanders, ed. Fabian E. Udoh et al., Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Series ; v. 16 (Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008).