The works concerning the “historic Jesus” have clearly triggered on the Jewish side a deep change in attitude. The historians were the first to wonder about the “Jewish Jesus” and its time. Two writers living in Israel, one Catholic, Father Castel, and the other one Jewish, Professor Ruth Blum, analyze here this “new vision” on Jesus and the New Testament in the contemporary “Israeli literature”. Both writers review and quote at length novelists and poets who refuse to follow the Jewish tradition they reject and try to turn to a much more open approach to depict the character Jesus and his teachings.

For his part, Father Philippe Loiseau provides an analysis of the Gospels and builds it on close reading of the rabbinic tradition. He shows that Jesus was a faithful Jew, rooted in the Judaism of his time, close to the Pharisee tradition, and respectful of the Law – even when he was moving away from it. Fr. Loiseau demonstrates how much Jesus’ preaching mission, and the unveiling of his singular identity, was rooted in his Jewish practice of Law.

This issue also includes an analysis signed by Anne-Marie Baron, of Georg Stefan Troller and Axel Corti’s trilogy : Dieu ne croit plus en nous (1981), Santa Fe (1985) et Welcome in Vienna (1986). These fiction movies are made of personal memories and explain History better than any document. For Anne-Marie Baron, these movies are a major work that is marked by an undeniable aesthetic value and a clear pedagogical usefulness for understanding the Second World War.
In French : summary