Survey of Jewish New Testament Studies Focusing on Jewish Backgrounds: Christian Pro-Jewish NT Studies

Introduction Positive attention to the Jewish background of the New Testament from Christian writers has exploded since the middle of the last century, although there were hints of its value before then. My task is to treat the change that has come in the Christian perspective about the importance of Judaism in New Testament studies. Since the rise of historical criticism and before the twentieth century only three key studies stand out. In 1859, John Lightfoot published A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica consisting of four volumes. There were precursors to