the limits of variety 185
but its symbolism had a lasting effect on his admirers, not least some
years after his death when his prophecy that the great building of Herod
would in due course be destroyed like its predecessor came to pass:
As he came out of the Temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look,
Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked
him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here
upon another; all will be thrown down.’ When he was sitting on the Mount
of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him
privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these
things are about to be accomplished?’^39
A prophetic call to repentance and more intense adherence to the
inner core of the teachings of scripture, as in the Sermon on the Mount,
with its formula, ‘You have heard it said to those of ancient times ...
but I say to you’, combined with eschatological hope, might be enough
to explain the impact of Jesus on his fellow Jews during his lifetime. The
debate between Jesus and the ‘scribes and Pharisees’ over the minutiae
of keeping the Torah are similar in style and content to the debates
between Pharisees and Sadducees or the discussions recorded in the
sectarian texts from Qumran. The stance ascribed to Jesus varies from
the lenient to the stringent interpretation that Moses allowed divorce
only ‘because of your hardness of heart’: ‘But from the beginning of
creation, “God made them male and female.” For this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined with his wife, and the
two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’^40
Nothing in these debates suggests a fundamental rift between Jesus
and his fellow Jews that might lead to a charge of blasphemy. According
to the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), it was not the
scribes and Pharisees, but rather the High Priest Caiaphas and his advis-
ers, who handed over Jesus to the Roman authorities for punishment.
According to the narrative in the Gospel of Mark, the accusation of
blasphemy came late in the proceedings:
Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony
against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none. For many gave false
testimonies against him, and their testimonies did not agree. Some stood up
and gave false testimony against him, saying, ‘We heard him say, “I will des-
troy this Temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build
another, not made with hands.” ’ But even on this point their testimony did