chapter five
pre-canonical traditions with Matthew, must have originated within a
small group of people with a Jewish background. The members of the
community were expected to live with each other as brothers and they
apparently lived in poor conditions. In Klijn’s view, the gospel is preoccu-
pied with Jewish law. The Jews are considered “the children of Abraham
who are not following and are unable to follow the law.” The community
is critical of the Temple and is in constant debate with Jewish leaders.
Although Klijn’s reconstruction is based on all the passages that he con-
siders part of the “Gospel of the Nazarenes,” many details of the recon-
struction are derived from the Latin Origen: preoccupation with the law,
a community of a small group of brothers, a critical attitude towards “the
children of Abraham.”^43
Klijn’s “tentative”^44 reconstruction is problematic. First of all, on the
basis of the tradition historical analysis, the Latin story about the rich
man does not meet the criteria on which Klijn based his reconstruction
of the “Gospel of the Nazarenes” (cf. Chapter .). Second, a closer look
at the way characters in the text are used for the reconstruction of the
social reality behind it reveals some inconsistencies and presuppositions
that deserve closer examination.
For instance, Klijn refers to the fact that the rich man refuses to divide
his possessions among his “brothers, sons of Abraham” both in order
to reconstruct the inner character of the community (a small group of
brothers) as well as in order to exemplify the brotherhood that should
unite all Jews. He cannot have I both ways: the word “brothers” cannot
denote a small group of poor people and at the same time work as a tradi-
tional Jewish identity marker on the basis of which the rich man should
understand his responsibility for his poorer compatriots. If the rich man
and the poor people are “brothers”—as the text obviously presumes—
then the word “brothers” cannot be taken as a self-designation of a small
group of poor people for whom the rich man is a hostile Jewish out-
sider.
Klijn’s reconstruction also raises the question of on what grounds
certain characterizations in the text can be labeled either Jewish or
Christian. For Klijn, the discussion of whether or not the rich man
(^43) Klijn , , –, , .
(^44) Klijn himself emphasizes that his attempt to summarize the background of the
gospels is bound to remain “tentative” because of the limited number of passages. He
thinks that fragments are from the “Gospel of the Nazarenes” but notes that many of
these say very little about the theological contents of the gospel. See Klijn , –.