Peter van 't Riet
Dr. S.P. (Peter) van ’t Riet is an independent Bible researcher especially on the Jewish character of the New Testament.
Peter van 't Riet (born 1948) studied Mathematics and Psychology at the Free University in Amsterdam. He wrote his dissertation on a subject in the field of Educational Psychology. Until his retirement in June 2013 he was a director and professor at Windesheim University in Zwolle in the Netherlands.
Next to his professional job he published many books, articles and brochures on the Jewish character of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, and on the Jewish origin of Christianity. He frequently gives presentations on these subjects to groups of all denominations.
Since 2010, nine of his books have been translated into English. They are for sale at AMAZON.COM in a paperback edition, some also in an e-book edition:
> Reading Torah, the Key to the Gospels (Introduction to the Jewish Character of the Gospels);
> Luke the Jew (A Jewish Introduction to the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles);
> Luke versus Matthew (Reading the Gospels as Midrash);
> The Image of Man in the Torah (Contribution to the Debate on Norms and Principles in Modern Society);
> A Dove to the Land of War (The Book of Jonah Translated and Explained).
> The Course of Paul's Life (Reconstructed from his Authentic Letters).
> Paul, A Hellenistic Jew? (Paul's Youth and Early Years, Volume 1).
> Paul, Child of the Greek-Roman World (Paul's Youth and Early Years, Volume 2).
> Paul's Study Time in Jerusalem (Paul's Youth and Early Years, Volume 3).
The books about Paul can be read independently of each other.
-----------------
Address: Zeist, The Netherlands
Peter van 't Riet (born 1948) studied Mathematics and Psychology at the Free University in Amsterdam. He wrote his dissertation on a subject in the field of Educational Psychology. Until his retirement in June 2013 he was a director and professor at Windesheim University in Zwolle in the Netherlands.
Next to his professional job he published many books, articles and brochures on the Jewish character of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, and on the Jewish origin of Christianity. He frequently gives presentations on these subjects to groups of all denominations.
Since 2010, nine of his books have been translated into English. They are for sale at AMAZON.COM in a paperback edition, some also in an e-book edition:
> Reading Torah, the Key to the Gospels (Introduction to the Jewish Character of the Gospels);
> Luke the Jew (A Jewish Introduction to the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles);
> Luke versus Matthew (Reading the Gospels as Midrash);
> The Image of Man in the Torah (Contribution to the Debate on Norms and Principles in Modern Society);
> A Dove to the Land of War (The Book of Jonah Translated and Explained).
> The Course of Paul's Life (Reconstructed from his Authentic Letters).
> Paul, A Hellenistic Jew? (Paul's Youth and Early Years, Volume 1).
> Paul, Child of the Greek-Roman World (Paul's Youth and Early Years, Volume 2).
> Paul's Study Time in Jerusalem (Paul's Youth and Early Years, Volume 3).
The books about Paul can be read independently of each other.
-----------------
Address: Zeist, The Netherlands
less
InterestsView All (17)
Uploads
Papers by Peter van 't Riet
In this article (the 11th chapter of the book mentioned), the author examines the position taken by the apostle Peter in the Fourth Gospel. Time and again it becomes clear that he is not the central disciple or apostle he is in the Synoptic Gospels. His role throughout is subordinate to that of Lazarus, alias the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”
With this portrayal of Peter in the Fourth Gospel, the School of Lazarus has clearly taken a position in opposition to the Synoptic tradition. For Christian readers this may be a shocking discovery, but within the Jewish circles to which the School of Lazarus belonged, such a choice of position was part of the ongoing discussion about the coming of the messianic age and the role that messianic figures would play in it.
One of the issues that play a role in this debate is whether Paul’s behavioural instructions could be seen as halakhah comparable with the halakhah of Pharisaic-rabbinic tradition.
Some scholars argue for a positive answer to this question. But Peter van 't Riet presents many arguments for the opposing view. Paul's behavioural doctrine is not halakhah, but largely doctrine of virtue. In a few cases where his behavioural instructions take on concrete forms, there is hardly any connection with Pharisees-rabbinic halakhah. The latter is demonstrated by means of Paul's instructions regarding sexual morality and marriage rules.
This article is a compilation of pieces taken from the book 'Paul's Study Time in Jerusalem', available in English translation at Amazon. This book presents a thorough and comprehensive examination of the Aramaic-Jewish influences on Paul’s seven authentic letters.
In chapter 4 of this book I've shown that in the Gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist is identified with the prophet Elijah who had to come before the messianic age could break through. In chapter 5, to download here, I show that the evangelist Luke has a totally different opinion on this subject. Luke removes many elements from the stories of Mark and Matthew which point in the direction of an identification of John with Elijah. In Luke's Gospel, John the Baptist is identified with an other prophet from the Hebrew Bible. Meanwhile, Luke identifies Jesus himself with Elijah as part of a different view on the messianic age than Matthew has.
Many scholars and readers of the Bible have a romantic image of Paul: born in a pious Jewish family, educated in Jerusalem at the feet of the famous Pharisaic scholar Gamliel and fluently speaking Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. However, does this fit in with the data from the genuine letters of Paul? In this book the author shows that the above mentioned image of Paul is especially derived from the Acts of the Apostles, in which the evangelist Luke has adapted the image of Paul to his own almost Pharisaic idea of the messianic time. In contrast however, Paul himself presents a completely different Christology in his letters. His language and way of thinking are more cognate with the Hellenistic, Greek speaking Judaism of his days.
The author discusses successively: 1) Hellenism, the dominant culture of the Greek-Roman world of those days; 2) the Hellenistic Judaism of the Diaspora, which differed greatly from the Aramaic Judaism of Jesus and his early disciples; 3) the Septuagint, the Greek Bible translation, which had already existed about 300 years in the days of Paul and which deviated in many respects from the Hebrew Bible. Next the author researches what of these three phenomena could be found in the letters of Paul, which turned out to be a lot more than he presumed at the start of his research. The Hellenistic Judaism is so intertwined with Paul’s thought that the most obvious conclusion is that Paul has spent his youth and early years in a Hellenistic-Jewish milieu.
This article contains chapter 2 of the book that is for sale at Amazon.com in a paperback as well as an e-book edition.
In this chapter a literary analysis is presented which reveales the literary character of the Book of Jonah as a very constructed short story with a complex structure. Questions are raised not about what really happened to Jonah, but what the writer of this small Bible book could have meant with his imaginative text. Those questions will be answered in the following chapters of the book. Connections with other stories in the Bible and rabbinical literature will be explained by considering the story of Jonah a Midrash-story which updates certain themes from the Torah and the Prophets in the time of the Persian occupation of the land of Israel after the Babylonian exile. An e-book and a paperback edition are for sale at Amazon.com.
An e-book and a paperback edition of 'Luke, the Jew' are for sale at Amazon.com.
Books by Peter van 't Riet
There is a romantic image of Paul. He is said to be born in a pious Pharisaic family and educated by the great Pharisaic scholar Gamaliel in Jerusalem. But this is hardly noticeable in Paul’s letters. However, they show a lot of affinity with the Greek-Roman culture of those days. In volume 1 of Paul’s Youth and Early Years the author discussed at some length that this romantic image of Paul’s isn’t correct historically. In reality he came from a Hellenistic-Jewish milieu in the Greek Diaspora.
In this second volume (which could be read independently) the author investigates the broader Greek-Roman environment of Paul's youth. The book shows that Paul has been very much influenced by Roman culture. This is especially where chapter 3 is about. Moreover, the philosophical movements of Stoicism and Platonism – merged into Middle Platonism – have left their marks on his theology. But also the widespread mystery cults didn’t pass Paul unnoticed. These four phenomena from Paul’s time are explained, whereupon the author examines which traces they left in the letters. Then the image arises of Paul as a child of the Greek-Roman world. At a later age all these influences from his youth and early years have also contributed to the development of his theology.
By scrupulously reading Paul’s letters against the Greek-Roman background of his cultural, philosophical and religious environment many difficult passages become quite understandable. The question whether Paul has preached the original doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth unchanged, is mentioned briefly in this book, but will remain open for further investigation.