“My suspicion is that when non-Jews read the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees in the Gospels… they may see ferocious rebuke and fearsome condemnation. I read the Gospels and assume that Jesus and the Pharisees… are sometimes engaged in earnest debate, sometimes jabbing in jest, sometimes just… living in community, and disagreement? But that those debates have rules and parameters that are agreed-upon and upheld by all parties—there’s no excoriation; they’re just throwing down, like we do.”
