Jewish–Christian Relations And Rabbinic Literature—Shifting Scholarly And Relational Paradigms: The Case Of Two Powers

Abstract

This chapter queries some of the assumptions that govern much of how JewishChristian relations are considered in the context of scholarship of rabbinic and early Christian literature. It poses some fundamental questions regarding both the centrality of JewishChristian relations as a scholarly enterprise, and describes different paradigms of how rabbinic materials have been and can be understood in the context of changing JewishChristian relations. The chapter then presents three models of how JewishChristian relations in the Talmudic period: The Competitive-Polemical Model; The Identity Constructing Model; and The Parallel Spiritual Activity Model. The case of Two Powers in Heaven allows the author to present how all these three models could be applied to it and how his own preferred model opens up new ways of reading the sources. Keywords: case of Two Powers; competitive-polemical model; early Christian literature; identity constructing model; JewishChristian relations; parallel spiritual activity model; rabbinic literature; scholarly paradigms