Jewish Christian Research Articles

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“Gentile Christianity” as a Category in the Study of Christian Origins

At least since the time of Ferdinand Christian Baur in the mid-nineteenth century, the concepts of “Jewish Christianity” and “Gentile Christianity,” together with related binary pairs (Jewish Christian / Gentile Christian, Jews / Gentiles), have functioned as basic categories in the critical investigation of Christian origins. Adopting the voice of his hero Paul, Baur speaks of “my Gospel of Gentile Christianity, as opposed to Jewish Christianity,” the English terms renderingHeidenchristentumsandJudenchristentums, respectively. Speaking of Paul's success in establishing “a Gentile Christianity,” Baur says that “the greater the strides were which the Gospel made among the Gentiles, the greater was the importance which the Gentile Christians assumed over the Jewish Christians.” Such increase in importance notwithstanding, the “Jewish-Christian party opposed to [Paul],” he says, remained “powerful,” and the “conflict between the Pauline and Jewish Christianity” continued to mark the early history of the movement. The place of this conflict in Baur's reconstruction of Christian origins is well known, and his characteristic terminology is readily recognized.

New Paths in Muslim‐Christian Dialog: Understanding Islam from the Light of Earliest Jewish Christianity

The Muslim WorldVolume 103, Issue 4 p. 448-463 Article New Paths in Muslim-Christian Dialog: Understanding Islam from the Light of Earliest Jewish Christianity Rod Cardoza, Rod Cardoza Abrahamic Alliance InternationalSearch for more papers by this author Rod Cardoza, Rod Cardoza Abrahamic Alliance InternationalSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 February 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.12033Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume103, Issue4October 2013Pages 448-463 RelatedInformation

Chronology and eschatology: a Jewish–Christian debate, France 1100

The text that is discussed here, written in France in 1100, contains the first debate between a Jew and a Christian on the date of the birth of Jesus. The Christian believed that Jesus was born in 2–3 CE, while the Jew (a pupil of Rashi) disagreed but did not propose an alternative year. The Jew also claimed that the Messiah may appear on 1102 – an eschatological computation which is solely in accordance with Christian records of the 1100th anniversary of the birth of Jesus. This debate, which actually is based on a misunderstanding of both sides, had a considerable impact on the chronological computations of Ashkenazi rabbinical authorities in subsequent centuries. They adopted the Christian calculation of Jesus’ lifetime and augmented it with a Jewish interpretation following the rules of the Jewish calendar, which led them to totally different conclusions than the original Christian view.

Escaping from Sodom: A Christian Jew Encounters German Antisemitism

The article discusses the impact of antisemitism on Jewish Christians in twentieth-century Germany. The fate of one Jewish Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, Maly Kagan, is used to highlight overarching themes. The article focuses on the impact of National Socialism on her work in a Protestant psychiatric hospital and for the London-based Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel. Light is shed on how she survived the Holocaust, her work with displaced persons in Frankfurt after the war and her decision in 1952 to leave Germany to spend the rest of her life in Israel.

The Apostolic Ideal at the Monastery of Saint John in Müstair, Switzerland

In the painted program of the monastery of Saint John in Müstair, Switzerland, emphasis on the apostolic mission to preach—given at Christ’s Ascension, then fulfilled by the missions and martyrdoms of apostles and apostolic figures—connects the monks of Müstair to local and empire wide trends. The original apostles were prominently depicted in the church on the apsidal arch and west wall and in the lowest register of the long walls, while the apses plot the apostolic tradition that leads from the apostles to the resident monks. The north apse authenticates Paul’s apostolate through images of his pairing with Peter in the Traditio clavium et legis, their meeting, and their dispute with Simon Magus; his settling of a dispute between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians justifies and highlights his apostolate. The tradition continues in the south apse with the local apostolic figure Vigilius, in whose Passio the apostolic activity of preaching dominates. Finally, John the Baptist prefigures all apostolic activity as a sort of protoapostle who, through his preaching and baptizing, most pertinently models and justifies the convergence of monastic vocation and pastoral engagement. John’s patronage of the sanctuary at the monastery of Saint John links the apostolic theme of the frescoes to the monks who worshipped before them.

The Ebionites: Eccentric or Essential Early Christians?

Interest in the world of ancient Christianity has been increasing over the past twenty years as news reports and books about the Gnostic Gospels have caused many to wonder whether their knowledge and assumptions about early Christianity might be either seriously limited or even erroneous. An intriguing example of one form of “early Christianity” which challenges one’s expectations is a group known as the Ebionites, Jewish Christians who did not accept the divinity of Christ, believed that Jesus actually increased an emphasis on the “law” and saw Paul of Tarsus as an enemy. Ebionites were vegetarians and claimed that all of their views were approved by both James, the brother of Jesus and leader of the Christian community in Jerusalem, as well as Peter. This paper explores what is known about the beliefs, practices, and history of this remarkable group of antiquated believers and examines their place in relation to both the Orthodox Jewish and the “Proto-Orthodox” Christian communities of that era.

Recovering Jewish Christian Sects and Gospels. By Petri Luomanen. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae: Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language, vol. 110. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2012. ix + 296 pp. $151.00 cloth.

Recovering Jewish Christian Sects and Gospels. By Petri Luomanen. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae: Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language, vol. 110. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2012. ix + 296 pp. $151.00 cloth.

Future (Un)Relatedness between Goddess and Christian Feminism and a Jewish Feminist – Past, Present and Future

My purpose in this article is twofold. I wish to discuss the rift between Jewish feminists and Christian feminists and their Goddess peers, aiming to grapple with points of dispute, alienation and disparity. I equally aspire to find shared grounds; even where agreement is impossible, to raise a greater insight into Judaism beyond irreducible divides, and enhance mutual understanding and respect. By mutual respect I mean that not only shared grounds should build bridges; bridges should be built where homologous identity is missing. While leaving a space for disagreements, irreducible edges and differences; it is when divides are irreducible that mutual respect is most needed, though most difficult to find. Bridges over both shared and unshared grounds are the future of relations, as awareness of differences and open contention can widen reciprocal understanding of our separate worlds.

The Hebrew Bible and the Propaganda Wars

Christian Identity, Jews, and Israel in Seventeenth-Century England. By Achsah Guibbory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), xi + 328 pp. £66.00 cloth/£27.50 paper. The standard view of the att...

The rediscovery of Jewish Christianity. From Toland to Baur. Edited by F. Stanley Jones. (History of Biblical Studies, 5.) Pp. xii+248. Atlanta, Ga: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012. $33.95 (paper). 97 8 1 58983 646 4

The rediscovery of Jewish Christianity. From Toland to Baur. Edited by F. Stanley Jones. (History of Biblical Studies, 5.) Pp. xii+248. Atlanta, Ga: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012. $33.95 (paper). 97 8 1 58983 646 4 - Volume 64 Issue 3

Review Article: The Deliverance of God: an Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul by Douglas A. Campbell

Campbell launches a sustained attack against traditional theological conceptions of justification and aims to free Romans 1–4 (on which these conceptions seemingly rest) from a widespread rationalistic, contractual, individualistic (mis)reading, which gains its plausibility only by the modernistic theological superstructure forced upon it. Campbell then presents an in-depth re-reading of Romans 1–4 (as well as parts of chs. 9–11, Gal. 2–3, Phil. 3), in which Paul engages in a highly complex, ‘subtle’ polemic, creatively employing ‘speech-in-character’ as a means of subverting a Jewish Christian ‘Teacher’ whose visit to Rome threatens to undermine the Roman Christians’ assurance of salvation. Campbell argues that justification is participatory and liberative: Christ’s death and resurrection constitute the ‘righteousness/deliverance of God’, by which he justifies, or delivers, an enslaved humanity from the power of sin. This article concentrates primarily on Campbell’s own exegesis, concluding that, while important aspects of Campbell’s critique of both “justification theory” and traditional readings of Romans 1–4 must be carefully considered, his own exegesis is not only ingenious, asking too much of Paul and the letter’s auditors, but altogether untenable at key points.

Violent language – a clue to the historical occasion of James

The epistle of James is often seen to be nothing more than a New Testament book of proverbial sayings to live the Christian life by. Form criticism over the last century has reduced James to a collection of pearls randomly strung together in no particular order and with no overarching specific theme or purpose. This paper challenges that view and offers the reader an alternative way of seeing James. It is argued that James wrote in days of social turmoil and injustice, when social banditry groups were growing in Palestine. The very vocabulary used (and illustrations made) adds weight to the thesis that James was written during violent times. James wrote in a context where even Jewish Christians were being tempted to join these pre-zealot banditry groups. Indeed some had joined and were participating in violent reprisals against the perpetrators of injustices. James is furious. He calls on Jewish Christians to live like Christ: to be non-violent, peacemakers, practical in their help for those who are suffering, patient, and prayerful. He categorically rejects the idea that Christians can use the ways of the world (violence, warring, theft) in their response to poverty and injustice.

Law, Lies and Letter Writing: An Analysis of Jerome and Augustine on the Antioch Incident (Galatians 2:11–14)

AbstractVarious critics of the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) often highlight the lack of church tradition as one deficiency of the various interpretations of Paul. To some, the lack of church history automatically renders such newer interpretations suspect. In turn critics of the NPP often turn to the reformers such as Calvin and Luther to defend the traditional reading of Paul and trace this traditional reading back to Augustine. For the critics, church tradition stands on the side of the traditional reading.This article seeks to highlight an often neglected early church view on one aspect of the NPP, that of Paul and the Law. This article highlights one of the fiercest exchanges between two church fathers. Through a series of letters, Jerome and Augustine corresponded on Jerome's interpretation of Galatians 2 and the Antioch incident. For Augustine the pastor, nothing less than the veracity of scripture was at stake and Augustine mounts a defence of Paul's actions in Galatians 2 in response to Jerome's insistence of an agreed-upon lie between Peter and Paul. In the process of Augustine's rebuttal of Jerome, he notes that Paul followed the law without ‘pretence’ and that there was a period in early Christianity where Jewish Christians practised law observance. Augustine highlights the divine origin of the Mosaic law, which renders a positive role for the law in early Christianity, and notes that the negative critique of the law comes within the context of a Gentile audience, but did not have implications for Jewish Christians. Augustine rightly notices and raises the important context of Paul's negative statements on the law and offers a nuanced discussion of Paul's treatment of the law.Augustine notes some of the important conclusions drawn by the NPP, namely a positive view of the law and its practice by Paul and other Jewish Christians. He also notes the various ways the law functions in Jewish and Gentile contexts. Such a positive view of Paul and the law may appear striking to many, but must be considered by those who are otherwise critical of the NPP. This article shows that there was at least one voice, among others, within the early church which advocated for a positive reading of Paul and the law. The history of interpretation of Galatians 2 offers many insights for contemporary Pauline scholars which ought to be heeded in future discussions. This article, by highlighting the exchange between Jerome and Augustine, seeks to give the NPP a historical ‘rootedness’ and placement within the history of interpretation.

The Preface and Subject Matter of Cyril of Alexandria's De Adoratione

Cyril of Alexandria’s treatise De adoratione is unique among his writings in that it lacks a preface or prologue in the edition of the work found in Patrologia Graeca. Although in 1989 Georges-Matthieu de Durand pointed to the existence of a preface to De adoratione preserved in an eleventh-century manuscript in the Bodleian library, subsequent studies of Cyril’s corpus have failed to take note of Durand’s find. Moreover, Durand apparently did not realize that this same preface also survives in a single Syriac manuscript held by the British Library, which predates the Bodleian Greek manuscript by several centuries. In this article I provide a transcription of the Greek and Syriac recensions along with an English translation, and then consider the significance of this passage for interpreting De adoratione. The preface indicates the treatise should be read not primarily in the light of Jewish–Christian power struggles in late antique Alexandria, but rather as a contribution to the ascetic project being undertaken at the time in the Egyptian desert. Hence, Cyril’s attempt to use Scripture to provide ‘moral guidance’ in De adoratione should be seen as a complementary mode of exegesis to the ‘more dogmatic exegesis’ of his well-known Johannine commentary.

‘What do these stones mean?’ Inscriptions on stone from an ancient monastery in Ireland that address Jewish–Christian relations

Etched on a stone from a monastery from the Middle Ages at a small village in County Roscommon in Ireland is a combination of Jewish and Christian symbols. The Menorah sits atop a cross. At the base of the cross and at both ends of the crossbar are three small extensions. The image is one of religious integration. Augustine, whose argument for the Trinity and respect for Judaism, comes across on the inscribed stone. His influence on Irish Christianity is evident. The article argues not for the Christian take-over of Jewish symbols to the exclusion of Judaism, but for the recognition of Judaism as the bearer of religious meaning that enriches Christian faith. Here is an object lesson for wholesome relations between Jewish and Christian worshippers.

The Righteous Gentile Interjects (James 2:18-19 and Romans 2:14-15)

Abstract Jas 2:18-19 is at the heart of James’ famous (or, to some, infamous) argument about faith and works, but it defies definitive interpretation due to combined difficulties in punctuation and in tracing the literary continuity in James’ argument. This essay approaches the problematic passage in the context of James’ literary intertextuality with Paul. It suggests that the enigmatic objector in James is one of Paul’s righteous gentiles (Rom 2:14-15), who lumps James and his Jewish Christian ‘brothers’ together in charging them with hypocrisy (cf. Rom 2:17-23). James artfully gives this gentile Christian voice to strengthen his own argument, for an audience already alerted to his rich intertextuality with Paul.

The Sudden Angel Affrighted Me

The Sudden Angel Affrighted Me

Prophets and Prophecy in Jewish and Early Christian Literature. WUNT 2/286

Prophets and Prophecy in Jewish and Early Christian Literature. WUNT 2/286

Jewish Students and Christian Corpses in Interwar Poland: Playing with the Language of Blood Libel

This article focuses on the antisemitic discourse that surrounded the controversy over the provision of cadavers to medical departments in the Second Polish Republic. In the pages of the student press and at student rallies, activists argued that Jewish medical students should be barred from dissecting Christian corpses. They demanded that Jewish communities provide corpses for dissection on a regular basis as a condition for continued training of Jewish doctors. The discourse surrounding the cadaver affair combined nationalist language with religious vocabulary, suggesting that the affair was motivated as much by religious concerns as by nationalist ones. Drawing on notions of Jewish criminality and arrogance, allegations of a Jewish sense of religious superiority and disregard for Christian values, and fears of Jewish exploitation of Christians to fulfill their own collective needs, the cadaver affair played with concepts reminiscent of blood libel.