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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Neil Elliot, "Liberating Paul"
  • Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 09:25:19 -0500 (CDT)


>Mark Nanos said:
>
>>>I have argued that this reference in Rom. 13 would make sense in the flow
>of Paul's argument and in the case of Rome if it continues the contextual
>concern to censure the growing arrogance among the gentile Christ-believers
>in Rome toward Jewish people who do not share their faith. If these
>"gentiles" are members of Jewish subgroups, then good members might be
>expected to participate in the Temple tax collection which provided for
>freedom for Jewish communities from participation in the imperial cult (as
>though proselytes or those on the road to this status).
>
>It seems plausible to me to suspect that righteous gentile guests seeking
>full membership treatment (which the addressees apparently were, at least
>Paul arguing for such treatment implies that this is the tension at hand)
>would be in a precarious position on this matter. Paul's passage is a call
>to go the extra mile in being assessed as good citizens of this minority
>community with concern for the marginality situation of the larger yet very
>much still minority Jewish community/ies in Rome.
>
>Even if these gentiles' rights and privileges might be in dispute (since
>they are predicated on a disputable notion, that is, apart from proselyte
>inclusion to negotiate this status claim), Paul calls them not to resist
>and fight, but to "subordinate" themselves in gracious gratitude for the
>gifts bestowed upon themselves now in Christ, as gentiles, at the expense
>of those "stumbling" Jewish people vicariously suffering presently on these
>gentiles' behalf (Rom. 11; 12:1ff.). They are to pay the Temple tax and
>behave in the way deemed appropriate for righteous gentiles within the
>Jewish community. Since the leaders of the synagogue communities in Rome
>would answer for the behavior of the members, and thus of these gentile
>associates claiming equality justified by their belief in Jesus Christ, the
>context of Paul's language in Rom. 13 seems to me to fit where the
>traditional view has not. Why would Paul tell Romans to be good citizens of
>Rome? And why disrupt the flow of his argument about how gentiles are to
>interact respectfully with non-Christ-believing Jews in order to do this?<<

To which David Hindley responded:
>These three paragraphs have hit the nail on the head. I have been lately
>fascinated by the nature of the offerings he collected, and the mechanism by
>which he delivered them and the authority of those who accepted them. You
>mentioned Temple tax offered by gentiles (who must have been somewhere along
>the path towards full conversion), but I wonder how cheerfully these might be
>received by the Jews who ran the temple hierarchy.
>
>After all, the Jewish people had won some very significant rights and
>privileges that were often envied by Gentiles. Some examples might be
>exemption from military conscription, exemption from the necessity of
>assuming
>political offices (some of which had financial burdens), rights of assembly
>not normally available to many Gentiles, one day off every seven days (a
>right
>they could not be officially punished for observing), etc. To accept Temple
>tax from Gentiles who had not fully converted to Judaism, as if they were
>full
>Jews, could have been seen by some as tantamount to weakening their position
>before the Roman establishment.

I think it is resonable to consider the threat this could involve for the
Jewish communities. Especially if these righteous gentiles were to regard
themselves no longer as pagans and thus claim under the privileges of the
Jewish communities the rights to refrain from pagan practices. Given the
nature of communal identity and social interdependence, this claim and
change in behavior would threaten their pagan family members, friends,
neighbors, fellow-workers, employers, city, etc., who would look to the
Jewish leaders for some explanation at the very least for permitting this
kind of behavior to be justified (for "non-Jews") on the basis of the
Jewish communities authorization. How would these leaders, or other Jewish
people for that matter, be expected to respond, especially if they did not
share the opinion of those about the basis of this claim, i.e, faith in
Jesus as Christ?
>
[snip]
>
>Could someone be so kind as to point me towards research regarding the
>motivations for Gentiles to associate with Judaism? How about Jewish reaction
>to Gentile association?

I think you will find beneficial discussions and a variety of views (and
some differend periods under consideration) in:

Cohen, Shaye J. D. 1989. "Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew."
Harvard Theological Review. 82:1:13-33.

Cohen, Shaye J. D. 1987. "Respect for Judaism by Gentiles according to
Josephus." Harvard Theological Review. 80:4:409-30.

Feldman, Louis H. 1993. Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and
Interactions from Alexander to Justinian. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.

Goodman, Martin. 1994. Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the
Religious History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Porton, Gary G. 1994. The Stranger within Your Gates: Converts and
Conversion in Rabbinic Literature. Chicago and London: The Unversity of
Chicago Press.

Regards,
Mark Nanos






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