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  • From: "cfjacks" <cfjacks AT attbi.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul's persecution of the Church
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2002 13:48:04 -0400


Perhaps I am missing something obvious in your response to Hyam Maccoby's
fairly unexceptional statements about "God-fearers." I am intentionally NOT
making any comment about your fairly original suggestion about the literary
history of Paul's letters but rather about
the issue as to just where and how Paul found gentiles to preach to.

You responded to Hyam Maccoby's saying,

> I think that what this correspondence has lacked is
> reference to the 'God-fearers',' or as the Talmud calls
> them, 'the children of Noah' (BENEI NOAH). These were
> people who were semi-converts to Judaism and were regarded
> as obligated to observe certain commandments (the 'Seven
> Laws') which did not include circumcision. The New
> Testament contains several references to the 'God-fearers'
> (e.g. Cornelius) - see especially the work of Louis Feldman.

by stating,

> Actually, this had come up about a year ago. If I recall
> correctly, we determined that the rules handed down re.
> Gentile "god-fearers" resembled but was not identical to the
> later Rabbinic idea of "laws of Noah." There was some
> skepticism expressed about the idea that rabbinic "laws of
> Noah" could be traced to a period prior to 70 CE. Even if
> so, the items in the edict would be a sub-set of the full
> seven, raising all sorts of questions and potential complications.

Being myself a relative new-comer to this forum, I dare say that you are
correct in pointing to a prior discussion but is not Hyam's point that this
aspect has not been referred to in the postings
by Eric Zuesse and that it is an aspect which needs to be addressed by him.
Why do you find this not a pertinent observation? I really am a bit
confused as to how this relates. Hopefully, you did not mean to claim that
Hyam ought not bring this up since someone has decided that there were ...
what? No "god-fearers" despite Acts' clear statements concerning such?

You then continued to respond to Hyam's posting by quoting further,

> In my opinion, the topic discussed at the Jerusalem
> Conference was whether 'God-fearers' could be admitted into
> the Jesus movement, or whether this movement should be
> confined to full Jews.

by saying yourself,

> This raises an interesting point. Assuming that the Jesus
> movement was, at point of origin, a "native" Jewish
> phenomenon, and that at some point Gentiles became
> associated with it, what about the movement attracted them?
> Was it the messianism (and if so, we must think very
> carefully about why that would be attractive)? Was there
> some sort of concession(s) extended to Gentiles from the
> very start that made fearing God (and also considering the
> social consequences that such expressions of devotion might
> cause) worth doing?

Once again, I ask for help in understanding your point for it seems like you
are suggesting that there is some problem about how and why Gentiles would
be attracted to Paul's preaching when Acts clearly lays Paul's first contact
with Gentiles as already present in the Jewish congregations in the Diaspora
to whom he preached. Thus, neither Paul nor James invented any
practice of accepting gentiles as fit associates (with certain minimal
requirements); thus, any
issue for James would have been whether or not to accept such pre-existing
Jewish practices of the Diaspora, practices which Paul as a citizen of the
Diaspora had grown up with and presumably accepted as a matter of course.

Granted the question about why gentiles would want to become such
"god-fearers" (Christian or not) or even become "proseylte Jews" is
pertinent and most important as back-ground for
understanding the expansion of the Christian faith beyond the confines of
Palestine out into the
other provinces of the Roman Empire. But would not such a prior history of
Diaspora Judaism
provide explanatory context for not just Paul and his mission but the influx
of gentiles into the
Christian communities. After all, one of the problems I have long discerned
was just why an
"off the street" gentile would react positively to any proclamation that
"the time of waiting is
over," that "the kingdom of God is at hand," because the long-awaited
Messiah prophesied in
the Scriptures has come. Just how much of that would be even intelligible
much less agreeable
to any gentiles not previously exposed to such Jewish concerns and
categories? Which explains why I (who am usually skeptical about the
historical accuracy of the author of Acts)
accept this picture of what kind of gentile responded so positively to
Paul's preaching.

In none of this am I trying to convince you or anyone but just provide
back-ground for the question I have already raised - why don't you find
Hyam's materials about "god-fearing Jews"
pertinent in his response to the issues raised by Eric Zuesse? I can
understand that such might
not interest you as being just a rehash of all too familiar materials but
surely there is something more than I am missing - I surely would
appreciate learning just what it is.

Thus my thanks in advance for your help.

Most sincerely,

Clive F. Jacks, Th.D.
Professor of Religion (Emeritus)
Pikeville College,
Pikeville, KY

(but now happily retired back home in metropolitan Atlanta)





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