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  • From: Jeff Peterson <peterson AT austingrad.edu>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Judaism: a missionary religion or just open to converts?
  • Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 07:39:39 -0500

On Sunday, August 17, 2003, at 01:50 AM, Cameron VanEpps wrote:
Does it make sense to think that there was such a thing as outreach based preaching/teaching prior to the great commission?

It's important to distinguish between propaganda on behalf of the Jewish people (fostering favorable perceptions of Jews among gentiles) and missionary outreach (aimed at the conversion of gentiles). The second temple affords a number of examples of the former (e.g., literary sources such as Josephus' Against Apion and Philo's Embassy to Gaius), but precious little evidence for the latter, although effective propaganda did have the byproduct that some gentiles were so favorably influenced as to seek out association with the Jewish people.

Good places to begin reading on this are Martin Goodman's MISSION AND CONVERSION and Scot McKnight's LIGHT AMONG THE GENTILES. Hope this is helpful.

Jeff Peterson


Jeffrey Peterson
Austin Graduate School of Theology
Austin, Texas





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