Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: Tensions in Rome

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Billy Evans <biblewje AT comcast.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Tensions in Rome
  • Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 16:23:52 -0600


on 10/28/02 11:03 AM, Gary Burnett at gwburn AT ntlworld.com wrote:

> Mark Nanos, for one, assumes the latter, which suits his purposes, given he
> proposes a Christian group in Rome which was still very much part of the
> synagogue.
>
> I'm interested, then, in any comments you might have on this.
>
> And what puzzles me further about all this is this: let's assume the
> Chrestus=Christ idea. Most scholars assume that when the exiled Jewish
> Christians came back to Rome they didn't fit in well with a new
> Gentile-looking church and that tensions began to simmer. But how realistic
> is this, I wonder? If these Jewish Christians had, indeed been exiled for
> having had such a fierce allegience to Jesus that it had caused a serious
> disturbance with fellow Jews - having a faith in Jesus that was obviously
> deemed to be in opposition to Judaism - then why would their return have
> caused any problem for their fellow believers? These people patently weren't
> "Judaisers" - surely they would have been welcomed with open arms by the
> remaining members of the church, having stood up for their faith and
> suffered for it. So it seems to me that a Claudius/Chrestus=Christ exile
> doesn't lead at all logically to the idea of Jew-Gentile tensions within the
> Roman church by the time of Paul's letter.

Dear Gary:

good questions. It sounds like you are well versed in James Walters book on
Ethnic Issues and Weifel's article in the Romans Debate. C C Caragounis'
article in Judaism and Christianity in First-Century Rome (eds Donfried and
Richardson) make the case that might give you another option. see Page 255
where he argues that Christianity was not in the synagogue. pages 258-9
note 61 is a long argument that is helpful.

You might email Richard Oster concerning this. roster AT hugsr.edu

Billy Evans





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page