Corpus-Paul

[Jeff Peterson <peterson AT austingrad.edu>]

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