Corpus-Paul

["Bigpond Dial-up" <jdickson AT bigpond.com>]

Dear Cameron and others,

Very happy to interact on this question. My recently published dissertation - if you will forgive the shameless self-promotion - is substantially devoted to this question. Actually, it was devoted to the question of Paul's indebtedness to Jewish traditions about outreach to the Gentiles (John P. Dickson, Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities: the shape, extent and background of early Christian mission, WUNT 2, vol.159, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003).

I believe it is important to distinguish between a 'missionary religion' (such as Pauline Christianity surely was) and a religion in which one simply finds evidence of 'mission-commitment' (activities consciously oriented toward the inclusion of outsiders). Some forms of Judaism in antiquity certainly fall into this latter category.

There is some evidence of Jewish preachers to Gentiles (akin to Christian missionaries) in the period, and Goodman and McKnight have by no means had the last word here. But the more significant evidence, I believe, is that which indicates a desire on the part of many Jews of the era to draw Gentiles to the worship of the true God. That desire was expressed variously through 'prayer' for the salvation of Gentiles, 'good works' designed to win Gentiles to the Jewish life, 'verbal persuasion' (as distinct from formal teaching) and 'public worship' in which the synagogue provided a powerful and self-conscious, albeit indirect, means of winning Gentiles to true worship.

Happy to discuss this theme in detail but I thought I'd throw out this preliminary response to your question.

Kind regards from Sydney,

John

 

Dr. John P. Dickson
Sydney, Australia

 

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Cameron VanEpps

To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2003 4:50 PM

Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Judaism: a missionary religion or just open to converts?

Dear Readers,

I have recently read Paula Fredriksen's essay, "Judaism, Circumcision, and Apocalyptic Hope" in Mark Nanos' new book, The Galatians debate, and found my mind pricked with many interesting thoughts. I will only pose one question at a time in the hope that each will be dealt with fully. My first question, which I never really gave much thought to, is the idea of Judaism as being a "missionary" religion. Does it make sense to think that there was such a thing as outreach based preaching/teaching prior to the great commission? Or is it more likely that what really happened was teachings or philosophical debates between a Rabbi and those holding to another theological application in an open air arena, thus drawing those inclined to monotheism into the fold. I would love to hear people's thoughts on this topic.

Cameron P. VanEpps
215 W. Illinois St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
phone: (360) 715-8873
cell: (360) 319-6653

---

_______________________________________________
Corpus-Paul mailing list
Corpus-Paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/corpus-paul