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  • From: Cameron VanEpps <c.vanepps AT comcast.net>
  • To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Is Judaism a Missionary Religion
  • Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 00:48:57 -0700

Thanks for your response Jeffrey,

but my question really does not stem from a difference between propaganda and missionary outreach, but Paul's undying desire to proselytize. It seems a bit strange to me that at no point did he question his new "calling." Can we simply understand his "being sent out" under the pretense that he realized a new Judaism and so felt the need to proclaim it? Because of the early church's close ties to Judaism, it seems as if this idea of proselytization might have already been an established idea, although packaged differently due to the obvious theological differences. I am not saying Judaism had anything quite like the Apostles, but it makes you wonder how come Peter, Barnabas, those to whom Galatians is written against, and Paul, to mention a few, began to do as they did. Certainly an easy answer is because it was something rather in common with what they were used to under their old mindset.

Cameron P. VanEpps
215 W. Illinois St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
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On Sunday, August 17, 2003, at 09:02 AM, corpus-paul-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

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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