Corpus-Paul

["Larry Swain" <theswain AT operamail.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Peterson <peterson AT austingrad.edu>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 13:36:53 -0500
To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Judaism: a missionary religion or just open to 
converts?

> On Monday, August 18, 2003, at 11:56 AM, Terence Donaldson wrote:
> 
> >  In our study of the religions of late antiquity it might be better to 
> > dispense with the term "mission" altogether, at least for a while, and 
> > to investigate afresh the ways in which religions propagated 
> > themselves (by creating a public profile, attracting and incorporating 
> > new members, etc.).
> 
> A moratorium on the use of the word "mission" might be useful, and in 
> any case we need to take care in defining the terms of our discussion, 
> but I don't think one can get around earliest Christianity as an 
> outward-looking and -moving community. Paul gives us evidence not only 
> for his own missionary activity (oops, I used the word! -- read 
> "recruitment" or something more vanilla) but also for that of Peter and 
> Jerusalem folk -- the handshake or holy kiss sealed the fact that he 
> was entrusted with an APOSTOLH to the gentiles, as they held one 
> directing them to Jews (Gal 2:1ff). And as far as I can see (pending my 
> promised read of Dixon), the evidence is against any detectable number 
> of non-Christian Jews in antiquity regarding themselves as actively 
> sent to include gentiles within the covenant, or as organizing 
> themselves to fulfill such a comission; how you dealt with gentiles who 
> were bright or pious enough to see that in covenant with Israel's god 
> was where they belonged, that was another question.
> 

I seem to recall some years ago a very good article (can't lay hands on a 
reference in my notes, and nowhere near a database at the moment) that asked 
this question of Second Temple Judaism generally and didn't even examine 
Paul.  As I recall the article it was mostly if not entirely based on 
Josephus and concluded that at least some communities, especially in the 
Diaspora, may have actively sought "converts", others probably welcomed them 
if they came and spoke or debated in public if asked about "Judaism" and 
still others rejected the nations utterly.  Maybe someone recognizes the 
article from my description, but if not I'll try and find it before the 
discussion moves on.  I found it interesting at the time.

Larry Swain
-- 
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