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Hi John and
others,
I'm enjoying
this. I wondered, John, if you did anything with 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 in
your study:
23
Suppose that, if the whole congregation were meeting and all of them
speaking in tongues, and some uninitiated people or unbelievers were to come in,
don't you think they would say that you were all raving? 24 But if
you were all prophesying when an unbeliever or someone uninitiated came in, he
would find himself put to the test (elengcho) by all and judged
(anakrino) by all 25 and the secrets of his heart revealed;
and so he would fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is
indeed among you. (New Jerusalem
Bible).
I find this passage
fascinating because it conjures up an image for me of prophesying as being
similar to an elengchos ("refutation," as practiced by Socrates,
some the Sophists, et al.), but, be that as it may, how did unbelievers and the
uninitiated get there? Did a believer invite them? I must say
it's fascinating (entertaining?) to think of someone being invited over to
a friend or relative's house for a friendly little "gathering," only to
find him/herself getting "refuted" and "examined/evaluated," and by
ALL no less! Sounds a bit too much like some of the "revivals" I
occasionally witnessed growing up in the hills . . .
(-;
Anyway, is it
possible that believers bringing unbelievers in was not
unusual?
Mark
Mark D. Given
Associate Professor
Department of Religious
Studies
Southwest Missouri State
University
901 S. National Ave.
Springfield, MO 65804
Dear Jeff and others,
Thank you for the 'congratulations' and for the
indication of your eagerness to read my study. I hope you find it
stimulating.
I agree that there is a difference between an
activity done merely to gain respect for the Jewish communities and one
done in the hope that Gentiles would embrace the worship of the Jewish God. It
is evidence of the latter that I was talking about in my previous email. There
is evidence across a surprising range of sources that some Jews of the period
not only were eager for the conversion of Gentiles ('conversion' understood
here simply as a new allegiance to the God of the Jews) but hoped to
effect this through, as I said previously, prayer, good works, persuasion,
public worship and, on occasion, formal proselytic instruction.
Perhaps of more interest to members of this list
is the observation that a similar outlook may be discerned in the Pauline
epistles. While evidence of formal proselytic instruction of 'outsiders' is
plentiful in our documents, notice that this evidence does not relate to
congregations generally. Paul, Timothy, Peter, James, et al., are said to
preach the gospel to outsiders but believers in general are not. I don't doubt
that Paul would have been very happy to see his converts 'evangelising' their
neighbours at every opportunity but he does not appear to have taught
them to do so. They are, however, urged to engage in various
supportive activities - or expressions of 'mission-commitment' - such as
prayer, financial support, ethical and verbal apologetic, and the orientation
of public worship for the sake of the outsider. Hence, I suspect that
belonging to a Pauline congregation will, in this respect, have felt a
little like belonging to a synagogue in the Diaspora: while you
were conscious that some saw it as their duty to proclaim the
message of salvation to outsiders, generally you hoped merely to play an
auxiliary role in that cause - through prayer, godly living, church
gatherings, and so on.
As an aside, I too agree that 'mission' is not a
very useful term in our discussion since it implies sending/commission. The
problem is, this word is firmly embedded in the secondary literature: the
title of my own book perpetuates that! But what is an appropriate
alternative? 'Proselytising' is perhaps etymologically more accurate,
since it connotes simply the gaining of adherents, but its pejorative sense in
modern English makes it awkward. 'Evangelism' is limited in its
usefulness not only because it excludes Jewish activities but also because,
strictly speaking, it denotes gospel-telling only. The fact that there isn't
an obvious biblical term for this range of activities (ones oriented toward
the inclusion of outsiders) is instructive in itself. I suspect Paul didn't
have a category in his head that could be labeled 'mission' or whatever
- at least, not in relation to the converts in his congregations. For the
apostle, all of these activities were probably just aspects of the expectation
that believers were to 'do good to all'. 1 Cor 10:31-11:1 appears to move us
in that direction.
Kind regards,
John
John P. Dickson
Sydney, Australia
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2003 9:39
PM
Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Judaism:
a missionary religion or just open toconverts?
Dear John,
The initial question I'd press is what
activities the various kinds of evidence you rightly mention constitute
evidence for. I.e., there's a difference between a religion that welcomes
outsiders when they present themselves on the doorstep (as opposed to
driving them away) and one that actively recruits among outsiders; it's the
difference between most Orthodox and many Evangelical churches in this neck
of the woods. The interesting thing in your summary of evidence is the
motive clauses; it's not my impression that the sources are so clear that
gentile conversion is the motive of the Jewish actions you refer to, which
leaves open the interpretation that e.g. good works were done with a view to
improving gentile perceptions of Judaism, which might have a number of
benefits besides conversion, e.g., averting a contemporary replay of
Nebuchadrezzar or Antiochus Epiphanes.
Congratulations on the
publication of your study. I will look forward to an opportunity to read it
-- sometime after the beginning of the semester!
All best,
Jeff
Peterson
On Monday, August 18, 2003, at 01:14 AM, Bigpond Dial-up
wrote:
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
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Jeffrey
Peterson
Austin Graduate School of Theology
Austin, Texas
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