Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity: Volume 2: Separation and Polemic

9. Retrospect

158 Separation and Polemic More recently, Klaus Koschorke72 has pointed out that the descrip­ tion of the antagonism between the Jewish God and the Christ in the Testament of Truth and the Apocalypse of Peter parallels the antagonism between the "orthodox" and the "gnostics" in Christianity. The former brings sin into the world and smites with blindness; the latter forgives sin and heals the blind. In radical gnosticism, the symbolism developed in the Jewish­Christian polemic is being put to a new use. This should not be entirely surprising because the issue of the use of the Old Testament (Marcion), and the term second God,13 had been controver­ sial in the formulation of church doctrine as well. The church fathers even made use of the same scriptural passages as the rabbis did when they felt the need. Koschorke's argument generally supports the ob­ servation of Elaine Pagels74 that there is a parallel between the gnostic description of the demonic archons and the gnostic description of earthly "orthodox" bishops. It is difficult to know whether Jews were ever in a position to discipline and persecute the gnostics, as orthodox Christians were. All that can be said for sure is that the church would have agreed with the rabbis in calling gnosticism a kind of dualistic heresy (though the rabbis would also have opposed the church on the same issues). The transformation of valuesseen in Nag Hammadi is not limited to the third century,when gnosticismwasalready full grown. The story of the arrogance of the demiurge was known to the early church fathers. It is reported in Irenaeus,75 Hippolytus,76 and Epiphanius,77 indicating that the process of transvaluing Judaism to create an evil demiurge in contrast to the saving grace of the gnostic redeemer was already underway by the middle of the second century. Within the Palestinian community, with its many sects, polemics over monotheism were used in a variety of ways. Paul seems to use anti­"two powers" polemic against Jews whom he charged with venerat­ ing angels while he himself could have been charged with the identical crime by rabbinic Jews.78 Once the debate is reconstructed, we are able to understand some of the historicalissues affecting exegesis. By the time of the consolida­ 72 Die Polemik der Gnostiker gegen das Kirkliche Chmtentum (Leiden: Brill, 1978), esp. 148­51. He also implies that "gnosticism" existed more in the minds of the heresiologists than as a unified social movement.Certainlythe role of the bishops in labeling a disparate group of phenomena as a single heresy has got to be adequately appraised. 73 Novation, De. Trin. 30; Hipp. Ref. 18.11.12; Origen, Contra Celsum 5:39, 6:61, 7:57; DC Oratione SV, I Comm. on John 2.2, 10.37 (21). 74 Pagels, "Demiurge." 75 Adv. Hficr. 1.5.2­4 and 1.30.1­6. 76 Refill. 6.33 and 7.25.3. 77 Pan. 26:2. 78 Gal. 3. e Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism 159 tion of rabbinic authority at Yavneh and the attempt at a new Jewish orthodoxy, mediation traditions were seen as a clear and present danger within rabbinic Judaism. No doubt the rabbis' concern was linked to the political eventswhichimmediately preceded. The war had precipitated a terrible crisis of faith. Furthermore Christians and others had taken the fall ofJerusalem as proof of the end of the Jewish dispensation. Such ideas were heinous to the majority of the Jewish community. A new set of standards wasnecessary to ensure survival. In asserting further control over the synagogue, the rabbis excluded any sectarian who compromised monotheism from participating in the service. This meant that Christians, among others, were excluded from Jewish life. The growing emphasis on strict monotheism characterizes the rabbinic movement and sets it off from the other sects of its time. The earliest reports about "two powers" in the rabbinic texts were associated with Gentiles. This may further indicate that proto­gnostic interpretations of angelic mediation originated in a thoroughly Hel­ lenized kind of Judaism or among Gentiles attracted to synagogue services. Apparently, along with the Jewish sectarians, Gentiles, who had been drawn to the synagogue to hear the Bible proclaimed, were attracted to Biblical monotheism in a form that distinguished between the supreme God and a divine agent, possibly in a more extreme form than the system that Philo had described. But "two powers" heresy has a clear Jewish sectarian setting as well. All such doctrines, whether in apocalypticism, Christianity,or...