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

1. To the Hebrews or Against the Hebrews? Anti-Judaism and the Epistle to the Hebrews

viii Separation and Polemic University Press, 1969), Paul's Ethic of Freedom (Philadelphia:Westmin­ ster Press, 1979), and the editor of the companion (vol. 1) to this volume. ALAN F. SEGAL is Professor in the Department of Religion, Barnard College, New York. His book TwoPapers in Heaven (Leiden: Brill, 1977) explores the relationship between Judaism, Gnosticism, and Chris­ tianity. MARTIN B. SHUKSTER is a graduate student at the Centre for Religious Studies in the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, where he is writing a dissertation on "The Church of God" in Paul. STEPHEN G. WILSON is Professor of Religion at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario. He is the author of The Gentiles and theGentile Mission in Luke­Acts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), Lukeand the Pastoral Epistles (London: SPCK, 1979), and Luke and theLaw (Cam­ bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). His current research is on Jewish­Christian relations 70­170 C.E. Introduction The essays in this volume represent the final two years of a five­year seminar held at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1981; Ottawa, Ontario in 1982). They extend into the late first and second centuries the workbegun in earlier years of the seminar, a selection of which appears in the companion volume edited by Peter Richardson (Anti­Judaism in Early Christianity, Volume 1: Paul and the Gospels). Most of the papers in this volume were completed by 1982, though some were revised in 1983. Some significant work has appeared since, which, unfortunately, could not be referred to. It has, on the whole, however, supported and extended some of the suggestions made here: for example, R.J. Hoffman in Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity (Chico: Scholars Press, 1984) has a not dissimilar assessment of Mar­ cion's view of Judaism, even though he emphasizes different causal factors; and J. Gager's The Origins of Anti­Semitism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984) expands L. Gaston's thesis about the signifi­ cance of Gentilejudaizers into a major causal factor of Christian anti­ Judaism in the early centuries. As with the first volume, not all of the papers presented to the seminar could be included. There are, moreover, topics which could have been considered but for the constraints of time and personnel. Many of these papers do, however, take a fresh look at issuescentral to Jewish­Christian relations in the obscure and somewhat neglected period between 70 and 200 C.E. Viewed asa whole, they point to atleast three important conclusions. The first is that no simple hypothesisis adequate to explain the complex and varied evidence of this period. To argue, for example, as does R.R. Ruether in Faith and Fratricide (New York: Paulist, 1974), that christology is at the root of Christian anti­ Judaism—its so called "left­hand"—would be to flyin the face of much of the evidence considered in these essays. It is an important element, IX Separation and Polemic for example, in the Epistle of Barnabas and in Melito's PeriPascha.Yet to single it out would be to ignore, in the case of Barnabas, the impor­ tance of the threat from a rejuvenated Judaism anticipating the re­ building of the Temple, and to belittle, in the case of Melito, a host of other contributory factors, not least the presence of a prominent and influential Jewish communityin Sardis and the possibilityof a Gentile judaizing movement there and elsewhere in Asia Minor. There is a further sense in which the Christian evidence of this period cannot simply be lumped together. For while many Christian writers harp on the same themes they do so with a considerable range of tone and emotion. There is a noticeable difference, for example, between Bar­ nabas and Melito on the one hand and Hebrews and Justin on the other. And it should not be overlooked that Justin, for all his trium­ phalism, does at least place a recognizablyJewish side to the debate on the lips of Trypho. Second, any adequate picture of Jewish­Christian relations in this period must attempt to see things from the Jewish side too. It is a natural temptation to concentrate on the Christian evidence since a great deal more of it isextant and immediatelyusable.Jewish evidence has to be disentangled from rabbinic literature or reconstructed from disparate archeological and papyrological finds, all of which present daunting problems. The essays byA. Segal andJ. Lightstone, however...