Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays by E. A. Judge (review)

Edwin A. Judge is a well-known classicist who focused on developing selective scenarios for reading passages from early Jesus group documents, based on the witness of ancient papyri, inscriptions, and other documents. Scholer has selected eight “pivotal essays” (published between 1960 and 1992) for this volume.

Chapter 1 (“The Social Pattern of the Christian Groups in the First Century”) consists of a number of sections dealing with interpreting New Testament ideas, Republican institutions (politeia), the household community (oikonomia), unofficial institutions (koinonia), the social constituency of Christian groups, legal proceedings involving Christians, and ideas of social obligation. Christian distinctives here are the Messiahship of Jesus and “two epoch making events” (p. 56): the resurrection of Jesus and the anticipation of imminent judgment.

Chapter 2 (“Paul’s Boasting in Relation to Contemporary Professional Practice”) treats the rhetorical basis of Paul’s boasting, opening with Augustine’s assessment of Paul as rhetor. Judge then raises some (rhetorical) questions: Was Paul a layman in rhetoric? Did he in fact use the grand style? What was Paul’s personal background? He rounds out the essay with a consideration of the place of rhetoric in antiquity; rhetoric in the New Testament; Paul and his professional competitors; and the rhetoric of Paul’s boasting passage, which he judges to be a parody of contemporary rhetorical norms.

Chapter 3 on “St. Paul and Classical Society” underscores all the lacuna in the study of the history of New Testament times that would shed light on an understanding Paul, especially in Greek cities.

Chapter 4 (“St. Paul as Radical Critic of Society”) opens with one reason to believe Paul was not conservative: he deliberately abandoned the security of established status in his own life. Judge insists that Paul was not interested in mere social reform or in replacing one order with another. The bonds of social order are temporary, so Paul appeals to people who look to redemption to begin now. Judge rightly notes that the (western) Diaspora was much larger than commonly believed.

Chapter 5 (“The Social Identity of the First Christians”) looks to the question of method in religious history, followed by an overview and critique of attempts in the 1970s at using sociology in New Testament study and in developing a reasoned appreciation of Jesus group origins. He uses the term social identity in a very impressionistic way.

Chapter 6 is concerned with describing “Rank and Status in the World of the Caesars and St. Paul.” Judge believes that “ancient history has no particular need to look to other epochs for fresh sources of understanding” (p. 156). To demonstrate this, Judge offers a valuable selection and interpretation of a set of papyri to demonstrate rank and status, with heavy emphasis on names. His repeated interest in rank and status in antiquity relies on highly idiosyncratic usage of these terms.

Chapter 7 on “Cultural Conformity and Innovation in Paul” presents a good description of benefaction and reciprocity as well as patron-client relations, although readers may find difficulty with the impressionistic usage of these terms, as well as with the distinctive meaning of rank and status.

The final chapter (chapter 8, “The Teacher as Moral Exemplar in Paul and in the Inscriptions of Ephesus”) underscores the differences between following a teacher and imitation. Based on a list of civic virtues from an Ephesian inscription he describes the dimensions of imitation compared with following, concluding with an exegetical foray into Pauline writings.

Scholer introduces this collection with an excellent essay that situates Judge among social historians dealing with early Jesus group development. He concludes the book with a comprehensive bibliography of Judge’s works. Scholer is to be congratulated for selecting some of Judge’s significant essays for a new generation of scholars.