Church and Synagogue (30–313 AD): Parting of the Ways by Mariusz Rosik (review)

Establishing Christianity as a separate religion was not an original purpose of Jesus Christ's work. His life and mission primarily consisted in proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God. As Origen has ingeniously formulated it, Jesus is autobasileia, meaning that Jesus himself is the kingdom of God, that in Jesus the kingdom of God is revealed. Jesus's public activity led to the emergence of something which can be called the "Palestinian movement of Jesus" (p. 12), in which he is not only a teacher but also the Messiah expected by the Jews and who remained unrecognized to most of them. His work, filled with God's power and signs, was a confirmation that God had not forgotten God's people, and that in Jesus God had once again become God close to humanity and the God of encounter.

Today, the OT roots of Christianity are often insufficiently recognized. Judaism is considered a historical religion only, a way from the past that does not seem to have a close relationship with present-day Christianity. The distinction between biblical and rabbinic Judaism is sometimes disregarded. Some believers have too easily abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, gathering around Jesus of Nazareth. Yet it was the religion of the patriarchs and the OT prophets, the heritage of God's covenant with the chosen nation through the ministry of Moses that lay at the core of the future Christian religion.

Not surprisingly, modern Christians for the most part do not reflect on the moment when the two revealed religions split and went their separate ways. The question, however, of when and how the "parting of the ways" of the church and the synagogue took place must be posed. It is a matter not only of historical significance but also of theological importance.

In his monograph, Mariusz Rosik, a Polish Catholic priest and a biblical scholar, lecturer at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Wrocław, has attempted to offer an answer. There is, however, no simple and unambiguous answer to the aforementioned question. In the opinion of R., contemporary researchers fail to reach a unanimous answer as to when, where, how and even whether the parting of the ways of the church and the synagogue took place, and what results from different perspectives they adopt. Christian and Jewish scholars differ in their views on the subject as well as others who do not identify with either of these religions (p. 30).

Rosik admits that establishing one specific date of separation is not just difficult; it actually proves impossible. Everything was shaped in a long and arduous process within both Judaism and Christianity. The shortest answer to the question about the date of the final separation of the church and the synagogue is that the break took place in different places at different times, with the turning point in the whole process being the year 90 c.e., when the Rabbinical Assembly at Yavneh excluded Christians from the synagogue. Researchers also point to other important dates in the path of the progressive separation of Judaism and Christianity: the year 49 or 51 c.e. (the so-called Council of Jerusalem), the year 70 c.e. (the fall of the Jerusalem temple) or the year 135 c.e. (the Bar Kokhba revolt), after which the two religions remained very loosely tied until the Milanese Rescript of 313 c.e. (see M. Rosik, "Zarzewie konfliktu między Kościołem a Synagogą [do 135 roku]" [Sources of Conflict between the Church and the Synagogue] in Jezus i chrześcijanie w źródłach rabinicznych. Perspektywa historyczna, społeczna, religijna i dialogowa[ Jesus and Christians in Rabbinical Sources: Historical, Social, Religious and Dialogical Perspectives] [ed. K. Pilarczyk; Cracow: A. Mrozek, 2012] 69–104).

The author has divided his work into three main parts: (1) Church within Judaism (a.d. 30–70); (2) Difficult Parting...