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40 Separation and Polemic Two important conclusions can be stated here. First, Anatolian Jews were well established, independent, numerous, self­confident, and open to Hellenistic society without any compromising of their under­ standing ofJudaism. AsianJudaism must have cast a powerful shadow for the early church to grow under, both in a negative (Melito of Sardis, letter to Diognetus) and positive (Gentile Christian judaizers) sense. Second," 'Jewish Christianity' in the technicalsense ...isa rare thingin Asia Minor."34 That means that the church related to the synagogue only at a distanceif at all. Asian Christianityshares of course theJewish matrix of the wholechurch, in Danielou's sense, but we find littledirect influence in Asia. There are certain elements of Asian Christianity, such as millenarianism and Montanism, the prominence of women in positions of authority, angels, and other mediators, often ascribed to Jewish influence, which Kraabel argues can be better explained from Anatolian culture. Rather than looking for parallels from Qumran,we would all be well advised to turn instead to Nilsson's classic study.35 Other members of the seminar can deal with external polemic in the Asian church. I would like to point to those writers and movements which have no explicitconnection with the synagogue outside or Chris­ tian Jews inside. We found in Ignatius no references toJews or ChristianJews and very little to the LXXbut only a kerygmatic Christian tradition directed against docetists. The same is true of Polycarp's letter and of the three letters ofJohn.36 The Acts of Paul represent a very interesting aspect of Asian Christian piety37 but tell us nothing about any relationship to Judaism. 1Peter is concerned about the relationship of the church to the state—not the synagogue—and although the author does use the LXX to appropriate for the church language originally speaking of Israel, it is not in a polemical context at all.Jude and 2 Peter are very polemical but the polemic is directed inwards completely, and it is perhaps significant that the opponents are named after such Biblical Gentiles as Cain, Balaam, the Sodomites, etc. In all of these writings Judaism iscompletely ignored, perhaps prudently from their minority 34 Kraabel, Asia Minor, 151. 35 M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion: 2, Die hellenistische und romische Zeit (Munich: Beck, 1961). 36 Recent research on the Fourth Gospel would locate it in a Christian Jewish congre­ gation, but itsJudaism has nothing to do with judaizing (in either sense) nor with gnosticism (even if the gnostics were able to use it well for their own purposes). In any case it does not fit within an Asian context but wascomposed most likelyin Syria (So W.G. Kummel; Alexandria, proposed by J.L. Martyn, is very improbable). The letters, on the other hand, may possibly be directed to Asian congregations, in which case only "the elder" is likely to represent Christian Judaism (cf. Mul\er,Judenchris­ tentum, 29­30). 37 See S.L. Davies, The Revolt of the Widows; the Social World of the Apocryphal Acts (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980). Judaism of the Uncircumcised 41 perspective. Even such famous Christian Jews as John (which one?), Philip (which one?)and his daughters, and Aristion,the disciple of the Lord, may have more to do with Asiaestablishing a line of succession to the earliest church than with any significant migration,38 and there is no reason at allto connect PapiaswithJewishChristianity.39 Although it was originallyplanned, it seems unnecessaryto devote much time here to the situation of Colossians. Especially since the work of Lohse and Schweizer,40 it is no longer necessary to argue that the Colossians "heresy" has nothing to do with the Torah or with ChristianJewsbut is perfectly at home in Anatolian Gentile Christianity. Perhaps the time is not yet ripe to say something similar about Galatians, although that is certainly at the back of my mind. We also found that Ignatius called the practices and/or views of certain Gentile opponents "Judaism" and the people "judaizers." We do not knowwhether or not they would havecalled themselvesthat. In any case, as M. Simon says, "C'estau coeur de 1'Asie Mineur,en Phrygie et en Galatie, que se manifest le plus clairement, en dehors de la Palestine et de la Syrie, le christianismejuda'isant."41 The best evidence comes from the Councilof Laodicea, whoseCanon 29 says that "Chris­ tians must notjudaize byresting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day;and if they can, resting then...

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