Civilized Christ-Followers among Barbaric Cretans and Superstitious Judeans: Negotiating Ethnic Hierarchies in Titus 1:10–14

2021 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 369
Author(s):  
Hoklotubbe
Keyword(s):  
Christ Followers

Paul and the Law

Paul ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Fredriksen
Keyword(s):  
Negative Statements ◽  
The Law ◽  
Christ Followers

This chapter examines Paul's praise of the Law, its mandates, and its privilege, and how he urges its standards of behavior not only toward both God but also toward fellow Christ-followers on his gentile communities. It first considers how the gospel's mission to Israel in the diaspora had absorbed sympathetic pagans without demanding that they receive circumcision. It then discusses the inconsistencies of the Law's rhetorical valence in Paul's epistles, along with the identification of “Christianity” with “Law-freeness” and what Paul has to say anything about Jews circumcising their own sons. It also analyzes Paul's negative statements about the Law to his communities mid-century, suggesting that they were intended to dissuade Christ-following pagans from Judaizing in any way other than in Paul's way.

scholarly journals Inklusiwiteit as evangelie

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Common Ancestry ◽  
Religion And Law ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Historical Memories ◽  
The Temple

Inclusivity as gospelIn antiquity, group identity was based on cultural ethnicity. Groups used their ethnicity to define and delineate themselves as unique. Ethnicity was determined by characteristics like family (kinship), name, language, homeland, myths of common ancestry, customs, shared historical memories, phenotypical features, and religion. The Jewish temple religion and law-abiding Jews in the early church (as depicted in Acts and the congregations of Paul) also used their ethnic identity as argument for justifying the exclusion of other groups/ethnic peoples from the Temple and the early church, respectively. Jesus, Acts and Paul, on the contrary, proclaimed that ethnicity meant nothing when it comes to being in God’s presence, being part of the early Christ-followers, or being part of any local (Pauline) congregation. For this reason, it can be concluded that the New Testament bears witness to an inclusive ecclesiology.

scholarly journals “To Be or to Be Thought to Be”

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
John Curran
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Early History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
Community Of Christ ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
The City

Recent research on the textual tradition of Latin versions of the Testimonium Flavianum prompts another enquiry into the original text and the transmission of the famous passage. It is suggested here that the Greek/Latin versions highlight a western/eastern early history of the Testimonium and that in turn directs our attention back to the original circumstances of its composition and publication in the city of Rome in the later years of the first century. Restored to its original historical context, the Testimonium emerges as a carefully crafted attack upon the post-Pauline community of Christ-followers in the city.

Jesus and Judaism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Nicklas
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter explores the relationship between Jesus and Judaism as described in gospel texts of the late first and second centuries. It addresses two questions: (1) To what extent is Jesus presented as a ‘Jewish’ character, or as related to characters depicted as representatives of ‘Judaism’? (2) To what extent is Jesus described as following, disobeying, or violating Jewish practices? Material is provided by the Gospel of John and the ‘unknown Gospel’ of Papyrus Egerton 2. The two evangelists describe Jesus’ relation to Judaism in different ways: while both remain in a frame shaped by Jewish tradition, John creates a boundary between his community and ‘the Jews’ with ‘their synagogue’, a boundary absent from the Egerton fragments in spite of their polemical tone. These divergent representations of Jesus’ relationship to Jewish characters/practices shed light on the relationship of the Christ-followers behind our texts to what we would call ‘Judaism.’

The Entrepreneurial Widows of 1 Timothy

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Harry O. Maier
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Urban Economy ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Status Of Women ◽  
Wealthy Women

This chapter continues a focus on the Christian Bible with examination of ‘The Entrepreneurial Widows of 1 Timothy’. It argues that the exhortations and admonitions to widows (i.e. unmarried women) voiced in 1 Timothy—identified as a highly rhetorical pseudonymous letter written in Paul’s name—attests to a concern with single women’s patronage of Christ assemblies, which the writer seeks to address by having them marry. The contributor seeks to move beyond a common explanation that the letter was occasioned by ascetical teachings in which women discovered in sexual continence a new freedom from traditional gender roles. The chapter aims to establish that the letter has a broader economic concern with widows, through an historical exploration of the socio-economic status of women who were artisans in the imperial urban economy. It identifies the means by which women gained skill in trades, the roles they played in the ‘adaptive family’ in which households of tradespeople plied their trade often at economic levels of subsistence. New Testament texts point to artisan women, some of them probably widows, who played important roles of patronage and leadership in assemblies of Christ followers. By attending to levels of poverty in the urban empire, traditional views of the widows of 1 Timothy as wealthier women assigned to gender roles are seen in a new light through consideration of spouses accustomed to working alongside their husbands and taking on the businesses after they died. While the lives of these women are largely invisible, attention to benefactions of wealthy women to synagogues and associations gives insight into the lives of women acting independently in various kinds of social gatherings.

The Spirit in Ephesians and Philippians

Pneuma ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 508-520
Author(s):  
Daniel K. Darko
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract This study aims to shed light on the richness, essence, and range of πνεῦμα lexemes in Paul’s correspondence to Christ followers in Western Asia Minor and Roman Philippi. I will endeavor to show the import of each occurrence of πνεῦμα or its cognate in these letters and provide a synthesis of the findings at the conclusion. It will become apparent that Paul does not have one consistent referent for πνεῦμα, either to the Holy Spirit or to other spiritual activities. The study will also show that Paul’s use of πνεῦμα lexemes is predicated upon the occasion and provenance of the letter in question. The analysis begins with Ephesians due to its higher frequency and range of πνεῦμα usage compared to its five appearances in Philippians.

scholarly journals The Myth of the 'Law-Free' Paul Standing between Christians and Jews

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Nanos
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Essential Difference ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
The Law ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Prevailing View

Christians and Jews agree that the Apostle Paul did not observe Torah as a matter of faith, or in his daily life, except when he sought to evangelize among Jews who observed Torah. This perspective and the reasoning provided to explain it conceptualize the essential difference between Christianity and Judaism as revolving around Paul and his supposedly "Law-free Gospel," more so than around Jesus and his teachings. This understanding derives from the perception that Paul did not observe Jewish dietary norms, and that, moreover, he taught other Christ-followers not to observe them. This essay engages the primary texts on which this is based (Gal 2:11-15; 1 Cor 8—10; Rom 14—15) and finds that, contrary to the prevailing view, they show that Paul implicitly and even explicitly supported Jewish dietary norms among Christ-followers. The results challenge centuries of interpretation, with broad implications for Christian and Jewish portrayals of Paul and of the supposed foundations for differences that require and provide strategies of "othering" that continue to pose obstacles to progress in Christian-Jewish relations.

scholarly journals Deviance or acceptable difference: Observance of the Law in Romans 14–15 and Dialogue with Trypho 47

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Interactionist ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Law ◽  
Christ Followers

Utilising the symbolic interactionist study of deviance, this article compares the treatment of Law-observant Christ-followers in Romans 14–15 and Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho 47, in order to understand better the declining status of Law-observant Christ-followers in the early Christ-movement. The ‘strong’ in Romans 14:1–15:13 are likely Christ-followers who do not observe the Law, whilst the ‘weak’ are likely Christ-followers who do. Although Paul accepts Law-observant Christ-followers, his preference for non-observance decreases the status of those who observe the Law, thereby undermining Paul’s vision of a unified, ethnically mixed Church. In Dialogue 47, Justin intensifies the marginalisation of Law-observant Christfollowers by placing them at the very limits of orthodoxy. Dialogue 47 suggests that the campaign for the legitimacy of Law-observant Christ-following was already failing by the middle of the 2nd century, largely because of Paul’s own preference for non-observant Christfollowing.

Finding common ground in God’s story: Experiencing Luke 7:36–50 with the first-century hearers

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-239
Author(s):  
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
First Century ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Dinner Table ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Twenty First Century

Luke designed the narrative of Luke 7:36–50 in a way that heightens the tension for his first-century audience. The polarity emphasized in the narrative—a sinful woman at a Pharisee’s dinner table—corresponds well to the experience of first-century Christians who share meal fellowship with a diverse range of Christ-followers. This expository retelling highlights elements in the structure and rhetoric of Luke’s storytelling in order to help twenty-first-century readers of this passage understand how early hearers would have experienced the story.

scholarly journals The Adoption and Use of the Word ἘΚΚΛΗΣΊΑ in the Early Christ-Movement

Ecclesiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Philip F. Esler
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
First Century ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Christ Followers ◽  
Table Fellowship ◽  
The One ◽  
Mixed Groups

Abstract This article engages with two recent monographs and three shorter publications to offer a fresh approach to the origin and some aspects of the use of the word ἐκκλησία in the Christ-movement of the first century ce. It argues that the word was first used as a collective designation by mixed groups of Greek-speaking Judean and non-Judean Christ-followers who were persecuted by Paul. Their intimate table-fellowship (especially of the one loaf and one cup of the Lord’s Supper) was regarded as involving or risking idolatry and thus imperilling the ethnic integrity of the Judean people. These Christ-followers adopted the word ἐκκλησία from instances in the Septuagint where it meant not ‘assembly’ but ‘multitude’ or ‘group’, most importantly of all in 1 Sam. 19.20. As Paul founded new communities in the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean that were recognisably similar to Greco-Roman voluntary associations, the word acquired new connotations that reverberated with the role of ἐκκλησίαι as civic voting assemblies in the Greek cities. Paul’s groups were not anti-Roman, nor did he believe that the Christ-movement would replace ethnic Israel, but rather that the two would co-exist until the End. The Pauline view on this matter finds theological endorsement in a 2015 document from the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews.

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