Conclusions, Hypotheses, and Reflections

The main conclusions of the work are briefly recapitulated. The Christian heresiological condemnation of novelty has Jewish roots. The Jewish aversion to innovation can be seen in the various ways ancient Jews disguised new things as if they were older. The early Christian embrace of innovation constitutes an important departure from broader ancient Jewish trends. Building on these conclusions, some additional hypotheses are offered concerning the possible interrelationships between heresiological condemnations of innovation and polemical, supersessionistic assertions of innovation. Perhaps the Christian embrace of the new and condemnation of the old were themselves born as polemic responses to Jewish condemnations of novelty. Finally, some additional reflections are offered for consideration, concerning the eventual “partings of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity and some intriguing interrelationships between heresiology and scholarship.

Innovation Asserted

This chapter traces the trajectory of early Christianity’s eventual embrace of the new, as articulated in the New Testament. Early sections probe the Gospels, illustrating how difficult it is to trace the word “new” back to the sayings of Jesus himself. Clearer evidence emerges in Paul, though he balances assertions of innovation with appeals to a prior covenant of faith. Other gospel traditions—above all, the Sermon on the Mount—seek to establish the novelty of Jesus’s teaching, a claim that sometimes entails denying earlier precedents for Jesus’s instruction. Going one important step further, the Letter to the Hebrews provides the earliest evidence for supersessionism, when the valorization of innovation is undergirded by a condemnation of the old. But an alternate discourse is also in evidence in texts like the Didache, which speak not of an old/new contrast but a timeless duality between good and evil.

Secret Supersessionism?

This chapter examines the clearest evidence of an ancient Jewish embrace of innovation: the scattered references to a “new covenant” preserved in various Dead Sea Scrolls. While the term “new” does appear a few fleeting times in this body of literature, this chapter explores how any intimations of innovation at Qumran are gradually buried beneath alternate discourses, such as covenant renewal, the discovery of hidden meanings, and the fundamentally dualistic (and nonchronological) “Two Ways.” The question of Qumranic secrecy is also explored. An excursus to this chapter reconsiders Hazon Gabriel, the so-called Dead Sea Scroll in stone, which may, by some readings, also refer to a “new covenant.” Reasons for doubting the authenticity of this unprovenanced artifact are considered.

Heresy without Orthodoxy

This chapter probes heresiological tendencies in the works of the first-century CE Jewish historian Josephus. Josephus hones in on what he considers dangerous beliefs, such as the denial of providence or renunciation of punishments after death. Josephus’s works prove even more important when considering how he constructs what he calls the “Fourth Philosophy”—rebels whose philosophy is not only dangerous but new. Using many strategies adopted by later Christian heresiologists, Josephus describes this group as recently created, by a named founder, whose distinctive and dangerous ideas are entirely novel, unjustified by scripture or tradition. Examining Josephus as well as some later rabbinic works illustrates the need to separate out heresy from orthodoxy, for in both bodies of literature one can find evidence for heresy without evidence of orthodoxy. Rather, in both Josephus and the rabbis, beliefs deemed dangerous are set against a looser notion of consensus.

Heresies, Forgeries, Novelties

The fundamental goal of this chapter is to present the dynamic to be explored in this book, relating heresy, forgery, and novelty. In its first sections, this chapter probes the contestability of religious novelty and the roles that condemnations of novelty played in Christian heresiological discourse. Then the chapter examines and also chips away at the various perspectives and biases that have prevented exploring the Jewish origins of Christian heresiology. The chapter next considers the extent to which second temple period Jewish writers went to conceal innovations, often by deceitfully disguising recent writings as much more ancient ones. The threads tie together with a restatement of the key dynamic at play: Heresy involves the condemnation of novelty; forgery entails the feigning of antiquity. Novelty ensues with the valorization of innovation, which can harden into supersessionism—the inverse of heresy.