The Origin of Heresy Routledge Studies in Religion
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The Origin of Heresy Routledge Studies in Religion 1 Judaism and Collective Life 11 Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols, Self and Community in the and the Articulation of Identities Religious Kibbutz in South Asia Aryei Fishman Edited by Kelly Pemberton & Michael Nijhawan 2 Foucault, Christianity and Interfaith Dialogue 12 Theology, Creation, and Henrique Pinto Environmental Ethics From Creatio Ex Nihilo to 3 Religious Conversion and Terra Nullius Identity Whitney Bauman The Semiotic Analysis of Texts Massimo Leone 13 Material Religion and Popular Culture 4 Language, Desire, and Theology E. Frances King A Genealogy of the Will to Speak Noëlle Vahanian 14 Adam Smith as Theologian Edited by Paul Oslington 5 Metaphysics and Transcendence Arthur Gibson 15 The Entangled God Divine Relationality and Quantum 6 Sufi sm and Deconstruction Physics A Comparative Study of Derrida Kirk Wegter-McNelly and Ibn ‘Arabi Ian Almond 16 Aquinas and Radical Orthodoxy A Critical Inquiry 7 Christianity, Tolerance and Paul J. DeHart Pluralism A Theological Engagement with 17 Animal Ethics and Theology Isaiah Berlin’s Social Theory The Lens of the Good Samaritan Michael Jinkins Daniel K. Miller 8 Negative Theology and Modern 18 The Origin of Heresy French Philosophy A History of Discourse in Second Arthur Bradley Temple Judaism and Early Christianity 9 Law and Religion Robert M. Royalty, Jr. Edited by Peter Radan, Denise Meyerson and Rosalind F. Atherton 10 Religion, Language, and Power Edited by Nile Green and Mary Searle-Chatterjee The Origin of Heresy A History of Discourse in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity Robert M. Royalty, Jr. NEW YORK LONDON First published 2013 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Taylor & Francis The right of Robert M. Royalty, Jr. to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Royalty, Robert M., 1961– The origin of heresy : a history of discourse in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity / by Robert M. Royalty, Jr. p. cm. — (Routledge studies in religion ; 18) Includes bibliographical references (p. 209) and index. 1. Christianity—Origin. 2. Christianity and other religions—Judaism. 3. Judaism—Relations—Christianity. 4. Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600. 5. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.–210 A.D. I. Title. BR129.R73 2012 273'.1—dc23 2012003836 ISBN13: 978-0-415-53694-3 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-11107-9 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by IBT Global. For Anne Beeson Royalty Contents Preface ix Abbreviations xi PART I Genealogy of a Discourse 1 The Origin of Heresy 3 2 The Rhetoric of Diff erence in Israel 30 3 Reform and Revolution in the Roman Empire: John the Baptist and the Disciples of Jesus 53 4 Paul and the Rhetoric of Diff erence 64 5 The Christian Gospels as Narratives of Exclusion 89 PART II The Politics of Heresy 6 Policing the Boundaries: The Politics of Heresiology 119 7 The Politics of Orthodoxy 147 8 Conclusions 172 Notes 177 Bibliography 209 Index 227 Preface This book has two points of origin in my graduate studies at Yale Uni- versity: seminars on Justin Martyr and the second century with Bentley Layton; and extensive research on the Book of Revelation, guided by Susan Garrett and Wayne Meeks. I was fortunate to have these excellent teach- ers at Yale. As I fi nished my fi rst book on Revelation, I became intrigued by how the harsh polemics of the Apocalypse were directed against other Christians, demonized as satanic enemies within the churches. In fact, the entire New Testament is full of such rhetoric—the rhetoric against intimate enemies that becomes heresy. Although Justin has been credited with creat- ing the rhetoric of heresy, it was clear to me that this discourse began much earlier and developed throughout the fi rst century. This book began as my attempt to connect the ragged edges of what became the New Testament texts, including Revelation, to the heresiological discourses of the second century, from Justin onwards. A National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship and a Stanford Humanities Center External (Visiting) Fellowship in 2005–2006 were essential for getting this project o the ground. I am very grateful for the support of the NEH and Stanford. We enjoyed a wonderful year at the Humanities Center, discussing ideas of all sorts, including my own, with a lively and stimulating group of fellows, including John Bender, Marcus Folch, Jehangir Malegam, Steven Justice, and Johannes Fabian; the Reli- gious Studies Department at Stanford, including Arnold Eisen, Hester Gel- ber, and Brent Sockness; and the Empires and Cultures Workshop in the History Department. I would also like to thank Robert Gregg, Dale Martin, and William Placher (RIP 2008) for their early support of this project. In addition, I am thankful for a sabbatical and research support from Wabash College and the resources of Lilly Library, including the invaluable support of Susan Albrecht and Deborah Polley. And I am thankful to Laura Sterns and the editorial and production sta at Routledge for accepting this book and for their assistance in bringing it to publication expeditiously. Several portions of this book have been presented at conferences of the European Association of Biblical Studies (Lisbon 2008 and Lincoln 2009, with special thanks to Moshe Lavee and Ronit Nikolsky), the Oxford x Preface Patristics Conference (2007), and meetings of the Society of Biblical Lit- erature in Boston (2008) and Rome (2009), as well as the Wabash College Humanities Colloquium. Conversations with colleagues including Denise Buell, Stephen Davis, Nicola Denzey Lewis, Rebecca Lyman, Outi Lehtipuu, Elaine Pagels, Gary Phillips, and Greg Snyder have been very helpful along the way. Colleagues kind enough to comment on earlier drafts include Christopher Frilingos, Susan Garrett, Michael Penn, William Placher, and James Watts. I am very thankful for their time and insights, as well as the comments of the anonymous readers of the manuscript. All mistakes remain my own. Above all I am thankful for the support of my children, Nolen and Ginna, and my wife, Anne Beeson Royalty, during the years of hard work on this project. I dedicate this book to her with much love and a ection. PERMISSIONS Quotations from the Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Portions of Chapter 6 were originally published in “Dwelling on Visions: The Nature of the So-Called ‘Colossians Heresy,’” Biblica 83 (2002): 329–57. Used by permission. Abbreviations Abbreviations are from The SBL Handbook of Style for Ancient Near East- ern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies, ed. Patrick H. Alexander et al. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999). 1Q, 2Q, 4Q, 5Q Scrolls from Qumran Caves 1, 2, 4, 5 Ps.-Clem. Pseudo-Clementines Dio Nicom. Dio Chrysostom, To the Nicomedians Ep. Barn. Epistle of Barnabas Haer. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses Ign. Ignatius Jos. Ant., J.W. Josephus Antiquities, Jewish War Jus. Apol., Dial. Justin, Apology, Dialogue with Trypho LSJ Liddell, Scott and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon Luc. Lucian MT Masoretic Text (of the Hebrew Bible) OTP Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Plat. Apol. Plato, Apology Pliny Ep. Pliny the Younger, Letters Suet. Claud. Suetonius, Claudius Wis. Sol. Wisdom of Solomon Xen. Xenophon Part I Genealogy of a Discourse 1 The Origin of Heresy There are so many ways to commit heresy these days as to suggest the old adage that it’s getting hard to commit an original sin. One can commit heresy by serving the wrong wine at dinner, breaking with your political party on a policy, running on third-and-long, or changing a business plan. Every business, group, club, and organization seems to have its “heretics” who challenge the “reigning orthodoxy” of the system. One can still, of course, commit heresy the old-fashioned way—in a religious community.1 Christians invented this concept still used so widely today. While shared among several religions, the idea of “heresy” is central to the history of Christianity, from the fourth-century ecumenical councils of Nicea and Chalcedon, to the Medieval Inquisition and Reformation, to recent clashes over sexual practice and critical church histories. The word “heresy” comes from the ancient Greek word hairesis, meaning a choice, school of thought, sect, or party, which was itself derived from the verb haireō, which meant to choose or prefer one thing over another. The word hairesis had wide, fairly common, and non-pe- jorative meanings in the ancient Hellenistic world.2 The meaning of the word changes, however, from the late fi rst century , when it appears