Genealogy, Circumcision and Conversion in Early Judaism and Christianity

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Genealogy, Circumcision and Conversion in Early Judaism and Christianity Genealogy, Circumcision and Conversion in Early Judaism and Christianity by Matthew Thiessen Department of Religion Duke University Date: _____________________ Approved: ___________________________ Joel Marcus, Supervisor __________________________ Christine E. Hayes __________________________ Richard B. Hays __________________________ Eric M. Meyers __________________________ C. Kavin Rowe Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 ABSTRACT Genealogy, Circumcision and Conversion in Early Judaism and Christianity by Matthew Thiessen Department of Religion Duke University Date:_____________________ Approved: ___________________________ Joel Marcus, Supervisor __________________________ Christine E. Hayes ________________________ Richard B. Hays __________________________ Eric M. Meyers __________________________ C. Kavin Rowe An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 Copyright by Matthew Thiessen 2010 Abstract In his important work, The Beginnings of Jewishness, Shaye J. D. Cohen has argued that what it meant to be a Jew underwent considerable revision during the second century B.C.E. While previously a Jew was defined in terms of ethnicity (by which Cohen means biological descent), in the wake of Judaism’s sustained encounter with Hellenism, the term Jew came to be defined as an ethno-religion—that is, one could choose to become a Jew. Nonetheless, the recent work of scholars, such as Christine E. Hayes, has demonstrated that there continued to exist in early Judaism a strain of thinking that, in theory at least, excluded the possibility that Gentiles could become Jews. This genealogical exclusion, found in works such as Jubilees, was highly indebted to the “holy seed” theology evidenced in Ezra-Nehemiah, a theology which defined Jewishness in genealogical terms. This dissertation will attempt to contribute to a greater understanding of differing conceptions of circumcision in early Judaism, one that more accurately describes the nature of Jewish thought with regard to Jewishness, circumcision, and conversion. In terms of methodology, my dissertation will combine historical criticism with a literary approach to the texts under consideration. The dissertation will focus on texts from the Hebrew Bible as well as Jewish texts from the Second Temple period as these writings provide windows into the various forms of Judaism from which the early Christian movement arose. Beginning with the Hebrew Bible, I will argue that there is no evidence that circumcision was considered to be a rite of conversion to Israelite religion. In fact, iv circumcision, particularly the infant circumcision instantiated within Israelite and early Jewish society excludes from the covenant those not properly descended from Abraham. In the Second Temple period, many Jews did begin to conceive of Jewishness in terms which enabled Gentiles to become Jews. Nonetheless, some Jews found this definition of Jewishness problematic, and defended the borders of Jewishness by reasserting a strictly genealogical conception of Jewish identity. Consequently, some Gentiles who underwent conversion to Judaism in this period faced criticism because of their suspect genealogy. Our sources record such exclusion with regard to the Herodians, Idumeans who had converted to Judaism. Additionally, a more thorough examination of how circumcision and conversion were perceived by Jews in the Second Temple period will be instrumental in better understanding early Christianity. It is the argument of this dissertation that further attention to a definition of Jewishness that was based on genealogical descent has broader implications for understanding the variegated nature of early Christian mission to the Gentiles in the first century C.E. v In Memory of Isaac J. Meyers vi Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv Abbreviations……………………………………………….………………………........xii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………......xviii Introduction……….……………………………………………………….........................1 Scholarly Conceptions of Circumcision and Conversion in Early Judaism.……...6 Contesting Conversion…………………………………………………………...18 Part I: Genealogy and Circumcision in the Hebrew Bible………….……19 Part II: Genealogy and Circumcision in Early Judaism………...….…….21 Part III: Genealogy and Circumcision in Early Christianity.…...…….….23 PART I: GENEALOGY AND CIRCUMCISION IN THE HEBREW BIBLE 1. Genesis 17: Ishmael, Isaac, and Covenantal Circumcision……………..……….........26 1.1 Introduction……………….….………………………………………………26 1.2 Manuscript Evidence for the Text of Genesis 17:14………….....………......27 1.2.1 The Masoretic Text……...…………………………..…………......27 1.2.2 The Septuagint Witnesses…...…………….…………………....….28 1.2.3 The Samaritan Pentateuch..……………...…………………………32 1.2.4 The Book of Jubilees………………...…………………………….35 1.2.5 8QGenesis………….…………..…………………………………..37 1.3 Explanations Accounting for MT Genesis 17:14………………...…………..42 1.4 Text-Critical Conclusion………………..……………………………………50 1.5 Genesis 17 and Boundary Creation Through Eighth-Day Circumcision….....54 vii 1.5.1 Circumcision, Covenant, and Non-Israelite Circumcision…...…....54 1.5.2 The Rationale for the Exclusion of the Circumcised Ishmael...…...63 1.5.3 Genealogy and Circumcision in Post-Exilic Judah………...………75 1.6 Conclusion………………………………………..………………………….78 2. The Uncircumcised, and the Circumcised Yet Uncircumcised in the Hebrew Bible..……….…………………………………..……………………….……………….81 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………..81 2.2 The Uncircumcised……………..……….………………………………...…82 2.2.1 The Uncircumcised Philistine in the Deuteronomistic History………..83 2.2.2 Ezekiel 44:6-9: The Uncircumcised in the House of YHWH….….......87 2.2.3 Isaiah 52:1: The Uncircumcised in the Holy City………..……...….…91 2.2.4 Genesis 34: The Circumcision of the Uncircumcised…...…………….95 2.2.5 Excursus: Is Psalm 118 a Proselyte Circumcision Ceremony?............103 2.3 Circumcised, yet Uncircumcised………...……………………….………..105 2.3.1 Jeremiah 9:24-25: Circumcised and Uncircumcised within the Alliance of the Circumcised……………….………………………………………...106 2.3.2 Ezekiel 28:10; 32:17-32: Circumcised, yet Lying amongst the Uncircumcised..…………………………………………………………….115 2.4 The Proximate Circumcised Other………………….………….…………..117 2.4.1 The Status of the Circumcised Slave in Priestly Thought……………119 2.4.2 The Circumcised rg in Priestly Thought…………………….……....125 2.5 Conclusion………………….……………………………………….…..…130 PART II: GENEALOGY AND CIRCUMCISION IN EARLY JUDAISM viii 3. Boundary Maintenance in an Age of Shifting Identities: Circumcision in Jubilees..………………………….….……......………………………….….………....134 3.1 The Redefinition of Jewishness in the Hasmonean Period…..……………..134 3.2 Jubilees and Hasmonean Foreign Policy………..……..…………………...140 3.3 Circumcision in Jubilees………………………………..………………..…144 3.3.1 Circumcision of the Heart………………………………………...144 3.3.2 Jubilees and the Establishment of Circumcision…………………145 3.3.3 Remaining References to Circumcision in Jubilees……………...159 3.3.4 Jubilees’ Omission of Circumcision……………………………...163 3.4 Defending the Boundaries of Jewishness in Jubilees………..…..…………166 3.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….....171 4. Jewishness as Genealogy in the Late Second Temple Period……………………….177 4.1 Introduction…………….…………………………………………………..177 4.2 A Biblical Rationale for Hyrcanus’s Circumcision of the Idumeans…...….179 4.3 Genealogical Exclusion in the Animal Apocalypse……………….…....…..182 4.4 1 Esdras and the Idumeans……………………..…………………………..191 4.5 The Genealogical Exclusion of Herod………………...……………………194 4.5.1 Genealogical Criticisms of Herod the Great in Josephus…...……...…196 4.5.2 Herod in the Testament of Moses…………..……….……..………….202 4.5.3 Herod in Psalm of Solomon 17……………….…….…………………205 4.5.4 Herod’s Patronage of the Abraham Cult……..……...………………..208 4.6 Genealogical Criticisms of Agrippa I……......……………..………………211 4.7 Rabbinic Evidence of Genealogical Exclusion of the Herodian Family.......218 ix 4.8 Conclusion….....……….…….……………….....…………………………220 PART III: GENEALOGY AND CIRCUMCISION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY 5. Remapping Jews and Gentiles onto Luke’s Convictional World.…………………...228 5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………228 5.2 Eighth-Day Circumcision in Luke-Acts……..…..……………………..…..236 5.2.1 Circumcision in the Lukan Infancy Narrative................…………236 5.2.2 Circumcision in Stephen’s Speech (Acts 7:8, 51)……..………....242 5.2.3 Acts 21:18-26: Paul Accused of Preaching Against Circumcision............................................................................................248 5.2.4 An Anomalous Circumcision for an Anomalous Situation……....251 5.2.5 Summary: Eighth-day Circumcision in Luke-Acts……..……...…255 5.3 The Gentile Problem according to Luke………………..………....……..…257 5.3.1 The Suggested Remedy of Gentile Circumcision….……………..257 5.3.2 Cornelius and the Menagerie of Animals (Acts 10)……..……….260 5.3.3 Excursus: Common Misunderstandings of koino/j.……….……...266 5.3.4 Impure Gentiles and the Cleansing Gift of the Holy Spirit…..…..276 5.3.5 The Divine Remedy for the Gentile Problem…...……………......290 5.4 Conclusion………………………………..………………………………...295 Conclusion……………………..……………………………………………………….297 Genealogy and Conversion in Rabbinic Judaism…………………………..…..301 Christianity, Genealogy, and Circumcision.……………………………………305 Bibliography……………….……………...……………………………………………310
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