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3161515552 Lp.Pdf I Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament Herausgeber/Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber/Associate Editors Friedrich Avemarie (Marburg) Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) Hans-Josef Klauck (Chicago, IL) 266 II III Edwin K. Broadhead Jewish Ways of Following Jesus Redrawing the Religious Map of Antiquity Mohr Siebeck IV Edwin K. Broadhead, born 1955; 1977 B.A., Mississippi College; 1981 M. Div., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; 1986 PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; 1991 Dr. theol., University of Zürich; additional studies at Bern, Tübingen, Basel, and Oxford; As- sociate Professor at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky. e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-151555-2 ISBN 978-3-16-150304-7 ISSN 0512-1604 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliogra- phie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2010 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproduction, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset by Computersatz Staiger in Rottenburg/N., printed by Gulde-Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. V dedicated to Rev. Loretta Reynolds, D. theol. esteemed colleague dear friend beloved spouse VI VII Acknowledgements This venture into the world of Jewish Christianity is the product of an intense year of research and reflection at Oxford University. In a larger sense, the insights reached here represent the most recent stage of an interesting professional jour- ney. My commitment to Christian faith and discipleship led me to critical study of the texts of the New Testament, particularly the traditions of Jesus’ teaching. After a period of exploring the gospels from both a literary and a historical cri- tical perspective, my interests turned to the historical Jesus and to the stages of tradition between Jesus and the gospels. Further scholarly attention was given to the role played by traditions such as the Sayings Tradition (Q) and the Gospel of Thomas. All these studies were carried out with an eye to the developmental his- tory and the diversity of early Christianity. These concerns led naturally to an in- terest in the Jewish profile of Jesus and his earliest followers, but also to the pos- sibility that Jewish ways of following Jesus endured in various times and places. I am particularly grateful for those who helped me to carry out a sabbatical year at Oxford. Professor Christopher Tuckett paved the way with guidance and with timely introductions. I am particularly grateful to Professor Martin Goodman for his interest and engagement with my project at a very busy time in his own work. His guidance in the field of Jewish studies and his probing ques tions about my ideas proved invaluable. For the time and support to carry out such a project, I am grateful to my home institution, Berea College of Berea, Kentucky. A special note of thanks is due for Wolfson College of Oxford, who accepted me as a visiting scholar and provided a base of support and collegiality. I am grateful for the support offered by a variety of Oxford libraries. Chief among these is the Theological Faculty Library and its helpful staff: Kate Alderson- Smith, Richard Budgen, Elizabeth Birchall, John Bardwell. The Wolfson College library and its director, Fiona Wilkes, provided a comfortable place for a portion of my research. The Bodlean Library, the Sackler Library, and the library of the Oriental Institute were boundless sources for a variety of obscure texts, ancient and modern. I am grateful for the friendship of colleagues who accompanied my journey. Members of the Common Room and the staff at Wolfson provided a place for tea and discussion. My ideas were sifted in conversations in Oxford with extraordi- nary colleagues such as Christopher Rowland, David Taylor, Sebastian Brock, Geza Vermes, Larry Kreitzer, and Joan Taylor. New Road Baptist Church, Ox- VIII Acknowledgements ford provided a place of worship and a supportive community. I am also grateful for continuing dialogue with fellow members of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, including James Dunn, Cilliers Breytenbach, Sean Freyne, Jörg Frey, David Gowler, Samuel Vollenweider, Peter Lampe, and Alan Culpepper. I appre- ciate as well the office assistance provided by Niklaus von Wittenbach. I wish to acknowledge and to honor a line of extraordinary teachers and men- tors. Among these are Frank Stagg of Louisville; Ulrich Luz of Bern; Hans Weder, Eduard Schweizer, and Jean Zumstein of Zürich; Peter Stuhlmacher, Martin Hengel, and Jürgen Moltmann of Tübingen. My work has been carried out with the support of an extraordinary family. My quest for both faith and scholarship was fired by the example and support of my parents, Dempsey and Louise Broadhead. My sister, Janet Broadhead Tidmore, and her husband Pat have followed with interest and care through each stage of my work. Finally, I am grateful beyond measure for the support and encouragement of Loretta Reynolds, who is both colleague and spouse. I have learned much from the questions she brings from her own interests and her own fields of study, which are homiletics, women’s studies, and pastoral care. More importantly, she understood why this venture was so important, she has listened to my ideas, and she has offered her support and encouragement throughout. This text is dedi- cated to her with many thanks, with great joy, and with much love. Edwin K. Broadhead Berea, Kentucky IX Prologue Just outside the Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia stands a small monu- ment to the first British settlers. The British claim to the continent would be based on the legal principle of terra nullius (the land of no one). Subsequent rul- ings in the British court system attempted to extinguish all claims to native title. The glaring contradiction, of course, is that Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the continent for over 40,000 years and numbered, in the late 1700s, some 350,000 inhabitants. Although their origin, identity, and history cannot be pre- cisely described, Aboriginal presence cannot be ignored. Even where no de- scendants remain, such as in Tasmania, the oral tales and the campfires and mid- dens bear witness to their place on the map of history. Such is the case with the religious map of antiquity. A Christian orthodoxy (though not hegemony) was achieved with the patronage of Constantine (313 ce) and in the pronouncements of the Council of Nicea called by the emperor (325 ce). A similar orthodoxy was enforced upon Judaism by the codification of rab- binic tradition in the Mishnah and by its subsequent imposition as the standard for Judaism (2nd to 5th century ce). Both traditions, Christian and rabbinic, im- posed their dominance upon the religious map of their own time, but also, retro- spectively, upon the previous periods. An ideological form of terra nullius was declared, asserting the primal status of these later norms. The trajectory sketched out in Luke-Acts seems to move with inevitable inertia from Pentecost westward toward Rome and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. In Judaism, the prophet of the journey was Josephus, who privileged the Pharisaic approach and cooperation with the Romans in the afermath of the 1st Jewish War. The develop- ments after the fall of the Temple (70 ce) appear to lead inevitably to the consoli- dation of rabbinic authority in later centuries. In the process of achieving domi- nance, the Church Fathers labeled other groups as heretics; the rabbis, for the most part, ignored their competition. Like the British colonial accounts, these two grand narratives were written with a clear awareness that the landscape was, in reality, filled with a wide variety of characters and groups and traditions, with many Judaisms and many Christianities. Our task here is to add a critical note to the monuments that define both Christianity and Judaism – to acknowledge that the ancient landscape included the story of Jewish followers of Jesus. As far as it is possible, this study seeks to clarify historical markers for the presence of Jewish Christianity in various X Prologue places, in different times, and in diverse modes. The presence of such markers would challenge a variety of scholarly presumptions: 1) that there was an early and decisive parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity; 2) that Jew- ish Christianity quickly subsided in the face of an emerging orthodoxy of Gen- tile Christianity; and 3) that surviving groups of Jewish Christians are to be un- derstood, with various Church Fathers, as heretics. If historical markers for the continuing vitality of Jewish Christianity can be isolated, then a different reli- gious and social map of the first four centuries is required, and a different under- standing of the development of primitive Christianity and rabbinic Judaism must emerge. XI Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................... VII Prologue ............................................................... IX Introduction ........................................................... 1 Part One Parameters for a Quest for Jewish Christianity Chapter 1: A History of Research ..................................... 6 1. Beginnings ..........................................................
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