Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism Texts and Editions for New Testament Study Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter VOLUME 10 Early Christianity in Its Hellenistic Context VOLUME 2 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/tent Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament Edited by Stanley E. Porter Andrew W. Pitts LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Christian origins and Hellenistic Judaism : social and literary contexts for the New Testament / edited by Stanley E. Porter, Andrew W. Pitts. v. cm. – (Texts and editions for New Testament study, 1574-7085 ; v. 10) Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: – vol. 2. Early Christianity in its Hellenistic context. ISBN 978-90-04-23476-5 (v. 2 : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-23639-4 (v. 2 : e-book : alk. paper) 1. Bible. N.T.–Socio-rhetorical criticism. 2. Christianity–Origin. 3. Judaism–History–Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D. 4. Christianity and other religions–Judaism. 5. Judaism–Relations–Christianity. 6. Church history–Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600. I. Porter, Stanley E., 1956- II. Pitts, Andrew W. BS2361.3.C47 2013 225.6'7–dc23 2012031144 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1574-7085 ISBN 978-90-04-23476-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-23639-4 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhof Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Preface.................................................................. ix List of Contributors . xi Hellenistic Judaism and New Testament Interpretation: An Introductory Essay . 1 Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts HELLENISTIC JEWISH SOCIAL CONTEXTS FOR CHRISTIAN ORIGINS Hellenism and the Biblical Canons: Is There a Connection? . 13 Lee Martin McDonald Glorifying the Present through the Past: Herod the Great and His Jewish Royal Predecessors . 51 Adam Kolman Marshak Beyond Covenant Nomism: Revisiting Palestinian Judaism in Light of Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities .................................. 83 Preston M. Sprinkle Resurrection and Immortality in Hellenistic Judaism: Navigating the Conceptual Boundaries . 101 C.D. Elledge The Spirit in Second Temple Jewish Monotheism and the Origins of Early Christology . 135 Andrew W. Pitts and Seth Pollinger The Ethnic Context of Paul’s Letters . 177 Christopher D. Stanley “Is Saul of Tarsus Also among the Prophets?” Paul’s Calling as Prophetic Divine Commissioning . 203 Tony Costa vi contents Monotheism and Philosophy: Notes on the Concept of God in Philo and Paul (Romans 1:18–21) . 237 Peter Frick Paul beyond the Judaism/Hellenism Divide? The Case of Pauline Anthropology in Romans 7 and 2Corinthians 4–5 . 259 Emma Wasserman HELLENISTIC JEWISH LITERARY AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXTS FOR CHRISTIAN ORIGINS Was John the Baptist a Member of the Qumran Community? Once More................................................................ 283 Stanley E. Porter The Temple Attitudes of John and Qumran in the Light of Hellenistic Judaism . 315 Wally V. Cirafesi Rhetoric and the Art of Persuasion in the Wisdom of Solomon . 341 Leo G. Perdue Dialectics: Philosophical and Talmudic . 373 Jacob Neusner Ancient “Science Fiction”: Journeys into Space and Visions of the World in Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman Literature of Antiquity . 397 Catherine Hezser Luke, Josephus, and Self-De nition: The Genre of Luke-Acts and Its Relationship to Apologetic Historiography and Collected Biography . 439 Sean A. Adams Rivers, Springs, and Wells of Living Water: Metaphorical Transformation in the Johannine Corpus . 461 Beth M. Stovell Martyr Theology in Hellenistic Judaism and Paul’s Conception of Jesus’ Death in Romans 3:21–26 . 493 Jarvis J. Williams contents vii Torah Instruction, Discussion, and Prophecy in First-Century Synagogues . 523 Carl Mosser On the Trail of Trypho: Two Fragmentary Jewish-Christian Dialogues from the Ancient Church . 553 William Varner Index of Modern Authors . 567 Index of Ancient Sources . 579 PREFACE This is the second of three volumes that we have compiled focusing on the ancient world and the New Testament. We have given them the collective name of Early Christianity in Its Hellenistic Context. The three volumes will appear in two diferent series from Brill. This and the rst volume will appear in the TENTS—Texts and Editions for New Testament Study— series, and the third volume, because it focuses upon matters of language, will appear in LBS—Linguistic Biblical Studies. This second volume focuses in particular on Christianity and its Hellenis- tic Jewish backgrounds and related origins. This involves both the social and the literary and religious backgrounds of the New Testament. As a result, this volume has a wide range of articles that explore connections that early Christianity has with Hellenistic Judaism, including its relationship to sur- rounding Jewish thought, the texts of Second Temple Judaism, and the con- troversies and issues that embroiled both of them. Like volume one, this volume is not a small volume. This is because it not only includes a large number of essays, but some of these essays are signi cant eforts in their own right to address their chosen topics. We are glad that the authors have felt free to undertake such signi cant work in this volume. The rst volume focuses upon the origins of Christianity and its rela- tionship to its Greco-Roman environment. It is entirely appropriate, as those essays will demonstrate, that Christianity in its relations to the Greco- Roman world was also a part of the larger world of its Hellenistic context. This volume also appears in the TENTS series, and includes a large number of essays. The third volume is devoted to the language of the New Testament, and hence its appearance in LBS. This volume, though not quite as large as its two related volumes, itself contains signi cant work in the area of Greek language and linguistics as it is relevant to the origins of Christianity within its Hellenistic context. The editors are appreciative of the contributions of the authors, and appreciate the opportunity to work with them in publishing their work. We also apologize for the delay in their publication, which was unavoidable due to personal circumstances. In any case, we believe that the material included here will provide much to contemplate in future research on the New Testament in its relation to its Hellenistic context. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Sean A. Adams, Edinburgh University, Scotland Wally V. Cirafesi, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Tony Costa, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands C.D. Elledge, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota Peter Frick, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Catherine Hezser, School of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London, UK Adam Kolman Marshak, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Lee Martin McDonald, Acadia Divinity College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada Carl Mosser, Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania Jacob Neusner, Bard College, Annondale-on-Hudson, New York Leo G. Perdue, Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas Andrew W. Pitts, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Seth Pollinger, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina Stanley E. Porter, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Preston M. Sprinkle, Eternity Bible College, Simi Valley, California Christopher D. Stanley, St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New York Beth M. Stovell, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, Florida William Varner, The Master’s College, Santa Clarita, California Emma Wasserman, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey Jarvis J. Williams, Campbellsville University, Campbellsville, Kentucky HELLENISTIC JUDAISM AND NEW TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION: AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts New Testament scholars have shown varying levels of interest in the Jewish roots of early Christianity, usually depending upon the era in which they have lived. Albert Schweitzer criticized previous generations for divorcing Jesus almost entirely from his Jewish apocalyptic setting in his celebrated Quest of the Historical Jesus.1 In many ways ahead of his time, Schweitzer leaned on a wide range of Second Temple literature for his reconstruction of the theological world of Jesus, Paul, and later Christianity.2 Rabbinic Judaism, however, remained the most consistent Jewish foil against which primitive Christianity was placed in the rst half of the twentieth century, an approach embodied in the work of scholars like Henry