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The Separation of Early Christianity from Judaism
by
Marianne Josephine Dacy NDS
(M. Phil, Grad Dip Lib-CNAA London, ALIA)
A thesis submitted in fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Semitic Studies
June 2000
University of Sydney
Preface
I wish to thank those generations of scholars from whose work I have been able
to draw inspiration, as well as my teachers over the years in Jerusalem and
Australia. In particular I should like to thank Naomi Cohen from Haifa
University, Robert Kraft of Pennsylvania University, Dexter Hoyos and Frances
Muecke of Sydney University.
Thanks are due to Professor Alan Crown, my thesis director, whose erudition and
guidance have both challenged and stimulated me. The topic has always
fascinated me, and, as I believe it is important, aspects of it will continue to
occupy my research in future years.
Countless others have assisted me. Thanks are due to the Sisters of Sion, who
have fostered my work, Sr Marnie Kennedy RSCJ who has followed the fortunes
of the thesis, the librarians of the Fisher library, John Huff, the long suffering
Arts Faculty computer technician, Jennifer Alison, and Lucy Davey who proof
read my thesis, and the many friends who have encouraged me to pursue this
topic. My brother in law, Jim Scarano and sister, Frances provided assistance
with the maps. In addition, my mother, Margaret Dacy has encouraged me from
childhood in the pursuit of knowledge and has waited patiently for the day when
this thesis would be completed. That day has now arrived.
i
Abbreviations
AUSS
Andrew’s University Seminary Studies
BA
Biblical Archaeologist
BARev
Biblical Archaeology Review
BJRL
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library
DJD
Discoveries in the Judaean Desert
DJDJ
Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan
IEJ
Israel Exploration Journal
JAAR
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
BL
Journal of Biblical Literature
JJ
Jerusalem Jahrbuch
JJS
Journal of Jewish Studies
JPOS
Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society
JQR
Jewish Quarterly Review
JTS
Jewish Theological Review
NRSV
New Revised Standard Version
NTS
New Testament Studies
PG
J. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Graeca
PL
J. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Latina
REJ
Revue des Etudes Juives
RQ
Revue de Qumran
VC
Vigiliae Christianae
ii
iii
Abstract
The Separation of Early Christianity from Judaism
The moving apart of early Christianity from Judaism was a gradual process of dejudaisation, with separation taking place on several levels. Chapter One looks at the
spread of Christianity and the physical moving apart of Jews and Christians by
observing the geographical locations of the bishops attending various councils.
Chapter Two examines the question of the Jewish-Christians who attempted to be
both Jewish and Christian at the same time. In Chapter Three, statements about Jews
in the early church councils which reveal judaising practices have been examined.
Chapter Four studies the process of juridical separation of Jews from Christians as
shown by an examination of the Theodosian Code. The fifth chapter examines the
Jewish roots of Christian liturgy and focuses on the element that radically
differentiated Christian from Jewish liturgy – its christological focus. Chapter Six
speaks of the separation of Sabbath observance from Sunday observance, outlining
the struggle to prevent Christians, who were accused of judaising, from celebrating
the Sabbath as well as Sunday. Chapter Seven concentrates on the separation of
Passover from Easter. While Chapter Eight investigates the development of a
distinctly Christian archaeology, the ninth area of separation concerns the subject of
Christianity in the rabbinic writings.
In the nine areas studied, two pervasive causes of separation have been identified. The
first concerns the non–practice of Jewish ritual law, when Christianity became
predominantly a religion of non-Jews. Christianity, in order to define itself closed its
ranks to Jewish practices. The second cause leading to separation was the messianic
movement centred on Jesus, and the growing emphasis on the divinity of Jesus. This
was reflected in the developing Christian liturgy, in the christianisation of Passover,
the Eucharist and the practice of Sunday over and above the Jewish Sabbath.
Marianne Dacy
June 2000
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
i
ii
Introduction
1
The Problem.
Sources
1) Greek and Roman.
2) New Testament.
3) Early Christian Writings–Patrological Literature.
4) Early Church Council Documents.
5) Roman Legal Sources.
6) Jewish Sources.
7) Liturgical sources and Commentaries.
8) Archaeological and Geographical Material.
1
4
4
4
4
5
6
6
6
7
Secondary Literature.
The Challenge.
7
8
Chapter One
The Spread of Christianity.
15
Trade Routes and Geographical Influences.
16
The Book of Acts.
The Name ‘Christian’.
Impact of Persecution.
Christian Organisation Based on Synagogue.
From Jerusalem to Rome.
The Papacy and Centralisation of the Western Church.
Conclusion.
19
23
24
26
27
28
30
Maps
Map 1. The Spread of Christianity.
Map 2. Trade Routes.
Map 3. Jewish Towns and Bishoprics of those who Attended
Council of Arles (314) – (partial list).
Map 4. Jewish towns and Bishoprics of those who Attended
Council of Nicaea.
31
32
33
34
Chapter Two
The Jewish/Christian Schism.
35
The Jewish-Christians.
Role of James.
Blood and Ritual Purity.
Four Distinguishing Features of Judaism in Graeco-Roman Authors.
Christianity as a Philosophy in the Graeco-Roman World.
Fate of the Jewish-Christian Jerusalem Church.
Patristic Texts on Jewish-Christianity.
Justin Martyr and Jewish-Christians.
The Twelfth Benediction.
The Nazoraeans.
The Ebionites.
Conclusion.
35
36
39
42
43
45
46
50
51
57
58
60
Chapter Three
The Early Church Councils and the Separation of Christians
from Jews.
61
Church Councils.
Circumcision.
Circumcision, Immersion and Baptism.
Dietary Regulations.
Anti-Jewish Canons.
Intermarriage.
Eating with Jews.
Jewish Sources on the Question of Eating with Gentiles
Superstition and Magic.
Sabbaths and Feasts.
Jewish Feasts.
Ban on Attendance at Any Jewish Service.
Jewish Catechumens.
Jews as Witnesses.
Anathemas and Christology.
Use of Term ‘Levite’.
Role of Emperor in Church Councils
Conclusion.
63
64
67
68
71
74
79
82
83
87
88
89
90
91
92
92
93
95
Chapter Four
The Theodosian Code and Laws on Jews.
97
Significance of Code Favouring Church.
Laws on Jews.
1. Statutes Maintaining Privileges of Jews.
Julian (361–3).
Authority of Patriarchs Upheld in Religious Matters.
Juridical Powers of Jewish Authorities.
Exemptions from Liturgies.
99
100
100
102
103
104
105
2. Statutes Protective of Jews.
Protection of Synagogues.
Sabbath and Holy Days.
106
106
110
3. Statutes Prohibiting Anti-Christian Practices by Jews.
Roman Criminal Justice.
110
111
4. Statutes Restricting Jewish Cult and Activities.
Jews Forbidden to Possess Christian Slaves.
Proselytism and Circumcision Forbidden.
Intermarriage.
112
113
115
116
5. Measures Hostile to Jews.
Participation in Jewish Cults Forbidden.
Jews in Public Service.
Control of Jewish Authorities.
117
117
118
119
Justinian Code.
122
Conclusion.
123
Chapter Five
The Separation of Christian Liturgy from Jewish Liturgy.
125
Sources on Jewish Prayer.
Prayers in the Temple.
Daily Prayer.
128
130
132
New Testament View of Jesus.
Development of Christology–Divisions Over the Nature of Christ
Arianism.
Apollinarianism and Nestorianism.
The Question of the Shema for the Early Christians.
Shema’s Influence on Early Christological Controversies.
The Amidah in Early Christianity.
Apostolical Constitutions.
Christian Festival Liturgy.
The Eucharist.
Baptism.
Question of the Catechumenate.
Conclusion.
134
137
137
138
141
148
149
154
156
157
160
161
164
Chapter Six
The Separation of Sunday from Sabbath
166
First Century.
Jesus and the Sabbath in the Synoptics.
The Epistle to Clement.
The Epistle to Barnabas.
New Covenant.
Ignatius of Antioch.
The Didache.
Justin Martyr.
Graeco-Roman Sources in the Second Century.
Graeco-Roman sources in the Third Century.
Graeco-Roman sources in the Fourth Century.
Council of Laodicea.
Imperial Legislation.
Conclusion.
166
169
171
174
175
178
180
182
184
186
186
191
193
195
Chapter Seven
The Separation of Easter from Passover.
197
Is the Lord’s Supper a Passover Meal?
Jesus as the Passover Lamb.
Christian Attacks on Judaism for Lack of a Passover Offering.
The Separation of the Date of Easter from Passover.
The Jewish Calculations of the Date of Passover (2nd–4th Century).
198
202
204
205
210
Conclusion.
214
Chapter Eight
The Separation of Early Christianity from Judaism.
Evidence from Archaeology.
216
Domus Ecclesiae.
Syracuse, Sicily.
Rome.
Catacombs.
Most Common Images.
Peter’s Tomb.
Dura Europos.
Conclusion re Dura Europos.
Flight to Pella.
Earliest Archaeological Traces of Christianity in Israel.
Jewish Christians on Mount Zion?
Dominus Flevit.
The Letter Tav and the Cross.
Capernaum.
Conclusion.
216
219
220
221
222
224
224
227
227
231
233
234
236
239
240
Chapter Nine
Christianity in Rabbinical Literature.
241
Minim.
Tannaim.
Joshua ben Hananiah.
Eleazar of Modein.
Rabbi Tarphon.
Amoraim.
Jesus Stories.
Kutim and Christians.
Various Statements of Conflict.
Conclusion.
242
243
244
244
245
246
247
249
250
251
Conclusions
253
Select Bibliography
260
Appendix
Table 1. Early Church Statements about Jews.
286
Table 2. List of Bishops who Attended Nicaea (325 CE).
289
Table 3. List of Bishops who Attended Council of Arles (314 CE).
298
Introduction
Samuel Sandmel once wrote:
Objectivity is an ideal. No one truly attains it. One strives toward it,
buoyed by extravagent hopes and discouraged by a recognition of
personal shortcomings. But religiously committed Jews and Christians
are no less capable of dealing objectively with historical material than
are secular scholars.1
The separation of early Christianity from Judaism is a difficult and complex subject.
There is no simple solution to understanding it in all its nuances. However, the subject
is of fundamental importance in the studying of the relationship between the two
religions. One needs to look at origins and attempt to understand the steps that led to
separation, if they are ever to be discerned after two millennia, in order to clarify the
reasons a relationship went so badly wrong. The identification of problems is an
essential condition towards the building up of good relationships between the two
faiths.
The Problem
Christianity began its existence as a variety of Judaism in the first century CE, a period
when Judaism was pluralistic and a ferment of latitudinarian religious views, as the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other material has confirmed. Why then did
Christianity not remain as a sectarian movement that operated within Judaism, or
develop into another variety of Judaism, rather than separate from Judaism? Did
Christianity, as Flusser claims, become a religion of the gentiles, as most Jews could
not accept the claim that Christianity, having ‘come into existence though the special
grace of Christ as the heir of Judaism was its true expression’. 2 This question is one
part of the problem. Another part of the problem concerns the nature of the sources.
The difficulty of the topic of the separation of Christianity from Judaism is
exacerbated by the paucity of historically reliable source material for the early stages
of the separation. Old certainties have been shaken by the discovery of new evidence
1
See Samuel Sandmel, Judaism and Christian Beginnings (Oxford University Press, 1978), vii.
2
See David Flusser, ‘The Jewish-Christian Schism’, Immanuel, 17 (Winter 1983–4), 32.
without a new paradigm emerging. Jewish-Christianity, the middle ground between
rabbinic Judaism and so called Pauline Christianity, is receiving greater attention, but
the problem of Christian origins is by no means solved.3
By the time the New Testament was written, the separation had already advanced.
Thus, in the gospels, the blame for Jesus’ crucifixion appears to shift progressively
from Pilate and the Romans in the Synoptics to the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, and
the Jews in the later Gospel of John.4 In addition, non-canonical writings, such as the
Epistle of Barnabas, and the Gospel of Peter, reveal growing hostility. In subsequent
centuries, and as early as the second century patristic writings, before Christianity had
been established as a licit religion and while it was still in the process of separating
from Judaism, the blame for Jesus’ death was progressively shifted to the Jews. The
part of the Romans, who were the occupying power at the time and needed to be
placated, was passed over.5
By the time of the writing of the Gospel of John at the end of the first century CE,
there are indications that Christians were being excluded from synagogues, at least in
some areas.6 Jewish communities in the Diaspora were religiously self-confident and
well integrated into the sociopolitical structure of late ancient society.7 Christianity, on
the other hand, was claiming the place of Judaism and seeking to establish its validity
as the new Israel, the only authentic version of Judaism, and so formulated a number
of anti-Judaic premises.
The main thrust of these anti-Judaic premises could be summarised thus:8
3
See Wolfram Kinzig ‘“Non-Separation,” Closeness and Co-Operation between Jews and Christians
in the Fourth Century’, VC, 45 (1991), 27.
4
See James H. Charlesworth, ‘Christians and Jews in the First Six Centuries’ in Hershel Shanks
(ed.), Christianity and Judaism: A Parallel History of their Origins and Early Development
(London, SPCK, 1993), 312.
5
See Gospel of Peter 1:1.
6
See John 9, which describes incident of Jesus’ cure of the man born blind.
7
See Steven Fine, Sacred Realm: The Emergence of the Synagogue in the Ancient World (New
York, Oxford University Press, 1996), 93.
8
See G. Gager, The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Towards Judaism in Pagan and Christian
Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 1983), 158.
2
1) The church is the New Israel, being the expression of the New
Covenant in Christ.
2) The Jews killed Christ.9
3) For this reason and because the Jews did not recognise Jesus as the
messiah, they are rejected by God. The fall of the Temple is a sign they
are no longer the Chosen People.
4) Typology negatively contrasts Christian virtues with Judaism.10
a) The exposition of the christological meaning of the scriptures shows
Christ to be the Messiah long promised by the prophets.
b) The Law of Moses, in particular the ritual law, is said to be abrogated in
favour of a spiritual law.11
c) Salvation history as revealed in the Holy Writings was interpreted in
terms of a dialectic of judgement and promise, which reinterprets the
past, present and future in terms of the response to Christ, and describes
the election of the gentile church in supersessionist terms of God’s
rejection of the Jews.
‘Christ’ (χristÒj) the Greek translation of the Hebrew (jhan) appears in the New
Testament as a title for Jesus before the end of the first century (Mark 8:27–33; Col
12:18). Outside the New Testament, references to Jesus Christ are few. Tacitus (Ann
15.44) said that the Christians were named after a ‘Christus’ who had been condemned
to death by Pontius Pilate, whilst Josephus (Ant. 20.9.1) speaks of the martyrdom of
James ‘a brother of Jesus who is called Christ’.
9
The accusation that the Jews ‘murdered God’ goes back to Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha, 96.
Second century Christian literature tends to stress the role of the Jews in the crucifixion of Jesus
and excuse Pilate. See Evangelium Petri, 11:45–48.
10
See works by Jean Daniélou such as The Bible and the Liturgy, (University of Notre Dame Press,
1966), 208–261, or Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture 2: A History of Early Christian
Doctrine before the Council of Nicaea, tr. John Austin Baker (3 vols, London, Darton, Longman and
Todd, 1973).
11
See Epistle to the Hebrews.
3
Sources
As pointed out, the topic under examination, the tracing of relations between Judaism
and Christianity from the first century until the sixth and their moving apart is fraught
with difficulty, the problem being compounded by the nature of the sources which are
mostly not historical in aim or are religiously apologetic.
1) Greek and Roman
The sources include Greek and Latin authors who wrote on Jews and Judaism.
Examples include words documented by Menahem Stern, which show some prejudice
and antisemitism, but also admiration for Judaism, and provide evidence for the rise of
Christianity as a separate religion.12 The witness of these external observers provides a
balance to that of Jewish writings which have little to say about Christianity, and
Christian writings which have a great deal to say about Judaism and generally are
polemical and sharp in tone.
2) New Testament
The New Testament provides information on the beginning of the separation of early
Christianity from Judaism, as do the New Testament apocrypha and Nag Hammadi
material such as the Gospel of Thomas. However, the limitations of this material as to
historical data will be taken into account.
3) Early Christian Writings–Patrological Literature
Migne’s Patrologia Graeca and Patrologia Latina are essential, as well as more
recent textual updates and corrections and early Christian literature in translation in
several collections.13 Some of this literature includes The Epistle of Barnabas, The
12
See Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (3 vols, Jerusalem, The Israel
Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1976–1982).
13
See for example the series Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation,
Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe, (eds), 1946–1989; The Ante-Nicene Fathers:
Translations of the Fathers down to AD 325, revised A. Cleveland Coxe (Grand Rapids, Michigan,
Eerdmans, 1956) and The Apostolic Fathers, tr. Kirsopp Lake (2 vols, London, Heinemann, 1912–
13).
4
Didache, The Didascalia Apostolorum and The Apostolical Constitutions. Other
essential references are Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History and Life of Constantine,
Rufinus (continuation of Eusebius’ history), Socrates and Epiphanius.
4) Early Church Council Documents
An essential reference work containing the original Latin and Greek Council
documents, is G. D. Mansi’s Acta Conciliorum (Libellus Synodicus).14 These decrees
of local synods and councils are documented in Hefele’s translation and commentary
made in the late nineteenth century.15 Data is given on councils in the late second
century, scattered references to which are to be found in various early patristic
writings including Eusebius, Jerome, Irenaeus, and Athanasius. The decrees of the
ecumenical councils which began in the fourth century are collected in the two volume
edition edited by Norman P. Tanner.16
The difficulty in consulting the early councils (and synodical data) lies in the fact that
a great deal of information is missing. Thus, for example, the official acts of the
Council of Constantinople (381) are no longer extant. The series edited by Pius
Bonifacius Gans, lists the sees and the succession of bishops. 17 Other relevant material
includes lists of bishops who attended these early Councils such as the extant list of
bishops who were at Nicaea.18 Fedalto provides the background in a comprehensive
listing reconstructed from primary materials.19
14
Joannes Dominicus Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova, et Amplissima Collectio, reprint (54 vols,
Graz Akademische Druck–U. Verlagsanstalt, 1960–1).
15
See Karl Joseph Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, from the Original Documents, tr.
William R. Clark, reprint (5 vols, Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1972).
16
See Norman P. Tanner (ed.), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, original published by G.
Alberigo et al. (2 vols, London, Sheed & Ward, 1990).
17
See Pius Bonifacius Gans, Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae (Regensburg, 1873–86).
18
See Henricus Gelzer, Henricus Hilgenfeld, and Otto Cuntz (eds), Patrum Nicaenorum: Nomina
Latine, Graece, Coptice, Syriace, Arabice, Armeniace (Stuttgart and Leipzig, Teubner, 1898).
19
See Giorgio Fedalto, Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis (2 vols, Padova Edizioni Messaggero,
1988).
5
5) Roman Legal Sources
The Theodosian Code provides essential reference material and information about the
deteriorating relationship between Jews and Christians, and the development of
Christianity into the favoured religion of the empire.20
6) Jewish Sources
Jewish sources include, in addition to the corpus of Dead Sea Scroll material, which is
daily being expanded, Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, the writings of Philo and
Josephus, rabbinic material from the Mishnah, Tosepha, Jerusalem and Babylonian
Talmuds, as well as the aggadic and halachic midrashim. These will be used to help
illuminate the background and meaning of early Christian writings.21
7) Liturgical Sources and Commentaries
The raw material for Jewish and Christian liturgy is to be found in the Jewish rabbinic
sources and in early Christian writings. Pioneering work in the Jewish roots of
Christian liturgy was done by Eric Werner in The Sacred Bridge while the work of
Josef Jungmann and Gregory Dix in Christian liturgy should be acknowledged.22
Useful works which show the relationship of Christian liturgy to Jewish liturgy
include W. O. E. Oesterley, The Jewish Background of the Christian Liturgy (Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1925), A. Z. Idelsohn, Jewish Liturgy and its Development (New
20
See Codex Theodosiani. Libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis et Leges Novellae ad
Theodosianum Pertinentes, Th. Mommsen et Paulus M. Meyer (eds), 2nd edn (Berlin, Weidmanns,
1954) and The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions: A translation with
commentary, glossary, and bibliography by Clyde Pharr (New Jersey, Princeton University Press,
1952.
21
See The Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series, which has been published from 1955 by the
Clarendon Press, Oxford with Prof. Emanuel Tov as Editor-in-Chief since the early 1990’s. See
also R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English with
introductions and critical and explanatory notes to the several books, reprint (2 vols, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1976) and J. H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols, New
York, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983–5) as well as the original versions of rabbinic material and
their translations.
22
See Eric Werner, The Sacred Bridge: The Interdependence of Liturgy and Music in Synagogue and
Church during the First Millennium (2 vols, London, Dobson, New York, Columbia University,
1959–1984), Josef A. Jungmann, The Early Liturgy: To the Time of Gregory the Great, tr. Francis
A. Brunner (University of Notre Dame Press, 1959). See also Gregory Dix, The Shape of the
Liturgy, 2nd edn (London, Dacre Press, 1975).
6
York Schocken Books, 1967), Joachim Jeremias, The Prayers of Jesus (London, SCM
Press, 1967) and Joseph Heinemann, Prayer in the Talmud: Forms and Patterns (New
York, Walter De Gruyter, 1977).23
8) Archaeological and Geographical Material
Such material is covered in Erwin Goodenough’s Jewish Symbols in the GraecoRoman Period, Dura Europos excavation reports, reports on the Pella excavations, the
Roman catacombs, and relevant archaeological reports from Israel.24 A number of
atlases have been consulted and maps closely studied that show Christian and Jewish
populations, new maps being constructed on available evidence to illustrate the
geographical relationships between Christians and Jews.
Secondary Literature
In comparison with the sparse amount of primary historical material on the early
stages of the separation, the sheer volume of secondary literature by both Jews and
Christians on the question of the moving apart of early Christianity from Judaism
makes only a selective survey possible.
Notable early twentieth century commentators include Herman Strack and and Paul
Billerbeck, whose Kommentar zum neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch
23
The original version was in Hebrew.
24
Erwin Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period. Bollingen Series (13 vols,
Princeton University Press, 1953–1968); The Excavations at Dura-Europos conducted by Yale
University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters. Final Report VIII, Part I, ed. A. R.
Bellinger, F. E. Brown, A. Perkins and C. B. Welles, augmented edn (New Haven, KTAV); Carl K.
Kraeling et al., The Synagogue (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1956); Robert Houston Smith
et al., ‘The 1967 Season of the College of Wooster Expedition to Pella’ in Pella of the Decapolis
(London, College of Wooster, 1973), vol. 1, and Gottlieb Schumacher, ‘Pella’ in Abila Pella and
Northern 'Ajlun (London, Palestine Exploration Fund, 1885–90); J. B. Frey, (ed.), Corpus
Inscriptionum Iudaicarum: Recueil des Inscriptions Juives qui vont du IIe Siècle avant Jésus-Christ
au VIIe Siècle de notre Ere (2 vols, Rome, Pontificio Istituto de Archeologia Cristiana, 1936–
1952); Michael Avi-Jonah, The Holy Land: From the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 B.C. to
A.D. 640): A Historical Geography (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1966); Hillel Geva,
‘Searching for Roman Jerusalem’, in BARev, 23:6 (1997), 34–45; 72–3; and ‘The Camp of the
Tenth Legion in Jerusalem: An Archaeological Reconsideration’, IEJ, 34 (1984), 239–54 and other
archaeological updates from Israel.
7
(Munich, Beck, 1924–1928), made extensive use of Jewish sources to illuminate the
New Testament. The work of Joseph Klausner, Professor of modern Hebrew language
and literature at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem could be seen as marking a new
departure in Jewish-Christian cooperative scholarship. His work, Jesus of Nazareth,
written originally in Hebrew, was translated by Herbert Danby, then Canon of St
George’s Cathedral Church, Jerusalem, appearing in English in 1925, and was
followed by a second Hebrew original, From Jesus to Paul, which appeared in English
in 1944. Also notable were the work of George Foot Moore, a Christian talmudist, and
of Claude G. Montefiore, a Jewish interpreter of the New Testament.
However, in 1927, Travers Hereford commented that the Christian historian, in
seeking to give ‘an account of the process by which Christian religion claimed and
acquired a separate existence from the Jewish confined (his) attention almost
exclusively to the Christian factor, with but little interest in or knowledge of the
Jewish factor and of its subsequent condition.’25 He was speaking about the almost
exclusive use of the New Testament by most Christian historians to document the
separation. Over seventy years later, Christian scholarship has taken more account of
Jewish sources in seeking to address this question, but a balanced picture is not being
presented.
The Challenge
The challenge in seeking to write an historical account of the separation of early
Christianity from Judaism lies in achieving a balance and a certain degree of
objectivity in the treatment of such a sensitive subject. One has to take a focussed view
of the Jewish, Christian and Graeco-Roman sources, which leave many questions
unanswered, and attempt to extract the essential from the vast array of commentaries
and interpretations from the secondary material available. In 1934, The Conflict of the
Church and the Synagogue, a seminal and comprehensive study, was published by
James Parkes on the subject of Christian-Jewish relations from the standpoint of the
history of antisemitism. His study grew out of a concern for the contemporary
25
See R. Travers Hereford, ‘The Separation of Christianity from Judaism’ in Jacob Neusner (ed.),
Judaism and Christianity in the First Century: Origins of Judaism (New York, Garland 1990), vol.
1, part 3, 359.
8
situation, which was witnessing the rise of Nazism and an accompanying sharp
increase in antisemitism. Parkes traces the conflict to Visogothic Spain, and treats the
earlier period, being convinced that the roots of current antisemitism lie in the
continuing conflict of the church with the synagogue.26 He states that the real conflict
at the outset was the question of the law.27 The careful documentation and
argumentation make this an enduring work, despite the passage of time, advances in
the study of New Testament and source criticism, and the discovery of new
documentary material such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi documents not
known in the thirties. Parkes’ work had been preceded by that of several others in the
late nineteenth century such as Bernard Lazare’s L'antisemitisme, son Histoire et ses
Causes (Paris, Challey, 1894), a pioneering work, which many today would find
flawed, but nevertheless ahead of its time. In 1967 it was issued in English translation
as Antisemitism, Its History and Causes (New York, International Library).
Since the time of James Parkes there have been further studies devoted to this topic,
but few match his comprehensiveness. Marcel Simon’s Verus Israel, first published in
French in 1964, has been influential. The latter was to state:
The struggle from the outset is a struggle between two distinct
religions, and the close ties that existed between them only made their
mutual hostility the more implacable.28
In making this statement he refers to commentaries on the books of the New
Testament, especially Acts.29 Again, whether one could call the Christian movement a
distinct religion from the outset is open to question. In addition, like many
commentators, including the Catholic historian Fr Edward Flannery, he was to make
appeal to the so-called Birkhat ha-Minim as being a factor in the separation of early
26
See James Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue: A Study in the Origins of
Antisemitism (London, Soncino Press, 1934), vi.
27
See Parkes, The Conflict, 61.
28
See Marcel Simon, Verus Israel: A Study of Relations between Christians and Jews in the Roman
Empire (135–425), tr. H. McKeating (Oxford University Press, 1986), 135.
29
Simon, Verus Israel, 135, and 458, n. 1,
9
Christianity from Judaism at the end of the first century.30 Edward Flannery adds the
comment that
Christian antisemitism was rooted, finally, in the survival of a
vibrant and often defiant Judaism.31
E. P. Sander’s three volumes of the collected essays he edited on the topic of Jewish
and Christian self-definition constitute a valuable contribution to the debate.32 The first
volume which focuses on the shaping of Christianity in the second and third centuries
includes Robert Wilken’s article ‘The Christians as the Romans (and Greeks) Saw
Them’, and Gerd Lüdemann’s critical evaluation of the Pella Tradition, the latter still
being a debatable issue. The second volume discusses aspects of Judaism in the
Graeco-Roman period, and includes the comprehensive discussion by Reuven
Kimelman, ‘Birkhat Ha-Minim and the Lack of Evidence for an Anti-Christian Jewish
Prayer in Late Antiquity’. Lawrence Schiffman, on the other hand, argues that the
Birkhat ha-Minim was ‘certainly the most important step taken by the Tannaim to
combat Jewish Christianity’, and supports the very issues against which Steven Katz
argues.33 Katz examines the traditional views espoused by authors on the topic and
identifies as the primary evidence for their conclusions: official anti-Christian letters,
the Birkhat ha-Minim and the ban against the Jewish-Christians, and the prohibition by
Jews against heretical books.34 Katz concludes that there was no official anti-Christian
policy at Yavneh or elsewhere before Bar Kochba, and no total separation between
Jews and Christians before this date.35
30
Simon, Verus Israel, 198–9.
31
See Edward H. Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. A
Stimulus Book, revised and updated (New York, Paulist Press, 1985), 65.
32
See E. P. Sanders (ed.), Jewish and Christian Self-Definition (3 vols, London, SCM, 1980–1981).
33
See Lawrence Schiffman, ‘Tannaitic Prespectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism’, in Sanders,
Jewish and Christian, vol. 2, 153.
34
See Steven Katz, ‘Issues in the Separation of Judaism and Christianity after 70 C.E.: A
Reconsideration’, JBL, 103:1 (1984), 43–76.
35
See Katz, ‘Issues’, 76.
10
At the end of the second millennium, the Birkhat ha-Minim is still being used by many
writers as a mainstay of the argument for first century separation. Further studies that
have revised the theory popularised by Elbogen in the early 1900’s have failed to solve
the controversy.36 This question will be treated in the chapter on Jewish-Christianity.
In 1991 the Oxford scholar Miriam Taylor challenged on historical, hermeneutical and
theological grounds the conflict theory of Jewish-Christian relations adopted by
modern writers. She opposed the assumption underlying the consensus view that in the
early centuries of the Church’s existence, Christians and Jews were involved in a
rivalry for converts and political supremacy in the Roman empire, arguing that this
theory is based on Christianising preconceptions about ancient Judaism.37
Other studies include the reactions to the problem from the Second Durham-Tübingen
Research Symposium on Earliest Christianity and Judaism (Durham, September,
1989).38 Philip Alexander speaks of the question from the perspective of rabbinic
Judaism, whereas the other studies in the volume relate to Christian literature. James
Dunn also wrote an overview, where he points out the value of the literary study of the
New Testament as a supplement to historical study rather than a form of isolated
examination as an alternative to historical study.39 Another work on the topic by
Hayim Goren Perelmuter states in the introduction:
In its development from the fourth pre-Christian century until
and beyond the year 70, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem
and sowed the seeds of the beginning of the end of the Second
Jewish Commonwealth, this development of Rabbinic Judaism,
with its emphasis on change linked to continuity, with its strong
messianic sense and its deep belief in resurrection, was the
36
Ismar Elbogen, Geschichte des Achtzehngebet (Breslau, 1903), Der jüdische Gottesdienst in seiner
geschichltichen Entwicklung (Leipzig, Fock, 1913), 36–41.
37
See Miriam Taylor, The Jews in the Writings of the Church Fathers (150–312): Men of Straw or
Formidable Rivals (Ph.D. dissertation, Oxford University, 1991), vi.
38
James Dunn, Judaism and Christianity: The Parting of the Ways (Tübingen, Mohr–Paul Siebeck,
1992).
39
See James Dunn, The Partings of the Ways (London, SCM, 1991), 16.
11
common background
Christianity. 40
of
both
normative
Judaism
and
Hershel Shanks’ editorship of another collection41 was considered only partially
successful by the reviewer Martin Goodman.42 One of its strengths lies in the detailed
histories presented by such authors as Geza Vermes, James Charlesworth and Harold
Attridge. Four writers in the same volume, Louis Feldman, Lee Levine, Shaye Cohen
and Isaiah Gafni, treat the history of the Jews. That same year, Princeton University
Press published Feldman’s treatment of significant questions relevant to the separation
of Christianity from Judaism such as proselytism.43
An examination of the vast array of secondary literature available serves to underline
the sparseness of historical material to document the early stages of the conflict and to
illustrate the complexity of the problem. As the source material for the early stages of
the separation leaves many questions unanswered, it is possible for commentators to
come to opposite conclusions when using the same source material. One example has
been included in the chapter on Sabbath and Sunday.
John Painter has commented that in general, the literature fails to acknowledge that
though continuity can be seen in number of areas, a distinction needs to be made
between primary, essential elements which mark out Christianity as having separated
from Judaism, and secondary elements where Christianity has remained attached to
it.44 There is the need for another way of approaching the question of the separation of
early Christianity from Judaism.
40
Hayim Goren Perelmuter, Siblings: Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity at Their Beginnings
(New Jersey, Paulist Press, 1989), 2.
41
Hershel Shanks, Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of their Origins and Early
Developments (London, Biblical Archaeology Society, 1993).
42
See JJS, 44:2 (1993), 313.
43
44
Louis Feldman, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexandria
to Justinian (Princeton University Press, 1993).
See John Painter, Just James: The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition (Colombia, University
of South Carolina, 1997), 228.
12
Again, a Judaism in transition is reflected in the literature and liturgical practices of
the early church and in literature found at Qumran. Similarities in belief and practices
outlined in Qumran literature and in those of the early Christians indicate that the
teachings of both groups sprang from a common source within Judaism, rather than
from direct contacts between the two ideologies.45
Much of the literature treating the subject appears to be based on two assumptions:
Firstly, Judaism was pluralistic although some treat it as monolithic.46 Insufficient
account is taken of the evidence to show that there was a variety of forms in both. This
point has been stressed by Jacob Neusner.
At the period between the first and sixth centuries, the manifestations of
the Jewish religion were varied and complex, far more varied, indeed,
than the extant Talmudic literature would have led us to believe.47
Secondly, either after the fall of the Temple, the rebellion of Bar Kochba Revolt or
when the Mishnah was completed, Judaism closed ranks. This is to assume that after
the fall of the Temple, Judaism was controlled by the rabbis. How far and from what
period did the rabbis’ authority extend to all the areas where Jews were settled? On the
Christian side, could there be a claim to a centralised Christianity before Constantine?
Much of the secondary literature that seeks to address the question of the separation of
early Christianity from Judaism goes over the same ground and repeats entrenched
errors despite the available scholarship on these very issues.
For this reason, in seeking to cast new light on the separation of early Christianity
from Judaism, a number of documented areas that are often treated separately by
authors will be examined in order to find evidence for this moving apart that is
45
The Manual of Discipline, which includes a treatise on the Two Ways (life and death) supplies the
background to the ethical part of the Didache. See J. Daniélou, A. H. Couratin and John Kent (eds),
Historical Theology (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969), 33. See also Lawrence H. Schiffman,
Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost
Library of Qumran (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1994), 219–313.
46
Thus for example Morna D. Hooker, Continuity and Discontinuity: Early Christianity in its Jewish
Setting (London, Epworth, 1986) treats both early Christianity and first century Judaism as
homogenous entities.
47
See Neusner’s preface in the abridged Goodenough, Jewish Symbols, 1968, xiii.
13
concrete and can be tabulated, weighed and compared. The aim will be to find
common themes in the moving apart, and where possible, to show stages of separation
in these selected areas. The overall evidence will be assessed.
Chapter one will look at the geographical evidence for separation, early Christian
organization and the development of centralisation with the rise of the papacy. Maps
will be constructed to accompany chapter one, to show the relationships between
Christian and Jewish populations. The reasons for the failure of the Jewish-Christian
movement are studied in chapter two. Chapter three looks at statements about Jews in
the early church council documents and what they reveal about issues of separation.
The fourth chapter examines the Theodosian Code and the laws concerning Jews,
pointing out the gradual erosion of Jewish privileges with the rise of Christianity, and
the attempts to separate Christians from Jewish practices. Chapter five treats the
church’s efforts to separate the Sabbath from Sunday. The sixth chapter examines the
Jewish roots of Christian liturgy and notes the developing christological focus. The
seventh chapter provides a close study of the struggle to separate the date of Passover
from Easter, the latter replacing Passover as the most important feast in Christianity.
Chapter eight looks at what can be revealed from archaeology about separation whilst
chapter nine looks at the few remarks that appear to be about Christianity in the
rabbinic sources, and their significance. Conclusions about the separation of
Christianity from Judaism will be constructed on the basis of the evidence examined.
Tables will be constructed to correlate geographical data about the spread of
Christianity in relation to Jewish populations, and statements about Jews in early
church councils will be tabulated. These will be included in the appendix. The
discussion of each area of separation will focus on chronology where this is possible,
the aim being to present a step-by step picture in the various areas of the moving apart
of early Christianity from Judaism.
14