Who Made Early Christianity? by Gager John G.;

Author:Gager, John G.; [Gager, John G.;]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL108020, REL006630, Religion/Biblical Studies/History & Culture, Religion/Christian Church/History
ISBN: 9780231539371
Publisher: LightningSource
Published: 2015-06-23T05:00:00+00:00

COUNTERNARRATIVES OUTSIDE THE NEW TESTAMENT: THE CHRISTIAN HERESIOLOGISTS

There is more to be said about writings within the New Testament, but I want to move on to the second chapter in this second story. Here I will look at texts outside the New Testament, texts which show that the Book of Acts got something else wrong. The so-called circumcision party mentioned by Paul did not disappear from the scene, as Luke would have us believe, for it shows up in various forms across the succeeding centuries. (Here I should add that I am convinced that he knew full well that they had not disappeared and that his account here is little more than wishful thinking; it is his counternarrative.)

The first text worth mentioning here is a passage in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, dated around the year 150 CE, several decades after the gospels of Matthew and Luke. The dialogue is a largely fictional report of a debate between the Christian Justin and the Jew Trypho. The big question is: Who is right and who is wrong on the question of Jesus? Was he the long expected Messiah of Israel or not? Whose interpretation of Old Testament passages is correct? Do they point to Jesus, as Justin insists, or do they have some other, inner-Jewish meaning? At one point in the conversation, after Justin has argued that the entire Mosaic Law—and thus Judaism itself—has been annulled, Trypho inquires about a group of Christian believers that has come to his attention. Can such believers, he asks, who are circumcised and observe both the Sabbath and other Jewish customs be saved? Yes they can, replies Justin, even though they do not associate with other believers, but only if they do not attempt to convince other Christians (46–47). Clearly Justin has no affection for these believers but for him they are still “in.” What is interesting for us is that such groups are still around in the middle of the second century, only slightly later than the time when the Book of Acts was written. Not only are they still around, they are apparently interested in persuading other believers, presumably nonobservant Gentile believers, to adopt their views. In other words, long after the disappearance of Peter and Paul, the old debates are still alive. The Jewish Christians have not gone away. But—and this is worth emphasizing—Justin is the last Christian writer who is prepared to say that Jewish Christians are “in.” From his time on, Jewish Christians become heretics, complete outsiders. They are not saved. From that point on, we learn about them primarily in the writings of their Christian opponents, the heresiologists, who frequently and anxiously included them in their catalogues of Christian heresies.

But it may be worthwhile to have a look at some of these “heretics” anyway. Heretics sometimes teach us things that might otherwise disappear from the radar. The heretic-hunters seem to know many different groups, but here I will just talk about two—the Ebionites and the Nazoreans.32 We first hear

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.