The Jewish Background of the Church
The Jewish Background of the Church
The Church did not simply spring into existence at a moment in time during the first. God used a number of secondary causes to bring His purposes to fulfillment. The church was molded by these influences, both Jewish and Gentile. In this week’s lesson we will be considering the state of the Jews in the era surrounding the writing of the New Testament, the interaction of the Church with contemporary Judaism, and the factors leading to a decisive break with Judaism.
We should note first that the use of the term Judaism itself
is somewhat misleading as it contributes to the impression that what is termed
Judaism in our modern context is largely identical with the religious
environment of first century Jews. This
is misleading in that modern day Judaism is a development of only one of the
strains that were active during the time of the first century church, is
dramatically altered by the lack of a temple, and was not formally codified
until the completion of the written Mishnah
in the third century A.D (the interpretation of which is itself influenced
greatly by the work of later Jewish scholars like Maimonides). To avoid jumping through an excessive number
of grammatical hoops, we shall use the word Judaism rather loosely in this
lesson to refer to the whole set of religious, philosophical, historical, and
cultural details pertaining to those who were ethnically descended from the
nation of
I. Palestinian Judaism
A. The intertestamental period
1.
Alexander the Great
Part of his goal was to spread Greek culture to the world. He died in July 323 B.C., and his empire was
split among his generals who established dynasties in various regions. The Ptolemies ruled
2.
The Maccabees
They were a priestly family who rose in rebellion against the Seleucids. They were opposed to all of the Hellenising
influence of the Seleucids, but the final insult that provoked their revolt was
the desecration of the temple by Antiochus IV in 168BC. They succeeded in establishing some degree of
freedom for the Jews, which endured until Pompey’s conquest of the area in 63
B.C. During this time, the Maccabees
ruled as both priests and kings.
3.
The Hasmonean Dynasty
One of the accomplishments of John Hyrcanus Maccabeus was the circumcision of
the Idumaeans. There followed some
intermarriage, and Herod the Great and his descendants would claim to be
descendants of the Maccabees. Herod
contributed much to the beautification and expansion of the temple, but was
also an enthusiastic Roman collaborator.
B. Parties within Palestinian Judaism
1.
Pharisees
The popular party, associated with the synagogue and rabbinical study. By the time of Christ they had divided into
essentially two parties - that of Shammai, and that of Hillel. The school of Shammai was the stricter of the
two on almost every issue. The rabbi
Gamaliel (add refs) was a follower of Hillel.
There is debate however, about whether his most famous student, Saul of
Tarsus identified more with the school of Shammai. There are certain clues in phrases he used
after his conversion that might signify this, as well as his response to the
Christians.
The name comes from the Aramaic Perushim,
which means “separated”. According to
Josephus (Ant 17.32-45), at the time
of Herod the Great there were only 6,000 Pharisees. Despite their small numbers, their influence
on their time and the ages to follow was enormous.
2.
Sadducees – the temple party
They were viewed as Roman collaborators by much of the general populace
The Sadducees denied the existence of angels and the resurrection of the dead. This arose from a strictly literalistic and
reductionist method of interpreting the Law.
A less important consequence of this was that they and the Pharisees
differed on many of the details of how the festivals and ceremonies were to be
administered.
3.
Essenes – Ascetics and Mystics.
They are not directly referred to in Scripture, but both Philo and Josephus
make mention of them. They were
obsessively concerned with purity. There
is some indication that their mysticism was influenced by Medo-Persian
religion. They did not survive the first
century. They
are best known to us through the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
4. Zealots – The zealots were a political movement who were violently opposed to the Roman occupation.
II.
Diaspora Judaism
Of course, by this time, the Jewish
presence was not confined to
The Roman world approached the Jews
with ambivalence. On the one hand, the
ancientness of their faith appealed to Roman sentiment. The cultural factors which have frequently
contributed to the success of Jewish communities throughout history – their
diligence, their thrift, their familial and racial cohesiveness – appealed to a
society that valued order. On the other
hand, their refusal to participate in the worship of the emperor and the
unwillingness of many of them to adopt Greco-Roman culture and values gave them
a reputation for obstinacy.
At the time of the New Testament,
this relationship had settled into something of an uneasy peace. The empire exempted the Jews from some
portion of the imperial taxation (allowing them to send it instead to
Jerusalem) and from the duties of emperor worship. However, as can be seen from numerous
references in the New Testament, this was contingent upon their
compliance. There was a constant threat
that a disagreement between the various parties within Judaism or open
rebellion by a group such as the Zealots might lead the Romans to forcefully
curtail the independence which they had granted.
A.
God-fearers
Gentiles who appreciated the moral excellence of the Law and the Prophets. Examples include the centurion in
B.
Alexandrian Judaism
The Egyptian city of
The argument for Apollos (Acts 18) as the author of the book of Hebrews is that
he was a native of Alexandria, and the content and structure of the book is
such that it refutes much of the theological structure that Philo had built
(e.g. the angels, the priests, and Moses as mediators). While not conclusive, the argument is strong
enough that it ought to be dismissed without careful consideration.
III. Judaism and the Church
A.
Jewish identity of the early church
In its earliest days, the church was Jewish.
Despite the positive reception the Gospel was accorded by folks such as
the centurion, the Syro-phoenician woman (Matt 15), the woman at the well (John
4), or the Ethiopian eunuch, no Gentile had actually been joined to the church
prior to the events in Acts 10 and 11.
Because the church was uniformly Jewish, outsiders tended to view Christianity
merely as yet another splinter group within the mosaic of Jewish belief. For that matter, even some of the unbelieving
Jews took the same view. This afforded
the church a degree of protection as the policy of tolerance which had been
extended to the Jews was the de facto policy toward the Church during the
middle decades of the first century.
Another effect of the Jewish identity of the church is that the early Jewish
believers still frequently worshipped the temple, were circumcised, and
observed the Sabbath on the seventh day as well as the Lord’s Day on the first. As Gentile believers were joined to the
Church, this occasioned controversy regarding what their obligation was. The
B.
Jewish Persecution of the Church
The earliest persecutions of the church were all prompted and executed by the
Jews. Saul of Tarsus is the most famous
of the persecutors, but the persecutions took place in
IV.
The Great Divide
A division between Christians and Jews was finally occasioned by the
destruction of the temple in 70AD. In
66AD, Jewish zealots rebelled against the Roman occupation starting a war which
lasted over four years and resulted in the end of
The best record we have of these events are the writings of Josephus. According to his record, approximately 1.5
million Jews perished during the siege of
This is not an unexpected turn of events given that Jesus had told them to flee
Questions for Reflection
1. How does the New Testament depiction of the Pharisees and the Sadducees differ?
2. To what degree can knowledge of the early churches interaction with the Jewish people inform our interaction with contemporary Judaism?
3. For what reason(s) did the Pharisees and the Sadducees oppose belief in the Messiah?
4. Describe the character of the faith as presented in the Didache.
5. How do the three parables in Matthew 25 fit the Jewish context we have examined today? Against what was Jesus warning his hearers there?
6. For those who read the Didache, how would you compare the attitude of the early church to baptism to the attitude of the modern church?
Assignment
Revelation 2-3
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-13.htm
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-19.htm
Recommended
The Story of Christianity by Justo L. Gonzalez Chapters 5-6
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