Monotheistic Judaism of the First Century – Part Three

Monotheistic Judaism of the First Century – Part Three

Posted on by confidentchristianity@gmail.com

In arguing against the theories of “Zeitgeist, the Movie”, I have been presenting a three-part series of posts relating to the first century Jewish culture from which Christianity was birthed. This is the final part of that series. Though I have not directly countered specific points in the movie in these posts, I have established a historical case to demonstrate that first-century monotheistic Judaism was not doctrinally influenced by the cultural worship of various pagan deities.

Devotion to Jesus Emerged from Jewish Monotheism

The earliest Christians’ devotion to Jesus should be understood as emanating from first-century Jewish Monotheism.[1] In 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul applauds the church in Thessalonica for her commendable faith and discusses these believers’ conversion from the worship of pagan idols to “serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (v.9b – 10). This stark contrast between the pagan gods and the one true God (also in association with Jesus) is also seen in 1 Corinthians 8. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul warns believers not to knowingly partake in food that has been offered to pagan idols. According to Hurtado, “Paul is pointing out the sharp distinction between the Gentile polytheistic environment of the Gentiles and the exclusivist monotheistic stance; look at the language used ‘idols’ versus ‘a living and true God.’”[2] Paul uses the term, eidōlothyta, “things offered to idols,” which is clearly a contemptuous characterization of the pagan’s offering.[3] This disdain of all other deities lines up with the exclusivism of first-century Judaism.[4]

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul further demonstrates the exclusivity of Judaism by admonishing believers to “flee from idolatry.”[5] His language takes on a stronger contempt for the polytheistic environment of the Roman gods. Paul compares the partaking of pagan rituals as participating with ‘demons.’ He emphatically demands that a believer participating in drinking from the cup of the Lord, cannot also drink from the cup of demons. Clearly, Paul is demonstrating that, although he was raised in a polytheistic culture (Tarsus), and would have been aware of the mystery-religion culture of his time, he emphatically refused to adopt or allow any of the pagan practices into his monotheistic view of God or into the fellowship, at all.[6] “Essentially, Paul directs his converts to shun any overtly pagan religious activity and practice, and he does so in the strongest kind of terms.”[7]

Conditions in the Early Church: Ritual, Law, and Paul

The early church apparently struggled with adherence to the rituals (including the Temple cult), customs, and other traditions of their Judaism.[8] In Acts 21, the news of Paul’s preaching reaches the church in Jerusalem. The report on Paul’s mission work is that he is misleading full Jewish converts by instructing them not to observe the Judaic rituals in obedience to the Law. Upon Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem, James and the brethren required Paul to answer for his instruction.[9] The brethren “demanded that because of this suspicion he undergo the usual purity probe in the Temple and that four oath-bound penitents be called in.”[10] Paul accepted their demands, however when numerous of the Diaspora[11] saw Paul in the temple, they grew furious and sought to lynch him because he: “(1) allegedly agitated against the law and Temple cult, hence, preached apostasy toward the law (among Jews!) and because he (2) had brought a non-circumcised (Trophimus) into the Temple (which Luke disputes).”[12] An exclusivist, ritualistic environment is clearly demonstrated in this passage, even among the Christian believers, as evidenced in James’ request of an explanation for Paul’s ‘defiant’ teachings towards the rituals of the Law. Obviously, the early believers still identified themselves with the rituals and practices of Judaism.

Further, in the second chapter of the book of Galatians, Paul confronts Peter for alleged hypocrisy in dealing with Jewish versus Gentile believers. Paul’s accusation is founded on Peter’s actions of eating with the Gentiles and then drawing away from them when the brethren associated with James arrived. The word used by Paul to describe Peter, kategnōsmenos, is translated “clearly in the wrong.”[13] The main problem was most likely Peter’s adherence to the Jewish food-laws that forbade social interaction between Jew and Gentile.[14] In this passage, again, we have an example of an early believer (another one of the leaders of the Christian Church) struggling with issues arising from a strong adherence to their Jewish faith. As has previously been shown, this first century Jewish faith entailed a strict adherence to the one true God and abhorred the pagan deities. Therefore, it is an illegitimate argument to say that these Jewish men allowed Hellenistic pagan religion influences to guide any formation of their Christology.

CONCLUSION

From the historical evidence, a picture emerges of first-century Judaism that is adamantly monotheistic and, in its core doctrine, immune to the influences of the Hellenized culture surrounding it. The Jewish separatist attitude is noted in their Scriptures, their religious practices, and in the writings of foreigners. Emerging from this first-century Judaism are the earliest followers of Christ, who then become leaders of this fledgling faith. These leaders evidence their adherence to a strict monotheistic Judaism in their writings (Galatians 1; 1 Corinthians 8, 10; 1 Thessalonians 1) and in their struggles deciding to maintain or free themselves from the Jewish rituals of the Law and Temple cult (Acts 21, 22; Galatians 2). These are not men who are readily adapting the influence of pagan mysteries to exalt Jesus into an apotheosis figure or mold him into a pagan religious pattern of a dying and rising god. Rather, these are men grappling with their own exclusively monotheistic past, while incorporating Jesus into their understanding of the one true God; who alone is worthy of the act of worship. As stated by Joan E. Taylor, in her article, The Phenomenon of Early Jewish-Christianity: Reality or Scholarly Invention?, “The Jewish-Christians of the first century would not have considered themselves to be combining two religions, for they never accepted that Christianity was anything but the proper flowering of Judaism.”[15]
Thus, the influence of Roman Hellenism, though a cultural reality, to be sure, did not however touch the ultimate tenet of first-century Judaism or Christianity: monotheism.

MJ

Footnotes

[1] Hurtado, Larry. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company: 2005. pg. 42.
[2] Ibid. pg. 43. See also: Grant, Robert M. Gods and the One God. Philadelphia, The Westminster Press: 1986. pp. 46-49.
[3] Ibid. pg. 44.
[4] Ibid.
[5] 1 Corinthians 10:14
[6] Hooke, S.H., “Christianity and the Mystery Religions,” Vol. 1, Judaism and Christianity. W.O.E. Osterley, ed. New York, KTAV Publishing House: 1969. pg.241.
[7] Hurtado. pg. 44.
[8] Weber, Max. Ancient Judaism. Glencoe, The Free Press: 1952. pg.421.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Jewish believers who lived in the areas surrounding Jerusalem as a result of the exilic period in Jewish history.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Cole, R. Alan. Galatians. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans: 1984. pg. 74.
[14] Ibid. pg. 77.
[15] Taylor , Joan E. “The Phenomenon of Early Jewish-Christianity: Reality or Scholarly Invention?” Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 44, No. 4. (Dec., 1990), pg. 315.
To receive a full bibliography from this three part series, please email me with “bibliography” in the subject line.
© Mary Jo Sharp 2007
Monotheistic Judaism of the First Century – Part Two

Monotheistic Judaism of the First Century – Part Two

Posted on by confidentchristianity@gmail.com

In arguing against the theories of “Zeitgeist, the Movie”, I will be presenting a three-part series of posts relating to the first century Jewish culture from which Christianity was birthed. Though I will not directly counter specific points in the movie in these posts, I will establish a historical case to demonstrate that first-century monotheistic Judaism was not doctrinally influenced by the cultural worship of various pagan deities.

The Jewish People Viewed as Social and Religious Separatists by Foreigners

The foreigners, or gentiles, who came into contact with the Jews, wrote about the exclusivity of the Jewish people. One of these writers was Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian. In his Histories, Book V, Tacitus explains the exclusive worship of the Jews, “…the Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence. They call those profane who make representations of God in human shape out of perishable materials. They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay. They therefore do not allow any images to stand in their cities, much less in their temples.”[1] Tacitus further explains the self-imposed social segregation of the Jewish people, “…they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart….they abstain from intercourse with foreign women….Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren.”[2]
Another writer, Dio Cassius, a Roman historian of the second century, reflects on the established Jewish monotheism in the Roman Empire, “They are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life, and especially by the fact that they do not honour any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence for one particular divinity. They never had any statue of him even in Jerusalem itself, but believing him to be unnamable and invisible, they worship him in the most extravagant fashion on earth.”[3]

Argument against a Strict Adherence to Monotheism

The argument against an exclusive monotheism of the first-century Jews usually refers to the cultural influences on Judaism from the Roman Empire (Hellenism). The Jewish believers, it is argued, could not be closed-off to or completely isolated from these influences.[4] To a certain extent, cultural variances are noted, as in the Judaism of Elephantine or in the later Judaism of Ethiopia.[5] However, cultural variances, as the use of foreign terminology to explain Jewish philosophy or belief[6], or as the Gentile proselyte maintaining pagan rituals along with Jewish belief,[7] do not warrant a verdict of fluctuations in the traditional Jewish adherence to monotheism.
The argument that Hellenistic pagan mystery cults influenced the core doctrine of Jewish monotheism lacks an evidential base. In “Pharisaism and Hellenism” from the multi-volume work, Judaism and Christianity, W.L. Knox reports, “We have a great deal of evidence both in literature and in inscriptions as to the Judaism of the time and the evidence of syncretism of Judaism with Gentile cults, when it is carefully sifted and the conjectures left out, boils down to singularly little.”[8] Also, “there is no evidence that any one of these gods [of the pagan mystery cults] was conceived of as an ethical personality, still less any suggestion that the ethical character of the god is the basis and source of both individual and social morality.”[9] The Judaic view of God was a totally different concept from the Hellenized religions of Rome, because of the very idea that only the one true God was worthy of any worship. Even though the Hellenistic Romans had a concept of a highest god, they believed worship was a matter of degree because divinity was a matter of degree.[10] A lesser or greater god was worthy of the appropriate degree of worship.[11] This strict adherence to monotheism was a noted hallmark of Judaism in the first century,[12] and out of this Judaism the earliest Christian followers emerge.

THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS WERE MONOTHEISTIC JEWS

The earliest extant historical writings concerning the origins of Christianity are from the apostle Paul.[13] Scholars generally agree that of the writings attributed to Paul, these date between the late 40’s and the early 60’s of the first century[14]. In Paul’s texts, there is a basis for the former adherence to the monotheistic Judaism of the first century by the early Christian leaders. Larry Hurtado, in How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God, emphasizes this basis, “Our earliest extant historical sources exhibit an emphatic rejection of pagan religion and a corresponding monotheistic affirmation of the exclusive validity of the one God.”[15] In the establishment of Paul’s monotheism, Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Thessalonians, and Corinthians will be investigated along with Luke’s Acts of the Apostles.

Paul’s Former Religious Zeal and Conversion

Paul was a monotheistic, zealous Pharisee. His devotion to Judaism before his Damascus Road experience is perhaps best annotated by his ‘mission’ to persecute the followers of Jesus. Hurtado describes Paul’s loyalty, “…devotion to Jesus must have been sufficiently striking (even audacious) that it could draw the determined efforts of this formerly zealous Pharisee to destroy what he regarded as an unacceptable innovation in Second-Temple Jewish religion. It had to be some major offense by Jewish Christians to have elicited the kind of Phinehas-like zeal with which Saul/Paul attacked the Jesus movement.”[16] Paul’s testimony to his background and his conversion are found in several places in the Scripture. In Galatians 1: 11-24, Paul relays his conversion story concerning his zealous Judaism and his persecution of the believers in Jesus: “…how intensely I persecuted the church and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (v.13b-14). This story is confirmed in the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 9 and 22. Also, in Acts 8, the historian, Luke, mentions Paul’s approval of the stoning of Stephen. The case is made for Paul: he is a devoted Jewish believer in the one true God.

More to come…..
MJ
Footnotes:
[1] Tacitus. Histories, Book V. Available from: http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/histories.5.v.html. The Internet Classics Archive. Accessed December 5, 2007.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Dio Cassius, Roman History, Book 37, Chapter 17. Available from: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html. Accessed December 11, 2007.
[4] Snyder, Graydon F. “The Interaction of Jews with Non-Jews in Rome.” Judaism and Christianity in First-Century Rome. Karl P. Donfried, ed., Peter Richardson, ed. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company: 1998. pg. 74.
[5] Ibid.
[6] W.L. Knox suggests that Josephus dresses up a native Jewish idea in language drawn from the pagan mysteries. Knox, W.L., “Pharisaism and Hellenism.” Vol. 2,. Judaism and Christianity. pg. 83.
[7] See Cohen, Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew.
[8] Knox, pp. 89-90.
[9] Hooke, S.H., “The Emergence of Christianity from Judaism,” Vol. 1, Judaism and Christianity. pg. 261.
[10] Bauckham. pg. 13.
[11] Ibid.
[12] See Bauckham. pg. 6, See also: Bowersock, G. W. Polytheism and Monotheism in Arabia and the Three Palestines. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 51. (1997), pp. 1-10; Robert L. Wilken. “Judaism in Roman and Christian Society” The Journal of Religion, Vol. 47, No. 4. (Oct., 1967), pp. 313-330; Rainbow, Paul A. “Jewish Monotheism as the Matrix for New Testament Christology: A Review Article.” Novum Testamentum, pp. 78-91; Kaam, Antony. The Israelites: An Introduction. New York, Routledge: 1999. pg.161 (Jewish belief immediately prior to the first century); Bentwich, Norman. “The Graeco-Roman View of Jews and Judaism in the Second Century” The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 23, No. 4. (Apr., 1933), pg. 342 (Jewish belief coming out of the first century).
[13] Hurtado. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? pg. 32.
[14] Ibid. pg. 33.
[15] Ibid. pg. 32, See also Bauckham. God Crucified. pg. 40
[16] Ibid. pp. 35-36.
© Mary Jo Sharp 2007
Monotheistic Judaism of the First Century – Part One

Monotheistic Judaism of the First Century – Part One

Posted on by confidentchristianity@gmail.com

In arguing against the theories of “Zeitgeist, the Movie”, I will be presenting a three-part series of posts relating to the first century Jewish culture from which Christianity was birthed. Though I will not directly counter specific points in the movie in these posts, I will establish a historical case to demonstrate that first-century monotheistic Judaism was not doctrinally influenced by the cultural worship of various pagan deities.

Introduction

The Christian faith has weathered accusations over the years that it arose either from Hellenistic pagan mystery religions or from a flexible First-Century Judaism that would allow for a dying and rising god pagan religious pattern to be introduced.[1] Quite to the contrary, first-century (also called Second-Temple) Jews were ritual and doctrinal separatists mainly due to a fear of defilement. Out of this exclusivist faith, Christianity developed as a sect of Second-Temple Judaism that equated Jesus with the one true God; the only God worthy of worship. Because of this very exclusivity, the first Christians – being Second-Temple Jews – would not have tolerated the mere insertion or adaptation of pagan religious ideas into their Judaism for the same fear of defiling the one true God. The evidence for my case can be found in an examination of ancient Judaism in its first century environment and of the admonishment of Paul in his writings; the earliest extant texts from the New Testament.

ANCIENT JUDAISM: EVIDENCE OF SEPARATISM

Scholars have overwhelmingly viewed Ancient Judaism to be a monotheistic religion; with good reason.[2] The historical and literary data establish a people who separated themselves doctrinally, ritualistically, and to an extent, socially.[3] Before looking into the details, it is noteworthy to understand that the assessment I am leveling on the monotheism of the first-century Jewish people is not entirely void of ritualistic and social variances.[4] However, at the heart of Judaism, there exists an unwavering tenet to the “one true God.”[5]

Jewish Self-Imposed Separation

First-century Judaism was inherently exclusivist; namely due to “the nature of the Jewish conception of god which compelled the rejection of all deification of creatures as pagan abominations.”[6] From the self-imposed social separation, such as ill-regard towards marriage with non-Jews[7], to the extreme Pharisaic purity ritualism[8], the Jewish culture itself fostered a rejection of intimate community with non-Jews who defiled themselves with pagan rituals to ‘false gods.’ As Robert L. Wilken, Professor of History of Christianity at the University of Virginia states, “To the outsider it appeared that Jews were exclusionistic and separatistic.”[9] Philo, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher from antiquity, writes of those who followed the Jews out of Egypt as “an illegitimate crowd with a body of genuine citizens.”[10] In Shaye J. D. Cohen’s article for the Harvard Theological Review, “Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew,” he evidences the inferior view of proselytes to the Jewish faith in various writings from antiquity: the Acts of Pilate, the Qumran scrolls and rabbinic literature, the Mishnah, and the writings of Philo, as well.[11]

Jewish Monotheism in the Scripture

The exclusivist nature of Jewish monotheism can best be demonstrated through two key passages from Scripture.[12] The first passage is the Shema’ from Deuteronomy 6:4-6: “Hear O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is one,’ and continues later with the command of total devotion to YHWH, the one God, ‘You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.’ The Shema was a vital part of Jewish liturgy being recited twice daily as prescribed in the Tractate Berakoth portion of the Mishnah[13] and it is evidenced in use as early as the second century B.C.[14] The second passage is the Decalogue, in which the first two commandments forbid Israel to have or to worship any gods but YHWH.[15] “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Deuteronomy 5:7-9). From the Scripture, we can clearly see those who practiced Judaism were reminded daily – twice daily – of the loyalty and worship due to the one true God.

More to come….

MJ

Footnotes:

[1] Hooke, S.H., “The Emergence of Christianity from Judaism,” Volume One. Judaism and Christianity. W.O.E. Osterley, ed. New York, KTAV Publishing House: 1969. p. 279.
[2] For examples see: Hengel, Martin. Judaism and Hellenism. Eugene, Wipf and Stock Publishers: 1974. pp. 68, 77, 264-267, 313 -314.; Rainbow, Paul A. “Jewish Monotheism as the Matrix for New Testament Christology: A Review Article.” Novum Testamentum, Vol. 33, Fasc. 1. (Jan., 1991), pg.81.
[3] “In regard to Rome, however, the argument that the Jews of Rome did not interact with Roman culture has depended to a large extent on literary sources and historical data.” Snyder, Graydon F. “The Interaction of Jews with Non-Jews in Rome.” Judaism and Christianity in First-Century Rome. Karl P. Donfried, ed., Peter Richardson, ed. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company: 1998. pg. 74. However, Graydon goes on to say, “In order to assess cultural changes the broader, popular data of symbols and inscriptions provide a sounder basis,” which I have found, in the course of this research, to be out of line with most scholarly opinion.
[4] Ibid. See also, Weber, Max. Ancient Judaism. Glencoe, The Free Press: 1952. Weber addresses the Essenes and the variants prevalent in Essenian doctrine. Although, he denounces that these variants arose from Judaism. Also, Knox, W.L., “Pharisaism and Hellenism,” Vol. 2,. Judaism and Christianity. W.O.E. Osterley, ed. New York, KTAV Publishing House: 1969. pp.59-109.
[5] Hurtado, Larry. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company: 2005. pg.133. Also, Paul A. Rainbow. “Jewish Monotheism as the Matrix for New Testament Christology: A Review Article,” Novum Testamentum, Vol. 33, Fasc. 1. (Jan., 1991), pp. 81.
[6] Weber, Ancient Judaism, pp. 412, 417.
[7] Though inter-marriage was practiced, the converted spouse was referred to as a “proselyte,” regarded as inferior to “native Jews.” See Cohen, Shaye J. D. Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew. The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 82, No. 1. (Jan., 1989), pp. 13-33.
[8] Weber. Ancient Judaism. pg. 412.
[9] Wilken, Robert L. “Judaism in Roman and Christian Society.” The Journal of Religion, Vol. 47, No. 4. (Oct., 1967), pp. 315-316.
[10] Philo. Life of Moses 1.27 Available from http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book24.html. Accessed December 5, 2007.
[11] Cohen, Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew, pg. 30.
[12] Bauckham, Richard. God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans: 1998. pg.6.
[13] Available from the Internet Sacred Text Archive website at http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tbr/index.htm. Though the Mishnah dates later than the first century, it is a compendium of Jewish practices that were already in practice by the 2nd Century A.D.
[14] William Albright’s dating of the Nash Papyrus. Albright, William F. “A Biblical Fragment from the Maccabaean Age: The Nash Papyrus,” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 56, No. 3. (Sep., 1937), p.149.
[15] Bauckham. pg. 6.

© Mary Jo Sharp 2007