Weststar Institute Christianity/Gnosticism Seminar @ AAR/SBL

[MrMacSon]

summary here - http://www.westarinstitute.org/blog/red ... -and-cons/

[MrMacSon]

Tweet - "There are many terms like this that are seriously problematic, including #Judaism"

Matthew Novenson (Uni Edinburgh) presented a fascinating paper asking, "Did Paul conceive of such a thing as Judaism?", in which he answers no. Even the word translated 'Judaism' in Gal 1:13 (Ioudaismos) does not refer to a religion but to a sectarian activity (derived from the verb 'to Judaize') that seeks to make other Jews more strict in practice.

[DCHindley]

Tweet - "There are many terms like this that are seriously problematic, including #Judaism"

Matthew Novenson (Uni Edinburgh) presented a fascinating paper asking, "Did Paul conceive of such a thing as Judaism?", in which he answers no. Even the word translated 'Judaism' in Gal 1:13 (Ioudaismos) does not refer to a religion but to a sectarian activity (derived from the verb 'to Judaize') that seeks to make other Jews more strict in practice.

There has been criticism of the use of the term "Judaism" and even "Jews" as anachronistic, representative of a much later time. From what I can gather, Judeans were the people who "natively" inhabited the Persian/Hellenistic/Roman province known as Yahud/Judaea. In the Hellenistic period there were several Judean colonies established around the Mediterranean (hostages or prisoners sent far away from the homeland as punishments, whatever), what we call the Diaspora. Also, the Hasmonean princes of Judaea had expanded their control to territories they considered "Judean," which were inhabited by peoples with customs similar to those of the Judeans (Idumeans to the south and those of Iturean extraction up north), and laid down the ultimatum to convert to Judahite Law or move elsewhere.

In the minds of Greeks and Romans, the folks who had been assimilated to the Judean way of life, or colonized these expanded areas, or had been exiled from the Judean homeland, were "Judeans ." However, they were well aware that those who resided in the homeland of Judaea practiced the ancestral customs much more rigorously than those who lived in the Diaspora, although even these were known to almost universally practice certain aspects of them (circumcision, diet, etc).

DCH