The Template Of Pagan Beliefs
*It was Raymond E. Brown who pointed out that an understanding of
pagan belief is necessary if one wishes to chart the growth of early
Christianity (90).And so let us examine the beliefs encountered by
the first evangelists as they founded their churches in the Hellenized
Mediterranean, and look for tenets and concepts that could serve as
a pattern by which the new faith could tailor itself in order to meet
the needs of it's target audience.
*Now Greco-Roman philosophers like Seneca (4 B.C.E.-65 C.E.) and
Epictetus (c.55-135 C.E.) had already implanted into the minds of
their contemporaries the wisdom of striving to be "gentle with the
man who reviles you", and to "do as the gods, they..persist in giving
to those who are ungrateful"(91).
*Anyone with even a casual acquaintance with the Gospels will of
course recognize this as familiar advice. But there are many other
signs of preexisting pagan beliefs which could have facilitated the
advancement of the gospel.
*For instance, belief that heroes of pagan mythology could be sons
of God through the agency of the divine spirit could obviously be of
use before a Hellenistic audience, satisfying pagan expectation
without doing damage to Jewish ideas (92), while the concept of
"rebirth"(John 3:3-7) is obviously Hellenistic and does not appear in
contemporary Judaism (93).
*One aspect of the pagan ethos which is important for understanding
the attraction of Christianity is the institution of patronage. In the
Hellenistic world "freedmen"(former slaves) had special opportunities,
having acquired skills as slaves, to begin a business or profession,
being useful to patrons in a world where such activity was considered
demeaning to elites (94). Such a class might very well respond
favorably to the idea of a supreme Patron who is willing to invest in
His "clients", but who also expects a return on His "investment"(Matt
24:14-30):(Luke 19:12-27).
*Likewise archaeology has yielded evidence of inscriptions which may
refer to the manumission of slaves through the transfer of ownership
to a pagan goddess (95). This may bring to mind NT passages like
1Cor 7:22, where Christ has obtained liberty for his followers through
his own blood, a concept which speaks to slaves and freedmen in clear
language.
*Indeed divine patronage seems to have been an established part of
the pagan belief system, and "the idea of divine spiritual beings sent
by the supreme God to be an accompanying guide and protector for
individuals was..well known in the Hellenistic world independently
of the biblical tradition", because "the borders between mortals and
the gods were more fluid in (non-Jewish) Hellenistic thinking long
before New Testament (NT) times"(96).
*"As early Christianity developed it's ethical discourse, it was influenced
by the terminology and forms, and to some extent the ideals, of
Hellenistic ethicists.."(97).For "the development of the Gospel from a
strain within the pluralistic fabric of early Judaism to a Hellenistic
confession is today (1992) commonly agreed to have taken place"(98).
*In the time of Paul the philosopher Seneca taught that "whatever has
been lost the mind will recover through diligent use of the time
remaining", and that "the most dependable change towards integrity
comes from repentance"("Natural Questions" 3 praefus). Surely the
parable of the laborers in the vineyard teaches a similar lesson: it is
never too late to repent, and that when someone changes their course
of life is not as important as if they change it (Matt 20:1-16).
*Seneca also said that "good does not spring from evil any more than
figs grow from olive trees"(99), bringing to mind of course the Q logion
at Matt 7:16=Luke 6:43-44, and also declared that "a holy spirit dwells
in us..as it is treated by us, so it treats us"(100), quite similar to the
Pauline teaching that the Holy Spirit dwells in Christians, and that they
have the potential to make it sad (1Cor 3:16):(Eph 4:30).Indeed the
concept of "harming the soul" is fairly common in Greek literature and
turns up in the apocryphal "Gospel Of Thomas" as well (100).
*The negative fallout from trying to yoke together the pursuit of honor
with the pursuit of pleasure had been pointed out by Cicero (101),thus
opening Greco-Roman minds to the folly of trying to serve both God
and wealth (Matt 6:24):(Luke 16:13).
*And if Plato had asked:"how would a man profit if he received gold
and silver on the condition that he was to enslave the noblest part of
himself to the worst"(102), and Aristotle observed that "no one wishes
to preserve the whole world if he first has to become someone else"
(103), then Greek minds were already receptive to the question:"What
does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul ?"
(Mark 8:36).
*As Matthew told the Greeks that God's blessing awaited those who
assisted the less fortunate (25:31-46), so Pliny the Elder in the same
period wrote that "God is man helping man, this is the path to everlasting
glory"(104).
*By now one might begin to think that the earliest Christians,
representing a strand of Hellenistic Judaism, had tailored their new
religion to suit the suit the sentiments of their target audience, and/or
one might suppose that the Christians and pagans both drew on a
common reservoir of philosophical ideas..
Or..
One could embrace the dogmatic understanding offered in the Catechism
of the Catholic Church (p.146), that the coming of Christ was of such
importance that "God willed to prepare for it over centuries", and so
"awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of his coming".
In any case, let us continue..for there are many possible examples
of how the Christian good news may have been fashioned to fit the
preexisting template of the pagan belief system...
*Greek legations for example would declare the festival of a savior
god, bringing invitations to the council and assembly of other cities
(105), a practice which may have provided inspiration for the parable
of the Great Supper (Luke 14:15-24).
*Epictetus knew the Stoic philosopher as a divine herald who bears
God's word through the world, enduring all kinds of suffering (106).
With this conception in mind, later Stoics perhaps nodded their
approval upon hearing of Paul's travails as an itinerant missionary (2
Cor 11:23-28).
*A work ascribed to Plutarch (c.46-120 C.E.) employs the metaphor of
sowing seed in the earth to describe education (107). We may wonder if
both Plutarch and Mark (4:13-20) drew their inspiration from the same
Hellenistic philosophical source.
*Plutarch also held that the imperishable soul is sown in the perishable
flesh (108), a thought that employs terminology quite like that of Paul
at 1Cor 15:42, with both men perhaps expressing thoughts not unlike
those of Philo Judaeus, who saw the body as a "baneful corpse" to
which the soul is tied ("On Drunkenness" 101):("Allegorical Interpretations"
108), or as a "strange land", with the "fatherland"being the virtues known
through the mind ("Questions And Answers On Genesis" 4.74).All three men
may have composed under the influence of the prevailing neo-Platonic
"zeitgeist" of the times.
*Plato recalled Socrates believing it was right to let oneself be beaten
if country and laws demand it (109), a tradition perhaps helping to
inspire zeal in missionaries like Paul (2 Cor 11:24-25), and perhaps
helping to win for him the admiration of Greeks.
*Plato envisioned souls going to the place of judgment after leaving
the body, where the righteous go to the right and ascend to heaven,
while the unrighteous go to the left and are consigned to the place of
punishment (110).This of course sounds so much like the fate of the
righteous/unrighteous in Matthew (25:33-46) that one may wonder if
the author(s) of Matthew did not "borrow" this idea from the writings
of Plato.
*The Roman Ovid (43 B.C.E.-17/8 C.E.) admitted that: " I see the better
and approve; the lower I follow"(111).If Paul did not draw his inspiration
from Ovid in writing Rom 7:15, then certainly the two may
have drawn from the common philosophical ideas of their time.
*First Clement affirms that Christ's blood is given for "us"(16.7), yet also
acknowledges that this is true of pagan heroes for their people (55.1):
(112).Thus Suffering Servant Christology (Isa 53:12) could be related to
pagan mythology in the interests of evangelization,
*But for other Christian apologists, it was the pagans who were
plagiarizing the Christian rites. For Justin Martyr complains about
"wicked devils" imitating the Christian Supper of the Lord in the ritual
"mysteries" of the god Mithras (113).
*The woman, the birth of the child, and the flight into the wilderness
of Rev 12 find parallel in the pagan myths of Rhea (for Romans) and
Leto-Apollo (for Greeks), or Isis-Horus (for Egyptians):(114).
*Diodorus Siculus gives a first century B.C.E. account of the divine
conception of Heracles (115).
*It is suggested that behind Mark 2:1-12 lay the Greco-Roman idea that
ritually unclean persons may not cross over thresholds (116).
*A letter attributed to Apollonius of Tyana (c.15-c.100 C.E.) indicates
that he was regarded as equal to the gods, yet complained that "my
own country ignores me"(117). To this we may compare Mark 6:3.
*The god Orion had been given the power of walking on the waves
according to Hesiod (c.700 B.C.E.); the Persian king Xerxes had the
power to walk on water according to Dio Chrysostom (c.40-120 C.E.):
(118).Greeks then understood that if Jesus walked on the water, he
surely must have been a king or a god.
*Euripides (485-406 B.C.E.) observed that poor people who offered
small gifts to the gods thus show greater piety than those who offer
oxen (119):(cp.Mark 12:41-44).
*Vergil (70-19 B.C.E.) reports that when praying for an omen to "inspire
our hearts", the temple where he was praying was shaken (by earthquake):
(120):(cp.Acts 4:31).
*Seneca said: " The vices of others we keep before our eyes, our own
behind our back"(121):(cp.Matt 7:1-5):(Luke 6:41-42).
*In the Hellenistic tradition, Hercules plays an especially important
role for the idea that glory follows upon suffering (122):(cp.Rom 8:17).
*Plato (Phaedrus 249a,b) envisioned a triple-decker universe (123), and so
apparently, did Paul (Phil 2:6-11),as well as John of Patmos (Rev 5:13).
*The sophist Bion (third century B.C.E.) declared that "love of money
is the mother city of all evils"(124):(cp.1Tim 6:10).
*Seneca said:"God is with ye, near ye, in ye"(125):(cp.Acts 17:27).
*In the mid-first century, the Roman Petronius wrote that "In our
neighborhood there are so many gods that it is easier to meet one than
it is to find a man"(126):(cp.1Cor 8:5).
*In the "Satyricon" of Petronius, a character believes an astrologer is
privy to "all the secrets of the gods" because "he knew me inside out"
(127):(cp. John 4:29).
*The "Satyricon" also advises:"It is not wise to place much reliance upon
any scheme, because fortune has a method of her own"(128):(cp.James
4:13-15):(Luke 12:13-21).
*In light of such a catalogue of parallels, it should occasion no surprise
that Christian fathers like Clement of Alexandria looked back upon
pagan philosophy as "a gift granted to the Greeks by God", and that
Clement looked upon the writings of the Greek philosophers as
"prophetic" and "inspired"(129).
*Nor should it surprise us if modern scholars like James J. Collins have
come to believe that "the success of Christianity..in the ancient world
was due in no small part to the willingness of Christians to embrace
elements of the pagan world"(130).
Notes:
90.Brown "Introduction To The New Testament" p.84.
91.Davies and Allison "The Gospel According To Saint Matthew" vol.1,p.541,555.
92.Boring,Berger and Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.27-8.
93.Casey "The Solution To The Son Of Man Problem" p.286.
94.Meeks "The First Urban Christians" p.21.
95.Koester "Paul And His World" p.179.
96.Boring,Berger and Colpe "A Hellenistic Commentary To The New
Testament" p.511,548.
97.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary To The New
Testament" p.474.
98.Chilton "The Temple Of Jesus" p.124n20.
99.Davies and Allison "Gospel According To Saint Matthew" vol.1,p.709.
100.Gathercole "The Composition Of The Gospel Of Thomas" p.54/n46.
101.Cicero "For Caelius" 17.
102.Plato "Republic" 9.Buchanan "Portable Plato" p.653.
103.Aristotle "Nichomachean Ethics" 9.3.
104.Pliny the Elder "Natural History" praefus 18.
105.Schniewind and Friedrich in Theological Dictionary Of The New
Testament vol.2,p.578.
106.Friedrich in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.3,
p.692-3.
107.Bertram in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.5,
p.599.
108.Schweizer in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.7,
p.103.
109.Stahlin in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol. 8
p.266n44.
110.Plato "Republic" 10.614c.Hauck and Schulz in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.6,p.568.Davies and Allison "The
Gospel According To Saint Matthew" vol.3,p.424.
111.Bultmann "Theology Of The New Testament" vol.1,p.248.
112.Bultmann "Theology Of The New Testament" vol.2,p.188.
113.Justin "Apology" 1.66.Davies and Allison "Gospel According To
Saint Matthew" vol.3,p.488.
114.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.29.
115.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.34-5.
116.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.73-4.
117.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament p.96.
118.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.99
119.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.178.
120.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.315.
121.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.345.
122.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.451.
123.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.454.
124.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.503.
125.Dibelius "Book Of Acts" p.112,192n85.
126.Petronius "Satyricon" 17.
127.Petronius "Satyricon" 76.
128.Petronius "Satyricon" 82.
129.Clement of Alexandria "Stromateis" 1.2.20.
Koester "Paul And His World" p.222.
130.Collins in "Christian Beginnings And The Dead Sea Scrolls" eds.
Collins and Evans p.133.
Literary And Archaeological Evidence
*And so in Josephus we read of "worshippers of God", distinct from
Jews, who contribute to the Temple, while in Antioch Jews were
"constantly attracting..multitudes of Greeks", while the "believers"
that appear multiple times in Acts (10:2):(13:7,16):(15:19):(16:14,34):
(18:7), are those who "believed in God", and are clearly distinguished
from, and sometimes supportive of, Jews (131).
*Now all this is according to Crossan and Reed in 2004. But Werner
Foerster posited long ago that "seboumenoi" is used in reference to
"God-fearers" six times in Acts, and indicates not just honor (of God)
but worship (in specific acts):(132),while Karl Georg Kuhn found that
more numerous than the proselytes were those who attended synagogue,
embraced monotheism, and kept some parts of the ceremonial law, but
did not take the final step of full conversion (133).
*Indeed Horst Balz gives rabbinic references to righteous non-Jews who
stand in a looser relationship to the Jewish community than full
converts, but who also keep part of the Mosaic Law, with their existence
of special importance in the Diaspora (134).Such later Jewish
references are complemented by allusions from Hippolytus in the late
second/early third century to men who speak of God and his laws but
who will not accept circumcision (135).
*The more recent work of Crossan and Reed cites the appearance of
the God-fearers in the literary record as early as 16 C.E. (136), while
Shaye Cohen in 1999 cites three sources dated first century or earlier,
which all give examples of "gentiles who are devoted to the God of the
Jews but who are not devoted to his laws"(137). And in 1995 Boring,
Berger and Colpe noted the inscription of c.200 C.E. from Aphrodisios
(Turkey), on which Jews, proselytes and God-fearers are distinguished
(138).
*Bibliographical information on the God-fearers is given by:
Meeks "First Urban Christians"(1983) p.207-8n175.
Fitzmyer "Anchor Bible" vol.31 (1998) p.450.
Cohen "The Beginnings Of Jewishness" p.171-2/n98.
Notes:
131.Crossan and Reed "In Search Of Paul" p.35-6.
132.Foerster in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.7,
p.172.
133.Kuhn in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.6,p.731.
134.Balz in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.9,p.207.
135.Hippolytus "Refutation Of All Heresies" 9.26.2.
Betz in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.7,p.281-2/n23.
136.Crossan and Reed "In Search Of Paul" p.23-4.
137.Cohen "The Beginnings Of Jewishness" p.151n34,n36.
138.Boring,Berger,Colpe "Hellenistic Commentary On The New
Testament" p.320.
Towards An Understanding Of Early Christian Success
*All of this by now must suggest that Christianity was the natural,
if not the inevitable, by-product of the interface between Hellenism
and Judaism, and that anyone who investigates the history "will", in
the words of Gunther Bornkamm, hardly keep a good conscience" if
thereafter they seek refuge from the results in "what is considered
the safe fold" of church dogma (139).
*Perhaps Ernst Haenchen said it best when he observed that "he who
has..eaten of the tree of historical criticism cannot remain in the
paradise of naïve tradition"(140).
*Now James J. Collins suggested an interesting analogy in 2006 in noting
that since the sect of the Essenes had lived in various towns and villages,
their demise cannot be solely attributed to Roman military aggression,
but that they died out because "a theology based on the assertion of
revelation, which can only be accepted or rejected,could not remain
persuasive indefinitely"(141).
*And so unadulterated Christian revelation could not remain persuasive
indefinitely either, and it is likely that other factors were at work in
making Christianity such a huge success. Even the apologist N.T.Wright
has pointed out that the reported sightings of the Risen Christ could
have easily been shrugged off by hearers as visions or hallucinations,
which were all too common in the ancient world (cf.Acts 2:13), while
the report of the empty tomb could have easily been attributed to the
common practice of tomb robbery (142).
*More likely it was the antinomian approach of Paul and his assistants
which offered to gentiles a libertine access to the God of Israel that
had more to do with Christian success. And so Joseph Fitzmyer quoted
(but did not endorse) the (1957) view of Krister Stendahl that "it would
seem an immediate advantage for cultural and social intercourse-i.e.
for civilization-that the rise of Christianity should, at last, be generally
understood as simply an episode in human history rather than
propagated as dogma and divine revelation (143).
*The yearning for such antinomian libertinism was presumably widespread
during the New Testament period, for soon after, the even more antinomian
Marcionite churches quickly established themselves throughout the Greco-
Roman world (144), since, in the view of James Dunn, the latter
accommodated those who wanted a faith without tension between the
punitive God of the Old Testament and the New Testament God of grace (145).
*In 1992 James Charlesworth declared that the development of self-
critical, sophisticated methodology, increasing abundance of primary
texts, and a refined perception of the complexities of pre-70 Judaism/
earliest Christianity, are all to be linked to the "advance beyond
ahistorical confessionalism"(146).
*In 2010 Lawrence Schiffman saw the Dead Sea scrolls as confirmation
that Christianity was not the result of a unique revelation but of a
logical development out of Jewish circles (147), while in 2005 Gabriele
Boccaccini reminded us that "in history there is no such thing as a
group or movement that suddenly emerges from nowhere"(148).
*But the immorality of the pagan gods had long given rise to misgivings
among the pagans themselves, especially the intellectually-minded.
For it is thought that in the first and second centuries C.E. paganism
was "colorless" and "lacking any meaningful ideology", so that the
majority of Greek philosophers spoke of one God or divinity (149).
*While the turn of the era witnessed the general advance of Oriental
religions, with Judaism having a special attraction (150),"assertions of
God's unity are not infrequent in pagan writers", though "Hellenistic
monotheism seems to have remained the property of certain intellectuals..
never becoming a widespread popular belief"(151).
*Now the existence of gentile "God-fearers" has in the past been
questioned, but the discovery of the ancient inscription at Aphrodosios
in 1987 has convinced many if not most scholars that the term refers
to adherents of Judaism who had not been circumcised (152), while
Shaye Cohen has cited the inscription from Miletus and it's reference
to the "venerators of God"(153), and Fitzmyer says that "recent evidence
has piled up"(1998) to show that there were indeed people like the
Cornelius of Acts 10 (154).
*Now it is important, as Cohen points out (155),that any gentile who
helped, or was well disposed toward the Jews, could be termed a
"God-fearer", so that there is no reason to assume that such
"venerators" always followed a fixed pattern of belief, even though
Jeremias in 1956 claimed that experience has shown that the next
generation of "God-fearers" has usually graduated to full conversion
(156).
*Cohen also points to the cult of Isis by way of analogy, and says that
it exercised a powerful influence over many poets and intellectuals at
Rome without their full conversion (157), and says that prior to the
second century any gentile who followed Jewish practices could claim
to be a convert (158).
*In 1956 David Daube claimed that "it is well known that in the Hellenistic
era not a few pagans lived on the fringe of Judaism without formally
joining it", but had adopted some of it's dogmas and customs (159).
In 1963 A.N.Sherwin-White said we have evidence of very large
numbers of Roman citizens, including persons of high station, who
became Jews or half-Jews (160).And in 1974 Safrai and Stern claimed
that the presence of a specific term in the rabbinic literature for such
half-proselytes, "fearers of heaven", is "proven beyond doubt"(161).
*The 1968 observation of Karl Georg Kuhn that "the concern of Hellenistic
Judaism in it's missionary activity was not so much that gentiles should
accept circumcision and keep the cultic commandments but that they
should believe in the one God and follow the basic ethical demands of
the Old Testament (162), surely suggests that Hellenized Judaism had
already opened the door to the advent of Christianity, or something like it.
And so for Paul his converts needed to believe in the one God (1Cor 8:6),
whose will it was that the righteous (i.e.ethical) demands of the law be
fulfilled (Rom 8:3-4).
*There was pressure from both sides which must have facilitated the
emergence of such a class of people as the God-fearers. For Josephus
claims that restrictions which Jews find easy, "other men do not easily
submit to"(163),while Paul indicates that circumcision meant that one
was obligated to keep all the Jewish laws (Gal 5:3), and on the Roman
side the State looked upon proselytizing as a danger and tried to limit
it (164).
*We must of course keep in mind that in this period "Judaism" is not
likely to have been monolithic and uniform, and the diversity of
contemporary "Judaisms" has been noted by several scholars over the
years:
Meyer in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.9,p.33,35.
Schillebeeckx "Jesus: An Experiment In Christology" p.257.
Elliot in "Paul And Empire" ed. Horsley p.206.
Horsley in "Paul And Empire" ed. Horsley intro.:p.7.
Grabbe "Judaic Religion In The Second Temple Period" p.316.
Dunn "Christianity In The Making" vol.1,p.89-90,225-7.
Dunn "Christianity In The Making" vol.3,p.12,17,600.
Because of this,we must allow for the possibility that the requirements
for becoming a Jew varied from one Jewish sect to another, or even
from one rabbinic school to another.
*In the 40s C.E. King Izates of Adiabene was told by one rabbi he
could worship Israel's God without circumcision, but by another,
"reputed to be precise in the ancestral laws", he was urged to go ahead
with his circumcision (165). Within the schools, the rabbinic "Houses",
of the Pharisees, the rabbinic literature says that, in contrast to the
Rabbi Shammai, the Rabbi Hillel was ready to receive a gentile as a
proselyte in spite of deficient readiness to learn Oral Torah (166).
*And so it seems that different Jewish groups dealt with gentiles in
different ways.
*But as far back as the second century B.C.E., oracle sanctuaries were
able to do a flourishing business in "prophecies", because enough
people were willing to trust their needs and anxieties to institutions
and individuals who claimed contact with, or control of, divine powers
(167), so that with their long history of attraction to Oriental cults, it
is understandable that Greeks in the Jewish Diaspora, in the first
century, could be devoted adherents to the customs of the Jews without
being circumcised (168).
*Around the turn of the era, Greek thinkers like Strabo might suppose
that Moses had been a wise and God-fearing man, but that it was his
successors who had made circumcision and kosher food laws obligatory
(169), so that the advent of Christianity was not necessary to break
the hold of rabbinic "halakah"(ancestral tradition), and already the
synagogues were admitting gentile God-fearers who still continued in
their own religions (170).
*And not only Josephus but Tacitus give us evidence of gentile interest
in Judean culture, and Josephus says that many Greeks had adopted
Jewish laws in the first century, and that the treasury of the Jerusalem
Temple owed much to "God-fearers"(171).
*And since we have insciptional evidence which commends a Roman
official in Benghazi for his favorable attitude towards the Jewish
community there in 24/25 C.E. (172), we can believe more easily Luke's
report of a centurion at Capernaum who loved the Jewish people and
in the same period had built a synagogue there for them (Luke 7:5),so
that we can easily imagine rabbis in the time of Jesus, as it was in later
times, not expecting gentile God-fearers to obey the whole Law, only
enough of it's parts to be considered "righteous"(173).
Notes:
139.Bornkamm "Jesus Of Nazareth" p.15-6.
140.Haenchen "Acts Of The Apostles" p.121.
141.Collins in "Christian Beginnings And The Dead Sea Scrolls" eds.
Collins and Evans p.132.
142.Wright "The Resurrection Of The Son Of God" pp.686-9.
143.Fitzmyer "The Dead Sea Scrolls And Christian Origins" p.40.
Stendahl in "The Scrolls And The New Testament" ed.Stendahl p.2.
144.Koester "From Jesus To The Gospels" p.67/n74,citing Justin.
145.Dunn "Christianity In The Making" vol.3,p.716-8.
146.Charlesworth in "The Messiah.." ed.Charlesworth p.11.
147.Schiffman "Qumran And Jerusalem" p.414-5.
148.Boccaccini in "Enoch And Qumran Origins" ed. Boccaccini p.421.
149.Safrai and Stern "The Jewish People In The First Century" vol.2,
p.1098.
150.See Josephus "Contra Apion" 2.123,284.
Kuhn in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.6,p.730.
151.Meeks "The First Urban Christians" p.165.
152.Grabbe "Judaic Religion In The Second Temple Period" p.296.
153.Cohen "The Beginnings Of Jewishness" p.60n142.
154.Fitzmyer "Anchor Bible" vol.31,p.449-50.
155.Cohen "The Beginnings Of Jewishness" p.173-4.
156.Jeremias "Jesus' Promise To The Nations" p.15-6.
157.Cohen "The Beginnings Of Jewishness" p.172.
158.Cohen "The Beginnings Of Jewishness" p.223.
159.Daube "The New Testament And Rabbinic Judaism" p.115.
160.Sherwin-White "Roman Society And Law In The New Testament" p.81.
161.Safrai and Stern "The Jewish People In The First Century" vol.2,
p.1158n1.
162.Kuhn in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.6,p.731.
163.Josephus "Contra Apion" 2.33.234.Daube "The New Testament And
Rabbinic Judaism" p.120.
164.Hengel "Judaism And Hellenism" p.307.
165.Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 20.2.4.40-45.
Mason "Josephus, Judea And Christian Origins" p.180-1.
166.Kuhn in Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament vol.6,p.737.
167.Koester "Introduction To The New Testament" vol.1,p.173.
168.Horsley "Jesus And The Spiral Of Violence" p.127.
169.Theissen "The Sociology Of Early Palestinian Christianity" p.91.
170.Schurer "History Of The Jewish People In The Age Of Jesus Christ"
vol.3,p.165-9.
171.Josephus "Judean Antiquities" 14.7.2.110.
Mason "Josephus, Judea And Christian Origins" p.291n23.
Schurer "History Of The Jewish People In The Age Of Jesus Christ"
vol.3,p.160-2.
172.Safrai and Stern "The Jewish People In The First Century" vol.1,
p.342.
173.Sanders "Jesus And Judaism" p.216.