Crossing Over Sea and Land

Jewish Missionary Activity

in the Second Temple Period

MICHAEL F. BIRD

© 2013 by Michael F. Bird

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

Baker Academic edition published 2013

ISBN 978-0-8010-6434-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Previously published in 2010 by Hendrickson Publishers

Cover Art: Harbor of Classe. Early Christian mosaic. 6th c.e.

Location: S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy

Photo Credit: Scala / Art Resource, N.Y.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bird, Michael F.

Crossing over sea and land: Jewish missionary activity in the Second Temple period / Michael F. Bird.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 978-1-59856-434-1 (alk. paper)

1. Proselytizing—Judaism—History. 2. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.–210 A.D. 3. Judaism—Relations. 4. Jews—History—586 B.C.–70 A.D. I. Title.

BM729.P7B57 2010

296.6´90937—dc22

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

1 Introduction

Excursus: “Jews” and “Judaism”

2 Defining “Mission” and “Conversion” in the Ancient World

Mission and Conversion: Sociological and Ideological Elements

Conclusion

Excursus 1: God-Fearers

Excursus 2: Proselytism and Demographics

3 Jewish Missionary Activity in Palestine

Forced Conversions in Palestine

Qumran

Matthew 23:15

Inscriptions from Palestine

Rabbinic Literature

4 Jewish Missionary Activity in the Diaspora

Socioreligious Context of the Diaspora

Pagan Attraction to Judaism

Josephus

Philo

Apologetic-Propagandistic Literature

Greek and Latin Literature

5 Evidence from the New Testament and Early Christian Literature

An Early Jewish Christian Mission to Gentiles

Missionary Competition between Jews and Christians

Conclusion

6 Conclusion

Appendix: Source Book on Gentile Conversions and Jewish Missionary Activity

Bibliography

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Subjects

Index of Ancient Sources

Preface

This project began during my doctoral work at the University of Queensland where I originally set out to write a chapter on Jewish missionary activity as a precursor to the advent of early Christian missionary efforts. I naïvely assumed that it would take me about four weeks to do so. In fact, it took me eight months to research the topic, and that was only scratching the surface of the extant evidence and scholarly debate. Several ...