of the Temple
| Jewish Influences on Early Christianity Oskar Skarsaune |
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| InterVarsity Press Downers Grove, Illinois |
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P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515–1426
World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com
E-mail: mail@ivpress.com
©2002 by Oskar Skarsaune
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.
InterVarsity Press® is the bookpublishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 537077895, or visit the IVCF website at www.ivcf.org.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Quotations from Josephus are reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Josephus, Loeb Classical Library Vols. 1–9, translated by H. St. John Thackery, R. Marcus, A. Wikgren and L. H. Feldman, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926–1965. The Loeb Classical Library® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Quotations from the apostolic fathers are reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from The Apostolic Fathers, Loeb Classical Library Vols. 1–2, translated by Kirsopp Lake, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1912, 1913. The Loeb Classical Library® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Cover photograph: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.
ISBN 0-8308-2670-X
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Skarsaune, Oskar, 1946-
In the shadow of the temple: Jewish influences on early Christianity/Oskar Skarsaune.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8308-2670-X (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600. 2. Christianity and other religions--Judaism--History. 3. Judaism--Relations—Christianity--History. 4. Christianity--Origin. 5. Judaism--Influence. I. Title.
BR165 .S59 2002
270.1—dc21 2001051600
Contents
A Note on Abbreviations and References
The Mother Soil: Judaism from the Maccabees to the Rabbis
1. The Cultural Dimension: Judaism & Hellenism
Introduction: The Maccabean Revolt
Alexander the Great and the Triumph of Hellenism
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About In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early ChristianityIn the Shadow of the Temple offers a new perspective on the development of the early church in its practice (e.g., worship, baptism, and Eucharist) and doctrine (e.g., Scripture, Christology, and pneumatology). Oskar Skarsaune begins by tracing the story of second temple Judaism from the crisis of the Jewish encounter with Hellenism in the second century B.C. through the diverse Judaisms of the first century A.D. Then, from the time of Jesus and the origins of the church up to the Constantinian revolution of the early fourth century A.D., Skarsaune offers us fascinating snapshots and analyses of the interactions, the arguments, and the shaping influences of Judaism on the life, creed, and practices of the church. The widespread perception of a decisive “parting of the ways” between Christianity and Judaism after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. has distorted our understanding of the following decades and centuries of Jewish and Christian history. We are left with the impression that hostile polemic or mutual avoidance between Christians and Jews was the order of the day. To be sure, there were points of bitterness and strife between these two groups, but the story of their relationship is better told as the relationship between younger and older siblings. In and between the lines of our historical data, there is abundant evidence of interaction between the early church and the ancient synagogue. This took place at the levels of both leadership and laypeople, and it left its imprint on the emerging shape of the church. But this story has not yet fully been told. |
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