Who Made Early Christianity?
American Lectures on the History of Religions
T his volume is the eighteenth to be published in the series of American Lectures on the History of Religions for which the American Council of Learned Societies, through its Committee on the History of Religions, assumed responsibility in 1936, and for which the American Academy of Religion assumed responsibility in 1995. Under the program the Committee from time to time enlists the services of scholars to lecture in colleges, universities, and seminaries on topics in need of expert elucidation. Subsequently, when possible and appropriate, the Committee arranges for the publication of the lectures. Other volumes in the series are Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion (1940); Henri Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion (1948); Wing-tsit Chan, Religious Trends in Modern China (1953); Joachim Wach, The Comparative Study of Religions, Christianity (1959); Robert Lawson Slater, World Religions and World Community (1963); Joseph M. Kitagawa, Religion in Japanese History (1966); Joseph L. Blau, Modern Varieties of Judaism (1966); Morton Smith, Palestinian Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament (1971); Philip H. Ashby, Modern Trends in Hinduism (1974); Victor Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (1978); Annemarie Schimmel, As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam (1982); Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (1988); W. H. McLeod, The Sikhs: History, Religion, and Society (1989); Caroline Walker Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 2001336 (1995); Wendy Doniger, The Implied Spider (1998); and Bruce B. Lawrence, New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life (2002).
Who Made Early Christianity?
THE
JEWISH LIVES
OF THE
APOSTLE
PAUL
JOHN G. GAGER
Columbia University Press
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E-ISBN 978-0-231-53937-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gager, John G.
Who made early Christianity? : the Jewish lives of the Apostle Paul / John G. Gager.
pages cm. (American lectures on the history of religions ; 18)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-17404-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-53937-1 (e-book)
1. Paul, the Apostle, SaintRelations with Jews. 2. Identification (Religion) 3. Christianity and other religionsJudaism. 4. JudaismRelationsChristianity. 5. ChristianityOrigin. I. Title.
BS2506.3.G34 2015
225.92dc23
2014044886
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Cover Image: Torah shrine. Courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery, Dura Europos Collection.
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CONTENTS
T HESE chapters grew out of a series of lectures delivered in Atlanta, Georgia, in April of 2013. Sponsored by the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the lectures form part of the series, The American Lectures in the History of Religions. My lectures were delivered at Agnes Scott College, Georgia State University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Emory University. My hosts for these lectures were Jack Fitzmier, Executive Director of the AAR, and Lou Ruprecht of Georgia State University. Without their friendship and constant support, these lectures and chapters would not have happened. I am deeply grateful to them. Their efforts went well beyond what was necessary. I must also express my gratitude to the students from the various institutions who attended my lectures and raised important questions in our discussions.
The work reflected in these chapters reaches back over many years and is indebted to many friends and colleagues in the Department of Religion at Princeton. Martha Himmelfarb and Leora Batnitzky have shown encouragement at every stage of my work. Simi Chavel, Naphtali Meshel, and Azzan Yadin-Israel (Rutgers) demonstrated outstanding patience and knowledge as we worked through various versions of the Toledot Yeshu. Peter Schfer, my distinguished colleague for many years, served as both mentor and helpful critic. He shared generously from his enormous knowledge of ancient Judaism. Michael Meerson has proved to be a reliable resource at many points. Jeffrey Stout has been a constant companion. Undergraduate students, reaching back to 1968 at Princeton and elsewhere, have provided a constant source of inspiration.
This is also the place to recognize the work of my graduate students, who have become my teachers in this prolonged project. In the world of the academy, there can be no greater joy than seeing ones students flourish as distinguished scholars and teachers.
Two deceased scholarsKrister Stendahl and Lloyd Gastonhave exercised an enormous impact on my understanding of the apostle Paul. It is impossible to overstate what their work and friendship has meant to me over many years. I must also recognize the work of two Jewish scholars, neither of whom was known to me personally, whose work on Paul deserves far more attention than it has receivedJacob Taubes and Michael Wyschogrod.
I would be remiss not to acknowledge the support I have received from various Israeli colleagues, to whom I am gratefulDavid Satran, Guy Stroumsa, Israel Yuval, Hillel Newman, Maren Niehoff, Yair Furstenberg, and Yaacov Deutsch.
I must also acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers of my manuscript. They read it with great care and understanding. Their criticisms and suggestions aimed at making this a better book, not a different one. I can only hope that I have not disappointed them in following their proposals.
Some of the material in these chapters has appeared in earlier publications. Portions of have appeared in various earlier publications, as indicated in the endnotes.
Finally, I dedicate this book to my beloved childrenKristin, Peter, and Andrea. They make living and working worthwhile.
The vanquished have given their laws to the victors.
SENECA, ON SUPERSTITION
Here Seneca deploys the saying to express his dismay at the spread of Judaism among Romans, a fact well illustrated by numerous Roman authors of the time. Jews had come to Rome as slaves in the first century BCE, but were now attracting Romans in disconcerting numbers. For us, the saying may serve as a useful reminder of Judaisms social and political status in the period that will concern usfrom the fourth century CE to the modern era. Two points are essential: first, by the end of the first century CE, the vast majority of Jews lived in the Diaspora, outside of what the Romans had renamed Syria Palaestina; and second, from the time of Constantine (d. 337 CE), the first Christian emperor, onward, Rome was increasingly a Christian empirehe embraced the new faith around 312 CE and Theodosius I (d. 395 CE) adopted it as the official religion of the empire. Before that time, Jews and Christians had existed as religious minorities in the Mediterranean world, with Jews very much advantaged by virtue of their great antiquity. The cultural space that Christianity sought to occupy as it expanded beyond its Palestinian birthplace was already occupied by an older, well-established, and legally protected biblical faith. As shown in the following chapters, Jewish synagogues and their communities were prominent features on the cultural landscape of the Roman world and their demography included Gentiles as well as Jews. Jews in the Diaspora continued to occupy that space even after the crushing defeat of three successive anti-Roman revolts (6673, 115117, 132135 CE), indeed after the time of Constantine and Theodosius. They presented a serious barrier to Christian efforts to establish themselves as the true biblical faith. That barrier would have to be removed or isolated if Christians were to create
