•

a study of Paul's letters leads us to a better understanding of Judaism in the ancient world

•

Jews fall into three categories: orthodox, reformed, conservative

•

but this is true of other religious identities as well, e.g. within Christianity you have Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestants, and within each of these there are many branches

•

in antiquity it was also hard to say exactly what a Jew was

•

they erected a boundary between themselves and non-Jews, or Gentiles, but the boundary was always crossable and not always clearly marked

•

e.g. if a Gentile were to convert to Judaism in 80 CE, it is unclear who would accept this:

•

local Jewish community?

•

the city's government, thus granting rights and privileges such as certain tax categories?

•

the word "Jew" in Greek is "Ioudaios" and means "from Judea"

•

this is the primary word that Paul uses in his letters, instead of "Hebrew" or "Israelite"

•

later it came to mean Jews who were outside this area, e.g. from Egypt

•

so "Ioudaios" is an ethic-geographical definition that came to mean more

•

Josephus [joh-SEE-fuss]

•

learned about the diversity of Judaism

•

he frames them in terms of philosophies

•

just as Greeks have many kinds of philosophies, so do Jews

•

1. Pharisees

•

live simply, respect reason, respect the old, believe the soul is immortal and free will reigns

•

2. Sadducees [sad-JOO-seez]

•

souls die with their bodies

•

very few accept their documents

•

3. Essenes

•

immortality of the soul

•

do not participate in temple sacrifice

•

have rights of their own

•

have no wives, no slaves

•

Josephus gives them a glowing description

•

like Greeks: bodies are corruptible but souls are immortal

•

share all things in common

•

4. "the fourth sect"

•

Josephus doesn't like them

•

Judas of Galilee was its author

•

attached to liberty

•

God is the only rule and Lord

•

Josephus reminds us that, to be accurate, we can't talk about Judaism or Christianity in antiquity as if it were monolithic

•

there were many groups, interpretations, and conflicting interests among the members of each religion

•

Christians refused to call any human "Lord"

•

in Galatians, we see a hint of multiple kinds of "Jews in Christ", Paul insists that Galatians shouldn't be following "another gospel"

•

Paul was competing with others who were taking the message out and explaining how Gentiles, or non-Jews- may become God's people

•

Josephus also mentions the "spiral of violence" that was ongoing at the time when Jesus was born and coming of age, at the beginning of the Jesus movement

•

e.g. Judas of Galilee who said that people were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans and submit to mortals as their Lord

•

many Jews who called themselves prophets and who led Jews into rebellions against the Romans