“IN NEHARDEA WHERE THERE ARE NO HERETICS”: THE PURPORTED JEWISH RESPONSE TO CHRISTIANITY IN NEHARDEA (A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE TALMUDIC EVIDENCE) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Accusation of Heresy in Jewish-Christian-Gnostic Polemics
Studia Gdańskie, 2024
The article explores the semantic and historical tension between heresy and orthodoxy. It seeks also an answer to the question whether there were any saved examples and evidence of accusations of heresy in the polemics between representatives of Judaism, Christianity and Gnosticism in time of late antiquity.
With some regularity one encounters the claim that early Christian and rabbinic constructions of and responses to “heresy” exhibit striking similarities. These commonalities have been variously explained in terms of influence by Judaism upon Christianity (or vice versa) or as evidence of an undifferentiated Judeo-Christianity. This essay problematizes the idea that rabbinic and patristic discourses about heresy were remarkably similar. It argues, first, that this notion is to a significant extent based on statements in early Christian literature that should not be taken as reliable accounts of contemporary Jewish discourse and, second, that substantial differences between rabbinic and patristic responses to deviance have been insufficiently appreciated.
The Christian phenomenon of early Gnosticism
"For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:" 1 Corinthians 1:22. But the "Gnostics?" The "Gnostics" sought after Knowledge (Gnosis.) Who were they? What gave rise to the phenomenon we call "Gnosticism?" Christos Z. Konstas 14/05/2022 Gnosticism appears in history as a Christian phenomenon. The "gnostics" of old were calling themselves "Christians" not "gnostics." In this I explore the reasons this phenomenon emerged out of the very early Christianity as well as some of it's distinctive features. The aim is it provide a framework for a better understanding of the "Gnostic" phenomenon and also to give means to distinguish what was "Gnostic" then and what it wasn't, and also what is "Gnostic" today, and what isn't even if claimed to be. Gnosis, Greek for 'knowledge,' is found 3 times in the New testament is this form: all in the 1st epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 8:2,7 and 13:8, another 8 times it is found as "gnosei" (to know, knowing) and quite a few more times in various forms or as a part of a compound word. So "gnosis"' is a Biblical, new testament term. Gnosis entered the Judaic vocabulary long before the New Testament, though. It is found in several different forms, 424 or more times, in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Judaic writings. So in Jesus's and in Paul's cultural milieu was a familiar term. in fact "gnosis" - knowledge - is described as a reason of the Fall in Genesis 2 & 3, it was one of the things that made the forbidden "tree of knowledge" attractive. "Gnostics" (the knowledgeable) was a term designating a level of spiritual attainment in the New Testament and the early Church but with the warning that the "gnosis" - knowledge - bloats, puffs up, and needs to be moderated by love, which is superior (see 1 Corinthians 8 & 13.) That's why later Irenaeus writing against those we call "Gnostics" he is stressing his is writing against the "falsely called knowledge (gnosis)" not against knowledge in general. Gnosis is good unless misused or abused or pretended. While there is no question that Gnosis - in the sense of mystical, or experiential transcendental "knowledge" or restricted knowledge passed secretly to "initiates" - is a pre-Christian phenomenon, what we call "Gnosticism" today is something that emerged out of the early Christianity and it was triggered by the nature of the earliest Christian eccesiastical experience as illustrated in the Acts and in the apostolic epistles. Simon magus and the Holy Spirit in the Acts Gnosticism: - It arose out of a Judaic social substratum in Palestine (Samaria) and it uses Judaic cosmology expressed in Hellenistic/Greco-Roman terms, - It arose as a result of the fascination of people seeing the apostles wonderworking, especially the (seeming) "ability" to pray on people to "receive the Holy Spirit" - something looking as a "superpower" at the time. What is "Gnostic" and what is not? Checklist questions - is it about "secret" knowledge? - is it suggesting "gnosis" as a means or a way to "salvation?" - is it using Judaic terms and worldviews? - is it using Judaic cosmological concepts, cosmology and theology? - is Jesus there? - is Jesus the central figure in it? - is the God of Jesus, the Father and the God the Judaic writings reveal one and the same? - is it offering concrete or alluded experiential ways (methods) to corroborate the "secret" knowledge? - are they calling themselves "Christian?" - do they claim to possess and have access and means to access salvific "knowledge" and that they are willing to share that knowledge and the means for one to access it for oneself with anyone interested in joining them? - are they appealing to apostolic authority? All that presented using Greek terms, anthropological and cosmological, used by the philosophers of the time. Origin - Jewish/Judaic origin The historical "gnosticism" must contain Judaic elements to be "gnostic" but "gnosticism" did not emerge out of those elements. These pre-existed and were the background onto which "gnosis" emerged and acted. - The Jesus movement The historical "gnosticism" must have Jesus at it's centre. "Gnosticism" as a conscious "movement" specifically seeking and understanding "gnosis" (knowledge) as a means to salvation emerged out of this, the Way of the disciples of Jesus. - - Simon magus, Acts 8, Samaritan wonder-worker. Apophasis Megale. The Big Decision. "Oh, I want to do that too!" here is some money Peter give me this power" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWlevBd7ME0, Nathan Scott, Footsteps to Follow, accessed, on 14/05/2022, 4'.21"-22") - This is central to the understanding of the gnostic phenomenon and the reason the "seeds" of pre-gnostic "knowledge" and how gnosticism emerged connected inseparably to Christianity that in effect has given rise the the phenomenon itself. The earliest Christianity, of Jesus's apostles was an experiential movement. People not only "believed" and acted on what they were told to be the "truth" but they were given means to corroborate the "truth" they were given: " (Acts 4:19) That naturally attracted those that were already into the (what we would call today) the "paranormal." And since the "paranormal" is also an "industry" people naturally thought that money could buy the abilities the apostles were showing and the new believers and disciples were "receiving" form the apostles as in Acts 8. Not only that, but this attraction and the loose structure and leadership of the earliest Church was a fertile ground for a 'movement' within the movement' focusing on the "Wow!" aspects of the gospel, wonderworking, and enthusiastic states of awareness bringing one into contact with the "unknown" or even the "unknowable" and the "ineffable" and producing mystic/secret "knowledge." Why the study of this (so-called) "gnosticism" matters? - It echoes unknown aspects of the earliest Christianity: because the "gnostics" self-identified as "Christians" and they were part of the earliest Christian communities, the "gnostic" sources offer a glimpse into the earliest Christianity. What about "Gnostics" in history before Jesus and "Gnosticism" independent of the Christian movement or outside of the Mediterranean Christian milieu? What about "Gnosticism" later in history and what about "Gnosticism" today? - The Before and the After
Jews, Gentiles, and Gehinnom in Rabbinic Literature
Studies in Rabbinic Narratives (Volume 1), 2021
This article challenges the scholarly consensus that the rabbis merely debated whether gentiles could deserve salvation. It claims that, while the rabbis did indeed debate this question in the tannaitic period (first and second centuries CE), the exclusivist position that the gentiles (with rare exceptions) are destined for Gehinnom reached near-unanimous consensus in later rabbinic periods (third to seventh centuries CE). That the rabbinic belief in the universal damnation of gentiles intensified over time has gone unnoticed in prior scholarship, both Jewish and Christian. The article further argues that Christian soteriological discourse impacted and eventually reinforced the rabbinic move towards greater exclusivism. Both groups now regarded salvation as determined by communal affiliation rather than moral uprightness. On the Christian side, that community was made up of believers; on the Jewish side, it was determined largely by ethnicity. The rabbis also polemically used the damnation of gentiles as a marker of Jewish supremacy; beginning in the fourth century CE, they initiated a new theological principle that all Jews, even sinners, would be saved from experiencing any of the tortures of Hell.
Gnosticism Disputed: Major Debates in the Field
Secret Religion: Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism. Edited by April D. DeConick. Macmillan Interdisciplinary Studies: Religion series. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Macmillan Reference, 2016
Lively, sometimes heated, discussion is part of what makes gnostic studies so engrossing. These discussions and debates occur especially whenever gnostic texts are discovered and published, such as the huge discovery of the thirteen Nag Hammadi codices (i.e., ancient books), published in 1977, and the far smaller, but also incredible, discovery of the Codex Tchacos with its copy of the lost Gospel of Judas, published in 2006. The debates happen at academic conferences and on the printed pages of scholarship as well as on webpages such as blogs and online news sources. Understanding the debates is key to understanding the scholarship and situating the work of one expert with respect to that of another, as some specialists may reframe perennial research questions and even seek to replace them with different questions they consider more pressing. Major debates include the issue of how gnosticism is to be defined, and the question of where it came from. They also include the issue of whether its ancient opponents are reliable, and the question of who produced, collected, and owned the Nag Hammadi codices and other gnostic texts surviving in Coptic, the final form of the ancient Egyptian language. Another debate concerns what should be done when the next manuscript is found.