Justin Martyr Invents Judaism

Abstract

The historiography of Judaism in the rabbinic period (together with its implications for the history of Christianity) had been, until quite recently, founded on the assumption that the kind of historical information that rabbinic legends could yield was somehow directly related to the narrative contents that they displayed, which were understood as more or less reliable depending on the critical sensibility of the scholar. This scholarship was not, of course, generally naïve or pious in its aims or methods. A recurring question within such research had to do with the question of the credibility of a given text or passage of rabbinic literature or the recovery of its “historical kernel.” For the method or approach that I take up, all texts are by definition equally credible, for the object of research is the motives of the construction of the narrative itself, that is taken to attest to the political context of its telling or retellingrather than to the context of the narrative's content. All texts inscribe the social practices within which they originate, and many also seek to locate the genealogy of those social practices in a narrative of origins, producing a reversal of cause and effect. This reversal is a mode of narration that is particularly germane to the project of replacing traditional patterns of belief and behavior (“We have always done it this way”) with new ones that wish nevertheless to claim the authority, necessarily, of hoary antiquity—in short, to the invention of orthodoxies.

Thinking about Belonging in Early Rabbinic Literature: Proselytes, Apostates, and “Children of Israel,” or: Does It Make Sense to Speak of Early Rabbinic Orthodoxy?

“…75 To characterize the Mishnah as a project attempting to establish orthodoxy is therefore counterintuitive, as "an orthodox soul" would not have produced this kind of text. Indeed, even Boyarin, much of whose work in the last decade is devoted to making the case for such a claim, concedes that the evidence from rabbinic literature to support it is "notoriously scanty," 76 consisting, in fact, of only "two significant texts in the Mishna." 77 As we have seen, however, one of these texts, m. Nid.…”

“…the "Sadducees" are heretics who are beyond the pale and outside the name Israel. 67 This reading, however, is not simple to accept for various reasons. First, it should be noted that the mishnah does not relate to any creed, but rather to ritual matters (purity laws), a fact that Boyarin himself was careful to notice.…”

“…See, for example, Boyarin, "Semantic Differences," 72: "the term religio, in the sense in which we use it"; "our modern concept of religion" (ibid., 71). In a similar fashion he speaks of "what we call Judaism" (ibid., 67), and "what we would identify as 'Judaism,' the Jewish religion" (ibid., 68), and he emphasizes that: "we habitually differentiate between 'Judaism' and 'Jewishness' to mark something like this distinction" (ibid.). Such vague formulations are, in my opinion, highly problematic (who is "we"?…”

Dialogue as a Means of Religious Co-Production: Historical Perspectives

“…Diversity among Jewish and Christian groups is assumed throughout the dialogue, but there also appear lists of Jewish and Christians sects: Justin, Dialogus 35.80. On Jewish groups in the Dialogus see (Boyarin 2001;Bobichon 2002;Choi 2011;White 2018;Stantin 2018;Edsall 2021). For a brief summary of that discussion, see (Lieu 1996, pp.…”

Voorbeelde van die ontwikkeling van geloofsgemeenskappe in verskillende tekste en kontekste: Vanaf die Ou Testament en die Nuwe Testament tot vandag

“…(p. 14) Die Yavneh was 'n kommissie van Torah-geleerdes wat die riglyne vir ortodoksie opgestel het.Cohen (1984:29) beskryf die Yavneh as 'n groep wat nie uitgesluit het deur middel van die Birkhat haMinim nie, maar eerder: 'the goal was not the triumph over other sects but the elimination of the need for sectarianism itself'. Die Birkhat haMinim was 'n vervloeking op dié wat die Joodse tradisies en reëls gebreek het.Kloppenborg (2011:5) gee 'n opsomming van die argumente en moontlikhede wat deur geleerdes gegee word met betrekking tot die Birkhat haMinim en sluit dit af met 'n aanhaling van Boyarin:Boyarin (2001) concludes: Once the evidence of and for a socalled 'blessing of the heretics' before the third century is removed from the picture, there is no warrant at all to assume an early Palestinian curse directed at any Christians. I am not claiming to know that there was no such thing, but rather that we cannot know at all, and that it is certain, therefore, that we cannot build upon such a weak foundation an edifice of Jewish-Christian parting of the ways.…”