Martin Goodman
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263876
- eISBN:
- 9780191682674
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Judaism
This book tackles a central problem of Jewish and comparative religious history: proselytization and the origins of mission in the Early Church. Why did some individuals in the first four centuries ...
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This book tackles a central problem of Jewish and comparative religious history: proselytization and the origins of mission in the Early Church. Why did some individuals in the first four centuries of the Christian era believe it desirable to persuade as many outsiders as possible to join their religious group, while others did not? In this book, the author offers a new explanation of the origins of mission in this period, arguing that mission is not an inherent religious instinct, that in antiquity it was found only sporadically among Jews and pagans, and that even Christians rarely stressed its importance in the early centuries. In the first half of the book, he makes a detailed and radical re-evaluation of the evidence for Jewish missionary attitudes in the late Second Temple and Talmudic periods, overturning many commonly held assumptions about the history of Judaism, in particular the view that Jews proselytized energetically in the first century AD. This leads the author on to take issue with the common notion that the early Christian mission to the gentiles imitated or competed with contemporary Jews. Finally, the author puts forward some novel suggestions as to how the Jewish background to Christianity may nonetheless have contributed to the enthusiastic adoption of universal proselytization by some followers of Jesus in the apostolic age.Less
This book tackles a central problem of Jewish and comparative religious history: proselytization and the origins of mission in the Early Church. Why did some individuals in the first four centuries of the Christian era believe it desirable to persuade as many outsiders as possible to join their religious group, while others did not? In this book, the author offers a new explanation of the origins of mission in this period, arguing that mission is not an inherent religious instinct, that in antiquity it was found only sporadically among Jews and pagans, and that even Christians rarely stressed its importance in the early centuries. In the first half of the book, he makes a detailed and radical re-evaluation of the evidence for Jewish missionary attitudes in the late Second Temple and Talmudic periods, overturning many commonly held assumptions about the history of Judaism, in particular the view that Jews proselytized energetically in the first century AD. This leads the author on to take issue with the common notion that the early Christian mission to the gentiles imitated or competed with contemporary Jews. Finally, the author puts forward some novel suggestions as to how the Jewish background to Christianity may nonetheless have contributed to the enthusiastic adoption of universal proselytization by some followers of Jesus in the apostolic age.
GOODMAN MARTIN
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263876
- eISBN:
- 9780191682674
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263876.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Judaism
A normal prerequisite for a universal proselytizing mission to convert others to a new religion is a belief that their current religious behaviour is unsatisfactory. This chapter deals with the ...
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A normal prerequisite for a universal proselytizing mission to convert others to a new religion is a belief that their current religious behaviour is unsatisfactory. This chapter deals with the question of Jewish attitudes to gentile paganism as a prelude to the investigation of Jewish attitudes to proselytizing. It concludes that it is unlikely that many Jews in the period before 100 CE perceived any justification for them or their compatriots to object to the pagan idolatry diligently practiced by the non-Jews with whom they came into contact, as long as such practices did not take place in the holy land of Israel or lure Jews into a withdrawal of their special covenant with their God.Less
A normal prerequisite for a universal proselytizing mission to convert others to a new religion is a belief that their current religious behaviour is unsatisfactory. This chapter deals with the question of Jewish attitudes to gentile paganism as a prelude to the investigation of Jewish attitudes to proselytizing. It concludes that it is unlikely that many Jews in the period before 100 CE perceived any justification for them or their compatriots to object to the pagan idolatry diligently practiced by the non-Jews with whom they came into contact, as long as such practices did not take place in the holy land of Israel or lure Jews into a withdrawal of their special covenant with their God.
Joanna Michlic-coren
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774600
- eISBN:
- 9781800340701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774600.003.0019
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines the Kielce pogrom. On July 4, 1946, the most horrifying outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in post-war Poland took place in Kielce. On that day, ordinary citizens of this central ...
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This chapter examines the Kielce pogrom. On July 4, 1946, the most horrifying outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in post-war Poland took place in Kielce. On that day, ordinary citizens of this central Polish town, together with soldiers and militiamen, murdered forty Polish Jews and injured more than a hundred. This was not an isolated act of anti-Jewish violence in this early post-war period, but one of many such events which took place between 1945 and 1947. Nevertheless, it was striking because of its dimensions, because of the brutality with which it was accompanied, and because of the participation of local forces representing the new communist authority. The Kielce pogrom was the most powerful indicator that Jews were not to be welcomed to restore their lives among the ethnic Polish population. The chapter then assesses the extent to which anti-Jewish attitudes were prevalent among Polish society during and after the Kielce pogrom.Less
This chapter examines the Kielce pogrom. On July 4, 1946, the most horrifying outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in post-war Poland took place in Kielce. On that day, ordinary citizens of this central Polish town, together with soldiers and militiamen, murdered forty Polish Jews and injured more than a hundred. This was not an isolated act of anti-Jewish violence in this early post-war period, but one of many such events which took place between 1945 and 1947. Nevertheless, it was striking because of its dimensions, because of the brutality with which it was accompanied, and because of the participation of local forces representing the new communist authority. The Kielce pogrom was the most powerful indicator that Jews were not to be welcomed to restore their lives among the ethnic Polish population. The chapter then assesses the extent to which anti-Jewish attitudes were prevalent among Polish society during and after the Kielce pogrom.
Krzysztof A. Makowski
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774693
- eISBN:
- 9781800340718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774693.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter considers the stance of the Jews of Poznań during the tumultuous Spring of Nations in 1848. It attempts to put an end to the simplifications, myths, and stereotypes in the historical ...
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This chapter considers the stance of the Jews of Poznań during the tumultuous Spring of Nations in 1848. It attempts to put an end to the simplifications, myths, and stereotypes in the historical literature concerning the Spring of Nations in the Poznań region. With a few exceptions, the stereotypes formed in 1848 in evaluations of the attitude of Poznań's Jews have been continually and uncritically repeated, and, as a result, have become established in historical literature. In many publications, the judgement of authors has additionally been clouded by emotion and bias, not to mention occasionally even partisanship or hatred. Therefore, the chapter seeks to re-evaluate the attitude of the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Poznań to the events of the Springtime of the Nations in a way that is free of oversimplification. Because of its limited framework, the chapter only summarizes and gives a critique of the literature on the subject to date. It also pays some attention to how the events of 1848 resonated beyond the Duchy.Less
This chapter considers the stance of the Jews of Poznań during the tumultuous Spring of Nations in 1848. It attempts to put an end to the simplifications, myths, and stereotypes in the historical literature concerning the Spring of Nations in the Poznań region. With a few exceptions, the stereotypes formed in 1848 in evaluations of the attitude of Poznań's Jews have been continually and uncritically repeated, and, as a result, have become established in historical literature. In many publications, the judgement of authors has additionally been clouded by emotion and bias, not to mention occasionally even partisanship or hatred. Therefore, the chapter seeks to re-evaluate the attitude of the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Poznań to the events of the Springtime of the Nations in a way that is free of oversimplification. Because of its limited framework, the chapter only summarizes and gives a critique of the literature on the subject to date. It also pays some attention to how the events of 1848 resonated beyond the Duchy.
Eyal Regev
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780300197884
- eISBN:
- 9780300245592
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300197884.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this book examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and ...
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The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this book examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and Christians with a better understanding of their respective faiths and how they grow out of this ancient institution. The centrality of the writing reveals the authors' negotiations with the institutional and symbolic center of Judaism as they worked to form their own religion.Less
The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this book examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and Christians with a better understanding of their respective faiths and how they grow out of this ancient institution. The centrality of the writing reveals the authors' negotiations with the institutional and symbolic center of Judaism as they worked to form their own religion.
Faye Ginsburg
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249800
- eISBN:
- 9780823252480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249800.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores questions about Judaism, disability, and technology from the vantage point of a group of documentary film-makers and other activists concerned with the place of the physically ...
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This chapter explores questions about Judaism, disability, and technology from the vantage point of a group of documentary film-makers and other activists concerned with the place of the physically and mentally disabled within modern Ashkenazic Jewish community. The chapter examines a series of films that document religious, scientific, and popular conceptions of Jewish community as a shared genetic heritage, the ways such evidence has been used to silence or hide the presence of disabled Jews, and the strategies deployed by activists to re-imagine Jewish kinship and to redefine the notion of the human as made in God's image. Examples discussed include: Liebe Perla, a film about a short-statured Holocaust survivor; Praying with Lior, which focuses on the religious life of a Jewish boy with Down syndrome; and the recent proliferation of Internet-mediated forums for “cyber-kinship” that are enabling Jews born with genetic diseases to network with one another and to achieve a visible presence that is transforming Jewish public culture.Less
This chapter explores questions about Judaism, disability, and technology from the vantage point of a group of documentary film-makers and other activists concerned with the place of the physically and mentally disabled within modern Ashkenazic Jewish community. The chapter examines a series of films that document religious, scientific, and popular conceptions of Jewish community as a shared genetic heritage, the ways such evidence has been used to silence or hide the presence of disabled Jews, and the strategies deployed by activists to re-imagine Jewish kinship and to redefine the notion of the human as made in God's image. Examples discussed include: Liebe Perla, a film about a short-statured Holocaust survivor; Praying with Lior, which focuses on the religious life of a Jewish boy with Down syndrome; and the recent proliferation of Internet-mediated forums for “cyber-kinship” that are enabling Jews born with genetic diseases to network with one another and to achieve a visible presence that is transforming Jewish public culture.
David Novak
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906764074
- eISBN:
- 9781800340527
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906764074.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter focuses on the prohibition of robbery, which is based on the principle that society is necessary for human flourishing. And a central element of the construction of any human society is ...
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This chapter focuses on the prohibition of robbery, which is based on the principle that society is necessary for human flourishing. And a central element of the construction of any human society is property, or the relation of persons to things, especially in economic transactions. The rabbinic tradition makes fine distinctions between Jews and gentiles regarding robbery, ultimately creating a double standard. Although the practical effects of a socially unfair law were removed, the rabbis maintained that Noahide law remained stricter than Jewish law regarding robbery. Like other violations of the Noahide commandments, the penalty was assumed to be death. In atypical historical circumstances—especially times of war or oppression—the rabbinic supposition was that all gentile robbery was aggressive and occurred because of anti-Jewish attitudes and not greed. Because the crime was ideological and not practical, its intent was far more lethal and therefore any act of robbery, no matter how minor, was to be punished with death.Less
This chapter focuses on the prohibition of robbery, which is based on the principle that society is necessary for human flourishing. And a central element of the construction of any human society is property, or the relation of persons to things, especially in economic transactions. The rabbinic tradition makes fine distinctions between Jews and gentiles regarding robbery, ultimately creating a double standard. Although the practical effects of a socially unfair law were removed, the rabbis maintained that Noahide law remained stricter than Jewish law regarding robbery. Like other violations of the Noahide commandments, the penalty was assumed to be death. In atypical historical circumstances—especially times of war or oppression—the rabbinic supposition was that all gentile robbery was aggressive and occurred because of anti-Jewish attitudes and not greed. Because the crime was ideological and not practical, its intent was far more lethal and therefore any act of robbery, no matter how minor, was to be punished with death.