Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew

Abstract

Who was a Jew in antiquity? How was “Jewishness” defined? How did a non-Jew become a Jew, and how did a Jew become a non-Jew? In their minds and actions the Jews erected a boundary between themselves and the rest of humanity, the gentiles, but the boundary was always crossable and not always clearly marked. A gentile might associate with Jews and observe Jewish practices, or might “convert” to Judaism and become a proselyte. A Jew might avoid contact with Jews and cease to observe Jewish practices, or might deny Judaism outright and become an “apostate.” Or the boundary could be blurred through the marriage of a Jew with a gentile.

Recent Scholarship on Joseph and Aseneth (1988-2013)

“…Asen. to the category ‘Venerating the god of the Jews and denying or ignoring the pagan gods’ and not to ‘Converting to Judaism and “becoming a Jew”’ (1999: 150-54), because ‘the text says nothing about her observance of Jewish laws’ (1999: 125). It is surprising to modern interpreters that most other Jewish-Hellenistic and even many rabbinic texts do not consider Aseneth’s Hamitic origin problematic (cf.…”

Conflict as context for defining identity: A study of apostleship in the Galatian and Corinthian letters

“…Their apparently selective imposition of the Mosaic law, involving no more than token incorporation into Israel, noted above, may count against an association with these churches. Even allowing for the diversity of Judaism (Sanders 1977;1992;cf Martyn 1985:308-11), and of gentile conformity with Christian (Taylor 1995) and other forms of Judaism (Cohen 1989), a movement which stressed circumcision cannot easily be identified with communities which waived circumcision for gentile Christians while imposing Christians in relation to the Mosaic law. Galatians may well be the earliest attempt to limit apostleship as an office or vocation belonging to particular people (Schmithals 1971b:86;cf Munck 1949:100-101;Taylor 1992:155-70).…”

Who persecuted the Thessalonian Christians?

“…The assumption that the majority of Paul's converts had been "pagan" (Wanamaker 1990:4;cf Holtz 1990a:61;Staab 1969:15), inferring on the basis of 1:9 that they were non-godfearing gentiles, whom Paul had not reached through the synagogue (Wanamaker 1990:7-8;contra Still 1999:68-69), would seem to assume that all godfearers had abandoned paganism altogether. Godfearers were by definition not fully converted to Judaism and incorporated into Israel (Cohen 1989;Riesner 1998:349). Labels such as sebome/ noj (cf Ac 17:4) and qeosebh/ j applied to gentiles who associated with Jewish communities in a variety of ways, which did not necessarily involve abandonment or repudiation of other cultic associations and practices (Cohen 1989).…”