Enochic Traditions In Second Temple Judaism And The Early Church: Historical Aids For Understanding 1 Peter 3:19-21

Understanding the Letter to the Romans in the Sect-Cult Development of Early Churches

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel11050257 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 257

Author(s):

Jin Young Kim

Keyword(s):

Second Temple ◽

First Century ◽

The Other ◽

Early Church ◽

Second Temple Judaism ◽

Jewish Tradition ◽

People Of God ◽

Modified Model ◽

Internal Conflicts ◽

Greco Roman

This article examines how the model of sect-cult development in antiquity helps us understand Paul’s discussion of Jewish traditions in the Letter to the Romans. In the traditional Augustinian–Lutheran scholarship, Romans has often been interpreted within the binary framework of Judaism and Christianity, as Paul showcasing one of the earliest examples of Christian opposition to Judaism. Based on the recent studies on Second Temple Judaism and the modified model of sect-cult reflecting the ancient context, I argue that Romans reveals internal conflicts between cultic and sectarian tendencies present among early churches of the first century C.E. The cultic tendency is reflected in Roman gentile believers’ assimilation of the Jewish tradition with the Greco–Roman virtue of self-mastery and their growing separation from Judaism. Paul, on the other hand, tries to establish the unity between believing gentiles and Israel as exhibiting his sectarian understanding of the gospel and the gentile mission. By placing Romans in the trajectory of sect-cult development of an early church, we stop reading it as a text that justifies the Christian antagonism to Judaism, but as a text that shows an early apostle’s passionate effort to create a unified people of God in the hope for the final salvation.

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Going Through Hell; ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΣ in Greco-Roman Culture, Second Temple Judaism, and Philo of Alexandria

Journal of Ancient Judaism ◽

10.30965/21967954-00403004 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 352-378

Author(s):

Clint Burnett

Keyword(s):

Second Temple ◽

Second Temple Judaism ◽

Jewish Literature ◽

Ancient Greek ◽

Philo Of Alexandria ◽

Second Temple Period ◽

Greco Roman ◽

Literary Sources ◽

Roman Culture ◽

Greek Myths

This article questions the longstanding supposition that the eschatology of the Second Temple period was solely influenced by Persian or Iranian eschatology, arguing instead that the literature of this period reflects awareness of several key Greco-Roman mythological concepts. In particular, the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment of eschatology in the Jewish literature of the period. A thorough treatment of Tartarus and related concepts in literary and non-literary sources from ancient Greek and Greco-Roman culture provides a backdrop for a discussion of these themes in the Second Temple period and especially in the writings of Philo of Alexandria.

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