this chapter. A great deal of inter-group and intra-group conflict can be
attributed to the high probability that different groups inhabiting the same
geophysical space will map it differently. It is therefore unlikely that Galilean
Gentiles (if there even was such a homogeneous group) mapped their pluri-
religious world so that it was simply a mirror image of the Tosefta’s mapped
social world. How surprising it would be if, in (mapped) sphere after sphere,
Galilean Gentiles treated Toseftan rabbis as either co-participants or persons
to be avoided, precisely where Toseftan rabbis similarly defined Galilean
Gentiles! Indeed, the very substance of many Toseftan passages assumes
that this type of mirror-image congruence did not happen. Moreover,
methodologically speaking, it is this lack of congruent mirroring within
geographical areas which should be one of the principal objects of our
research.
APPLICABILITY ELSEWHERE
Theoretical and conceptual constructs pass muster when they may be use-
fully employed beyond the body of evidence for which (and from which)
they were initially derived. Otherwise, propositions and concepts cannot be
deemed to have much theoretical force. A construct that cannot meet this
minimum test is either a made-to-measure, one-time explanation of a
unique body of evidence from a particular human community or, more
simply, a mere descriptive translation of the data. For example, in John
Chrysostom’s first and eighth homilies entitled “Against the Jews” (PG
48; Meeks and Wilken 1978), the then-presbyter of fourth-century Syrian
Antioch rails against those Gentile Christians among his congregation,
whom he fully expects to attend synagogue on the Jewish New Year (“Trum-
pets”) and on the Day of Atonement. Chrysostom also admonishes those
Gentile Christians among his congregation, who, apparently regularly, seek
healing potions and incantations from Jewish practitioners operating out
of the synagogues, and use Jewish courts, also housed in synagogues, to
bring suits against other Gentile Christians. Chrysostom would have his con-
gregants healed exclusively by Christian holy men, and their civil suits
brought only to Roman courts. Presumably the Antiochene Jewish commu-
nity, courts, and shamans saw nothing untoward about Gentile Christians
patronizing Jewish communal liturgies and celebrations, judicial institutions
and holy men. Jews, on the other hand, were likely prohibited by their
own leadership from attending the Eucharistic liturgy, and Christian bish-
ops of that era often barred all non-baptized persons from the church dur-
ing the Eucharist.