INTRODUCTION
One of the baseline problems posed in this book by Leif E. Vaage’s pro-
grammatic chapter 1 and engaged also by Terence Donaldson in chapter 6
concerns the place of mission in ancient religions, and especially in Judaism.
Was Judaism, during the Greco-Roman period, a missionary religion?
Through more than a century scholars occasionally debated the issue, but
the dominant view was that Judaism encouraged proselytism (e.g., Schürer
1973–1986, 3:1, 150–76; Bamberger 1968; Braude 1940; Leon 1960, 250–56;
Georgi 1986; Simon 1986). Evidence was adduced from Greek and Latin
authors who reflected upon Jewish proselytizing, from Jewish literature that
seemed to welcome converts, from the expulsions of Jews from Rome on
charges of proselytism, and from early Christian texts. In recent years,
however, the question has been reopened with vigour. In this recent flurry
of activity, the decidedly stronger current holds that Judaism was not a
missionary religion (McKnight 1991; Will and Orrieux 1992; Cohen 1991,
1992; Goodman 1992, 1994; Kraabel 1994). On this view, texts that extol the
virtues of Judaism were read almost exclusively by Jews. And, in any case,
the Jewish literature does not advocate proselytism, even if it welcomes the
occasional self-motivated convert. In holding to the view that ancient
Judaism was a missionary religion, Louis Feldman (1993a) has become
something of a lone voice. Shaye J.D. Cohen, himself a recent proselyte to
the non-missionary hypothesis, sees a “new consensus” in the making
(1991, 166; but cf. 1987a, 49–58).