Lecture 3: The First Cultural Context—Judaism
o As we will see in the next lecture, Jesus was not a messiah
according to standard Jewish expectations; indeed, he
overturned those expectations.
o Moreover, the claims made for Jesus by Christians—above
all, the claim that he was the risen Lord—appear as heretical
within Judaism.
o The interpretation of Torah from the perspective of belief in
Jesus exacerbated the strains with Judaism.
o From the beginning, the inclusion of Gentiles with Greco-
Roman perceptions placed additional strain on the relationship
with Judaism.
The Diversity of Judaism
• Judaism in the 1st century was not the religion of ancient Israel as it
is depicted in the writings of the Old Testament but was a changing,
complex, diverse, and vibrant religion within Greco-Roman
culture that drew considerable attention both from outsiders and
new members.
• Both to Gentiles and to themselves, Jews appeared as singular
among Mediterranean peoples, a “second race,” because they
shared the symbolic world of Torah.
o Torah refers, first of all, to a set of texts (the five books of
Moses, then the rest of Scripture), then to the story of a
people contained in those texts, the commandments to which
that nation was obligated, and the wisdom that suffuses
those commandments.
o Jews were bound by certain convictions and practices that set
them apart. In contrast to Gentile polytheists, they were strict
monotheists and considered themselves a chosen people joined
in a covenant of loyalty with the one God of Israel.