Abstract
Sim and McLaren have edited a wonderfully useful and incredibly clear set of essays that helps to trace the changing and diverse attitudes towards Gentiles from a late Second Temple Jewish context through a number of stages in the emergence of the early Christian movement. A number of the contributors to the volume also assess the way in which Jewish self-definition in the period drew upon views concerning Gentiles and formulated statements of identity in relation to the Gentile world.
As well as the introduction and conclusion, the volume contains fifteen essays that discuss attitudes to Gentiles displayed in various texts, corpora of writings, or among certain groups. The first seven chapters assess attitudes towards Gentiles from Jewish perspectives. Sim provides an excellent overview of Jewish perspectives on ‘Gentiles, God-Fearers and Proselytes’ (pp. 9-27). He argues in relation to the last group, converts, that, while the rhetoric may have been that they enjoyed a status in Judaism equal to native Jews, the reality was often different (p. 27). Next, Runia looks at the topic of ‘Philo and the Gentiles’ (pp. 28-45). He notes that Philo prefers in his apologetic writings to speak of Jews and ‘others’ rather than of ‘Gentiles’. He argues that there were ‘strategic reasons for avoiding a clear binary terminology’ (p. 45). Collins provides a masterful survey of attitudes exhibited towards Gentiles in the Dead Sea Scrolls (pp. 46-61). McLaren treats the topic of ‘Josephus and the Gentiles’ (pp. 62-71). In answer to his own question ‘did Josephus respect Gentiles?’, he concludes that ‘it is apparent that Josephus did not display any particular interest in or affinity with them’ (p. 71). Theophilus gives an overview of attitudes to Gentiles in the large corpus of apocalyptic literature (pp. 72-91). In his second essay McLaren considers the relationship between ‘the Temple and Gentiles’ (pp. 92-108) and Binder looks at the relationship between ‘the Synagogue and the Gentiles’ (pp. 109-125).
The next eight essays focus on writings or sources that stem from emergent Christianity. First, Tuckett explores the attitude to Gentiles that is contained in the reconstructed Q source (pp. 126-137). He notes that Q adopts the rhetorical strategy of warning contemporary non-Christian Jews of the possibility of Gentiles replacing them as recipients of eschatological blessings. However, he concludes that ‘the broader question of how Gentiles would come into, and live within, the new Christian community may not have come on to the mental radar screen of Q Christians with any seriousness (p. 137). In turn the next chapters cover the following topics: Sean Winter, ‘Paul’s Attitude to the Gentiles’ (pp. 138-153), Ian Elmer on Mark and the Gentiles (pp. 154-172), David Sim on the Gospel of Matthew (pp. 173-190), Elizabeth Dowling on Luke-Acts (191-208), Mary Coloe on John with a focus on Jn 12.12-43 (pp. 209-223), Cadwallader on the ‘Greeks in Colossae’ (pp. 224-241) and Draper on the Didache, focusing on Did. 9.5).
Taken together, these essays allow one to trace various attitudes towards Gentiles in the period and to see the re-alignments in those attitudes that shaped the early Christian movement.