IV - JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2010
Summary
INTRODUCTION
To this point we have looked at evidence, external to the New Testament, which describes or might help to describe the Church/Israel relationship. Two facts have emerged: (i) in the post-apostolic period the relationship is not assumed to be a’ simply defined chasm which precludes interest in the other party; on the contrary, there is considerable uncertainty about the Church's approach to Judaism, and only a late take-over of the title ‘Israel’ by the Church. (2) No one event or group of events is responsible for the break. From these facts we may infer that the eventual separation only gradually developed. It does not abruptly become an impassable gap, even though points can be isolated at which the gap noticeably widens. We may infer also that the decisive factor is not an event in Church history but, on the contrary, a number of internal (and often unobserved) shifts in opinion and practice consequent upon the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the inner logic following from this. The description of the externally observable phenomena in the situation of increasing separation has been a necessary preliminary to the description of the internal factors.
In this chapter we shall lay the groundwork for this assessment by stating Jesus’ appraisal of his role within Judaism; his attitude to the Judaism of his day; his view of a newly formed people of God; and his expectation of a mission beyond Israel.
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- Israel in the Apostolic Church , pp. 48 - 69Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1969