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Christians and Jews in First-Century Alexandria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Birger A. Pearson
Birger A. Pearson
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Extract

Krister Stendahl represents, to my mind, the very best of Scandinavian-style “realistic interpretation” of the Bible, resolutely faithful in his exegesis to the historical situation of the text and its author but then marvelously insightful in eliciting from the text a fresh and sometimes surprising address to contemporary issues in church and society. As is well known, it is precisely Stendahl's interest in relations between Jews and Christians (Jewish and Gentile) that has made so much of his New Testament work so stimulating and innovative. As it happens, though, his research has tended to concentrate geographically on that large sweep of territory “from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum.” What I want to do in this article in his honor is to explore an area relatively untouched by my teacher—Alexandria—in an effort to see if anything can be said of Jewish-Christian relations there in the first century. In doing this I must perforce extend our investigation mainly to noncanonical sources. Even so the task is formidable, for the first-century Alexandrian church is, as Stendahl says, something “about which we know nothing.” What follows is, therefore, largely a matter of inference, at least insofar as it bears upon first-century Christianity in Alexandria. Insofar as it bears upon first-century Judaism, that giant among Jewish exegetes and philosophers, Philo Judaeus, will play a substantial role.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 79 , Issue 1-3: Christians Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl on His Sixty-fifth Birthday , July 1986 , pp. 206 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1986

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References

1 See esp. The Bible and the Role of Women (trans. Sander, Emilie T.; Facet Books, Biblical Series 15; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966)Google Scholar. He comments on “realistic interpretation” of the Bible in Sweden on p. 10. The best statement of his position on the difference between exegesis and hermeneutics is his now classic article on “Biblical Theology,” IDB 1. 418–32, now reprinted in Meanings: The Bible as Document and Guide (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984) 11–44.Google Scholar

2 Rom 15:19. I am thinking mainly of Stendahl's incisive contributions to scholarship on Matthew and Paul.

3 See Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976) 70.Google Scholar

4 See, e.g., Tcherikover, Victor A, “The Decline of the Jewish Diaspora in Egypt in the Roman Period,” JJS 14 (1963) 1–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tcherikover's, “Prolegomena” to the Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (3 vols.; ed. Tcherikover, , Fuks, Alexander, et al.; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957–1964) 1. 1–111Google Scholar; Smallwood, E. Mary, The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian (Leiden: Brill, 1976) esp. 220–55Google Scholar; 364–68; 389–412; 516–19; articles by Stern, M., Safrai, S., and Appelbaum, S. in The Jewish People in the First Century (Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum 1:1–2; Assen: Van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974–1976).Google Scholar

5 Tcherikover, “Decline of the Jewish Diaspora,” esp. 22–27.

6 For discussion and references see Borgen, Peder, “Philo of Alexandria: A Critical and Synthetical Survey of Research since World War II,” ANR W II:21.1 (1983) 98–154Google Scholar, esp. 126–28. Migr. Abr. 89–93 is the most important passage dealing with the last-named category. Specific issues addressed include Sabbath and other festival observance, circumcision, and the sanctity of the Temple.

7 Apostates: Virt. 182; Vit. Mos. 1.30–31; De spec. leg. 3.29. Proselytes: Virt. 182; Quaest. in. Ex. 2.2. In Virt. 175–86 Philo discusses the process of conversion to Judaism. On this and other important texts and their relation to the early Christian mission to Gentiles see Borgen, Peder, “The Early Church and the Hellenistic Synagogue,” StTh 37 (1983) 55–78.Google Scholar

8 “Decline of the Jewish Diaspora,” 24.

9 “Ein ‘Messianisches Szenarium’ als Gemeingut des Judentums in nachherodianischer Zeit,” Kairos 17 (1975) 249–78Google Scholar, esp. 250–55. See also Barraclough, Ray, “Philo's Politics,” in ANR W II:21.1 (1983) 417–553, esp. 480–81.Google Scholar

10 “Ein ‘Messianisches Szenarium,’” 254–55.

11 The LXX of Num 24:7a reads: “There shall come a man from his (Israel's) seed, and he shall rule over many nations” (my translation).

12 Conf. 62–63. On these texts see Savignac, J. de, “Le messianisme de Philon d'Alexandrie” NT 4 (1959) 319–24, esp. 320.Google Scholar

13 There are, to be sure, other traces of end-time expectation in Philo beside the aforementioned passages in Praem See, e.g., Virt 75; Vit. Mos. 2.44, 288; Op. mund 79–81.

14 The letter fragment of Clement of Alexandria edited by Morton Smith refers to Mark's arrival in Alexandria after Peter's death in Rome, but nothing is said of Mark's role as founder or first bishop. See Smith, Morton, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973) 448CrossRefGoogle Scholar (text), 446 (ET). I have analyzed the Mark legend in my article, “Earliest Christianity in Egypt: Some Observations,” in Pearson, Birger A. and Goehring, James E., eds., The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986 [forthcoming]).Google Scholar

15 Hist. eccl. 2.16–17; cf. Philo Vit. cont.

16 Hist. eccl. 2.17.2.

17 Some noncanonical gospels, of which only fragments remain, may belong to late first-century Alexandria: The Gospel of the Hebrews, the Egerton papyrus, and the Secret Gospel of Mark On the last two see now Crossan, John Dominic, Four Other Gospels: Shadows on the Contours of Canon (Minneapolis: Winston, 1985) 65–121. What is still needed is study of all of the early gospels and gospel traditions in Egypt. Such a study would undoubtedly shed important light on the character of Christianity there.Google Scholar

18 Bauer, Walter, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (ET ed. by Kraft, Robert A. and Krodel, Gerhard; Phildelphia: Fortress, 1971) 44–60.Google Scholar

19 See my article, “Friedländer Revisited: Alexandrian Judaism and Gnostic Origins,” Studia Philonica 2 (1973) 23–39.Google Scholar

20 Helmut Koester, in his discussion of the beginnings of Christianity in Egypt, speaks plausibly of “the simultaneous development of several competing Christian groups.” See his Introduction to the New Testament, vol. 2: History and Literature of Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982) 219.Google Scholar

21 See, e.g., Barnard, L. W., “St. Stephen and Early Alexandrian Christianity,” in Studies in the Apostolic Fathers and their Background (New York: Schocken, 1966) 57–72Google Scholar, esp. 63. An interesting case for placing the Epistle of Jude in Alexandria between 120 and 131 has recently been made by Gunther, J. J., “The Alexandrian Epistle of Jude,” NTS 30 (1984) 549–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 See now Janssens, Yvonne, Les Leçons de Silvanos (NH VII, 4) (Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, Section “Textes,” 13; Québec: Université Laval, 1983) esp. 23.Google Scholar

23 Bauer perversely attempts to put Barnabas in the Gnostic camp (Orthodoxy and Heresy, 47–48), but the gnosis of Barnabas has virtually nothing to do with the gnosis of the Gnostics. On gnosis in Barnabas see, e.g., Kraft, Robert A., Barnabas and Didache (The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation and Commentary 3; Toronto: Nelson, 1965) 22–27.Google Scholar

24 See VII 94,31–33. Cf. 116,5–9, a polemic against those who regard the Creator of the world as an ignorant deity, a typical Gnostic doctrine.

25 Stendahl, Krister, The School of St. Matthew and its Use of the Old Testament (2d ed.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968) 17 n. 5.Google Scholar

26 He refers in this connection to “evolved literature,” and the reproducing and reworking of older materials. See Barnabas and Didache, 1–22.

27 In Studies in the Apostolic Fathers, 41–55, esp. 47.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid., 47–51.

30 Barnard, “St. Stephen and Early Alexandrian Christianity,” 63–69. As Barnard points out, the term is taken from Isa 3:10 (LXX). Cf. also Wis 2:12, an Alexandrian text.

31 Ibid., 71–72.

32 Barnard entertains this as a possibility, suggesting also the possibility of an Alexandrian origin for Stephen, but finally prefers to “err on the side of caution” with the other solution. However, I cannot find any trace elsewhere in Barnabas of the use of Acts.

33 Cf. Philo Migr. Abr. 89–93, and n. 6, above.

34 On the eschatology of Barnabas see Kraft, Didache and Barnabas, 27–29.

35 Barnard, “Judaism in Egypt,” 52–55.

36 School of St. Matthew, xi–xiv; cf. also Barnard, “Judaism in Egypt,” 52, 55.

37 On the messianist nature of that revolt see esp. Hengel, Martin, “Messianische Hoffnung und politischer ‘Radikalismus’ in der jüdisch-hellenistischen Diaspora,” in Hellholm, David, ed., Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East (Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism, Uppsala, August 12–17, 1979; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1983) 655–86.Google Scholar

38 E.g., warnings against the devil, including the use of the term “the wicked one” (Silv. 85,17; Barn. 2.10; 21.3); the “Two Ways” tradition (Silv. 103,14–26; Barn. 18–20); interiorization of the Temple (Silv. 106,9–14; 109,25–30; Barn. 16.7–10); impossibility of looking at the sun/God (Silv. 101,13–17; Barn. 5.10); fearing God (Silv. 88,9–11; Barn. 10.10–11).

39 See above and n. 24.

40 Perhaps a “Logos christology” is implicit in the references to Christ's role in creation (Barn. 5.5,10; 6.12).

41 Cf. Winston's, David discussion of the genre of Wisdom in his commentary, The Wisdom of Solomon (AB 43; Garden City: Doubleday, 1979) 18–20.Google Scholar

42 Schoedel, William R., “Jewish Wisdom and the Formation of the Christian Ascetic,” in Wilken, Robert L., ed., Aspects of Wisdom in Judaism and Early Christianity (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975) 169–99.Google Scholar

43 Zandee, J., “‘Les Enseignements de Silvanos’ et Philon d'Alexandrie,” in Mélanges d'histoire des religions offerts à Henri-Charles Puech (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1974) 337–45.Google Scholar

44 Cf., e.g., Philo Conf. 146–47. Philo can also refer to Sophia as the “Mother“of the Logos (e.g., Fug. 108–9). This doctrine is muted in Silvanus, but cf. 91,14–16 and 115,5–8.

45 Silv. 112,37–113,7, Peel-Zandee translation in NHLE. Cf. Schoedel, “Jewish Wisdom,” 191–92.

46 Pearson, Birger A., “Philo, Gnosis and the New Testament,” in Logan, A. H. B. and Wedderburn, A. J. M., eds., The New Testament and Gnosis: Essays in honour of Robert McL. Wilson (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1983) 73–89, esp. 81–83.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., esp. 75–77, 83. Cf. my reference to Apollos above.

48 Cf. Zandee, J., ”The Teachings of Silvanus” and Clement of Alexandria: A New Document of Alexandrian Theology (Leiden: Ex Oriente Lux, 1977).Google Scholar

49 Eusebius claims (Hist. eccl 2.17.2) that “he not only knew but welcomed, reverenced, and recognized the divine mission of the apostolic men of his day” (Kirsopp Lake's translation in the LCL ed.).

50 Stendahl remarks that “the United States of today is the first place in the modern world since Philo's Alexandria where Jews and Christians as people, as religious communities, and as learned communities, live together in a manner and in sufficient numbers to allow for open dialogue” (Paul Among Jews and Gentiles, 37).

51 Cf. Tcherikover, “Decline of the Jewish Diaspora,” 31–32.