Category:Jews & Gentiles (subject)

Jews & Gentiles (see Hellenistic-Jewish Studies)

• God-fearers -- Proselytes

God-fearers in Hellenistic Judaism

The relationship between Jews and Gentiles was understood differently by the various components of Second Temple Judaism.

Hellenistic Jews looked at Judaism as the religion of Humankind and welcomed as members of their own communities not only circumcised Gentiles (or Proselytes) but also uncircumcised Gentiles (or God-fearers).

God-fearers were expected to adhere to the principles of Jewish monotheism and respect some fundamental purity laws, but not to observe all the requirements of the Mosaic Torah.

The major limitation was about leadership. Hellenistic Jews maintained that as within the Jewish people the leadership was provided by by-birth priest, so the Jews were by birth the priests of humankind. As a result, although God-fearers could be prominent members and donors and benefactors, they could not have a recognized role as religious leaders of the community.

Gentiles in the early Jesus movement

Baptism of the Eunuch by Philip the Evangelist

Christianity was born a Jewish messianic movement. All the first disciples of Jesus were Jewish, mostly from Galilee.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, the first major change occurred when the first Hellenistic Jews entered the new community and Stephen emerged as their leader. Among them the tradition records also the name of a proselyte from Antioch. Hellenistic Jews had contacts with Gentiles within their own communities and it was only a matter of time that the problem of the baptism of God-fearers were addressed.

When a persecution dispersed the Christian Hellenistic Jews out of Jerusalem, Philip the Evangelist began preaching first among the Samaritans and then to God-fearers. On his way to Gaza, he is said to have met a God-fearer from Ethiopia who was returning from his pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem. They together began discussing the messianic prophecies of Isaiah, which Philip was quick to relate to Jesus. Persuaded by Philip's argument, the God-fearer ask for baptism: "What does prevent me from being baptized?" Philp consented. According the Christian tradition, the Ethiopian Eunuch was the first gentile to ever receive baptism.

The example of Philip the Evangelist was followed by Peter, who accepted the invitation of Cornelius, a Roman centurion and God-fearer, and visited him in his house in Caesarea Maritima. Like in the case of the Ethiopian Eunuch, the meeting ended with the baptism of the God-fearer.

The Baptism of Gentiles was viewed with skepticism by many members of the community, but eventually accepted: "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that lead to life" (Acts 11:18).

Controversy soon arose, however, whether circumcision should be required as a prerequisite of baptism, in other words, whether baptism should be granted to God-fearers or to proselytes only. Not accidentally, the Acts of the Apostles describe the controversy as a struggle between "some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees" and the Christian Hellenistic Jews now led by Barnabas and Paul. In the so-called Council of Jerusalem the position of those claiming that Gentiles had "to be circumcised and ordered to keep the Law of Moses" was defeated. The decision was that on Gentiles "no further burden should be imposed than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from sexual immorality" (Act 15:28-29). In other terms, in their relations with Gentiles, Christians rejected the Pharisaic approach to Proselytes only and sided with the Hellenistic Jewish model of acceptance of God-fearers, provided they they abstained from Idolatry and Sexual Immorality.

In spite of this agreement, a total consensus was far from being achieved. The status of Gentile members with the Christian communities continued to generate controversy. Soon Paul would push for abolishing any distinction between Jews and Gentiles in the eucharistic banquet, something that was totally unacceptable by James and his followers at Jerusalem. The Incident at Antioch marks the first significant clash between the two parties. At stake was the "equality" of Jews and Gentiles within the new community. Paul, the apostle of Gentiles, advocated a model that was more radical of that of the Hellenistic Jewish community; the equality Paul promoted meant that "uncircumcised" God-fearers could now emerge as leaders of the new movement without any further requirement or restriction.

An additional problem that Christians had to address was the reason why many Jews did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah while many Gentiles did. According to Paul, this was prophesied in the Scriptures, and “we can’t argue with God.” (9:20). Not all Jews are “children of the promise” while Gentiles have been adopted. “Has then God rejected his people? By no means” (11:1). Paul looks at himself as an example: "I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." There is a “remnant” (11:5). The split within Israel has a meaning, that Paul derives from his own experience: “thanks to their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles” (11:11-12). Gentiles have been “grafted in the olive tree” and they have to respect their roots. “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11: 29). The split within the Jewish people is only temporarily, as at the end the entire Israel will be reunited and salved.