Heterodoxy within Second-Temple Judaism and Sectarian Diversity within the Early Church (2008 Russell), book

Heterodoxy within Second-Temple Judaism and Sectarian Diversity within the Early Church: A Correlative Study is abook by Peter J. Russell.

Editions and translations

Published in the United States (Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 2008)

Abstract

Diversity in early Christian groups was not caused by a rift that had occurred between the leading protagonists Peter, Paul and James. It was in fact because the church founders, being Jewish, had based their church upon the contemporary synagogue tradition of Palestine and the Diaspora. Each congregation was independently governed and had equal rights along with all the others as long as they followed the law and acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah.

Table of contents

• Foreword by Dan Cohn-Sherbok
• Introduction
• 1. Historical Basis for Diversity in Second Temple Judaism
• 2. Divisions and the Maccabaean Crisis
• 3. Religious Diversity within Judaism as a Consequence of the Hasmonaean Monarchy
• 4. Apocalyptic and the Further Increase in Religious Diversity
• 5. Diversity in the Early Church: The Church in Jerusalem
• 6. Antioch and Galatia
• 7. The Church in Corinth
• Conclusion