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Parting of the Ways

Overview

The Religious Controversy

Christianity and Judaism are two different covenants, based on two separated revelations.

From the Christian point of view, the "new" revelation is the "true" revelation that superseded the "old" revelation--the Christians are those who "saw the light" while the Jews are "blind".

From the Jewish point of view, the "old" revelation is the only true revelation--the Jews are those who have remained faithful to the old religion and the Christians those who were led astray.

Paradoxically, the same model well served the interests of both traditions. Both Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity needed the assumption of Judaism as an unchanging, unchanged and unchangeable system, which the former (the Jews) claimed to have faithfully maintained over the centuries and the latter (the Christians) claimed to have faithfully transformed and fulfilled.

Fro oppressed Jews, the model

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a -- On the [eve of the] Sabbath day of the Passover festival Yeshu of Nazareth was hanged. For forty days before execution took place, a herald went forth and cried: “Here is Yeshu of Nazareth, who is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor, let him come forth and plead on his behalf.” But since nothing was brought forth in his favor, he was hanged on the eve of Passover.

Three scholarly models

Scholarly research has completely demolished the idea of monolithic Judaism and Christianity and affirmed that Rabbinic Judaism was not the codification of the ancient tradition of Israel but emerged after the destruction of the Second Temple, at the same time as Christianity.

Four main stages of development of Judaism:

• The Ancient polytheistic religion of Israel (up to the Babylonian Exile, 6th cent. BCE)
• Second Temple Judaism (a monotheistic religion centered around the Jerusalem Temple and ruled by priests, from the Babylonian exile up to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE and the desecration of the Temple Mountain after the Bar-Kokhba revolt in 134-135 CE).
• Rabbinic Judaism (which had its formative period up to the Muslin period, with the composition of the Mishnah, the Talmuds and the Midrashim, and the definition of the rabbinic canon of the Bible. Rabbinic Judaism gradually became normative and divided in two main regional branches, Sephardic and Ashkenazi).
• Modern (post-Rabbinic) Judaism (after the French Revolution and the Emancipation [19th cent]) with the development of Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, and Secular forms of Judaism. The Holocaust (1938-1945) and the creation of the State of Israel (in 1947) are two major events that have shaped this

Four main stages of Development of Christianity:

• Nascent Christianity, as a minority religion in the Roman Empire (1st-3rd cent. CE)
• Christianity became the State religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th cent. (Edict of Constantine [Milan, 313 CE]; Edict of Theodosius [Thessalonica, 380 CE])
• The split between Western and Eastern Christianity (around the year 1054)
• The split within Western Christianity between Protestants and Roman Catholics (with the Reformation in the 16th cent.)

(1) The Ways that Always Parted.

Christianity and (Rabbinic) Judaism are two separate and self-sufficient religious systems. Any attempt to define a relationship between the two is useless.

(2) The Parting of the Ways.

Judaism is an ever-developing religion, that has continuously reinvented itself in continuity with its past.

Christianity was born from Judaism and gradually parted, until it ceased to be Jewish and became a separate religion out of Judaism.

The relation between Jews and Christians is a father-son relation. The older brother (Judaism) has remained in the father's house while the younger brother left the house, either in obedience of God's will (according to the Christian point of view), or in disobedience of God's will (according to the Jewish point of view).

The historical problem is to understand when and why Christianity parted from Judaism and ceased to be Jewish.

(3) The Ways that Never Parted.

Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism parted from each other, but never parted from their common roots. Christianity and Judaism are two parallel (and equally legitimate) developments of the ancient religion of Israel. Both of them are equally "new" and "old" because both of them preserved "old" elements of ancient Judaism and introduce "new" elements of innovation. It was not a father/son relation but a sibling relation.

The historical problem is to understand when and why Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism parted from each other, and became two separate religions.

References

• Parting of the Ways / Annette Yoshiko Reed / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), edited volume, 1029-1031

External links