TRT2680 – Trinity Orthodox Theological Foundation

Salvation Is from the Jews

Christianity and Judaism in Theological Perspective and Dialogue

Information and Readings for Auditors

Course Syllabus

Class Sessions

We will meet in Larkin 340 on Wednesdays from 7pm to 9pm for discussion of each week’s topics and readings. The course starts on Wednesday 14 September and runs to Wednesday 7 December.

Please note that in week 3 (28 September) and week 10 (23 November) there are no classes. Those formally auditing (with Quercus course portal logins) may continue to participate in the online discussion forums for those weeks.

Required Texts

The following book should be acquired for this course as it will be read nearly in its entirety. It is readily and inexpensively available for purchase (including as an ebook), or to borrow from good libraries. A copy will also be placed on reserve at Trinity College Library.

Levine, Amy-Jill. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2007.

Students may also wish to acquire the following book which will be useful for the short exegetical paper (if you wish to do that assignment). A copy will also be placed on reserve at Trinity College Library.

Brettler, Marc Zvi, and Amy-Jill Levine. The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2020.

All other required readings, whether chapters from books or articles, are available online and will be posted below.

Course Readings (Why Three Lists?)

The readings for each week are divided into three lists:

A List Readings: These are the required readings for the course. It is essential that you prepare these carefully ahead of each class discussion. You can meet all the course expectations by focusing only on these texts.

B List Readings: These recommended further or extended readings are provided to give you additional background materials for the topics of each week. You are invited to read these to explore the themes in more depth, and to choose and draw upon them for your final literature review assignment (if you choose to submit one). They may be referred to in passing in class discussions, but they will not be dwelt upon as not everyone will have read them.

C List Readings: These readings, often full books or volumes of articles, are given for those who are interested in pursuing the subject matter to a higher level, in their own time, or perhaps in future research or at an advanced degree level. They will not form part of our class discussions, though they can also be used for your literature review.

Week 1 (Course Introduction) Topics and Readings

Topics

The Lord’s prayer as a quintessential Jewish prayer
Course methodology, values, and expectations
Christianity and anti-Judaism – defining the problem

Readings

A List Readings

“Introduction” to The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin
“A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity,” preface to Christianity in Jewish Terms
“What to Seek and What to Avoid in Jewish-Christian Dialogue,” introduction to Christianity in Jewish Terms, by David Novak
“Memo of Spelling of Antisemitism” by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

B List Readings

National Cathedral Sermon on 7 March 2021 by Amy-Jill Levine
Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2021, by the League for Human Rights, B’nai Brith Canada

C List Readings

Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism, Sol Golberg, Scott Ury and Kalman Weiser, eds.

Week 2 (Jesus the Jew) Topics and Readings

Topics

Jesus, the faithful, Torah-observant Jew
Jesus as Jewish teacher with Jewish disciples
Jesus, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots in the Synoptic Gospels
Galileans and Judaeans in the Gospel of John
Jewish feasts and themes in the structure and proclamation of the gospel of Jesus

Readings

A List Readings

“Jesus and Judaism,” chapter 1 of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine
“Jesus Kept Kosher,” chapter 3 of The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin

B List Readings

“Jews in the Land During the Second Temple Period,” chapter 7 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Steven Werlin
“Early Christianity in a Jewish Context,” chapter 9 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Julie Galambush

C List Readings

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity, by Paula Fredriksen

Week 3 (The Religion of the Apostles: Narrative Theologies of Second Temple Judaism) Topics and Readings

Topics

Apostles of the messiah
Messianic age and expectation – in the texts of the Old Testament (Hebrew and expanded Septuagint canon), pseudepigrapha, and the traditions and writings of the eventual Talmud
Symbolic theology of Second Temple Judaism – language of incarnation and spirit
Divine council and spiritual powers
Creation and new creation
God’s people Israel and the nations
Covenantal nomism

Readings

A List Readings

Chapters 1, “From Son of God to Son of Man,” 2, “The Son of Man in First Enoch and Fourth Ezra: Other Jewish Messiahs of the First Century,” 4, “The Suffering Christ as a Midrash on Daniel,” and Epilogue, from The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin

B List Readings

Chapters 1, “Divine Father and Son,” 2, “The Spirit, Presence, and Name of God,” 8, “God’s People Israel,” 9, “the Law of God,” from The Religion of the Apostles, by Stephen De Young
“How Historical Is Ancient Israel,” chapter 2 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Ehud Ben Zvi
“Jews in Egypt: The Special Case of the Septuagint,” chapter 8 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Peg Kershenbaum

C List Readings

The Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition and the Shaping of New Testament Thought, Benjamin E. Reynolds and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, eds.
The Jewish Jesus: How Judaism and Christianity Shaped Each Other, by Peter Schäfer

Week 4 (Paul and the Other Apostles within Judaism) Topics and Readings

Topics

Paul and his interpreters through the ages
“New Perspective” on Paul and the reshaping of Christian understandings of Judaism
“Radical Perspective” on Paul – the apostle firmly rooted within Judaism
Paul, the faithful, Torah-observant Jew
Key passages in the Pauline letters, with a focus on Romans 9-11
Judaism in other New Testament writers, especially James

Readings

A List Readings

“Paul, Jews, and Gentiles,” by Michael Wyschogrod, in Abraham’s Promise: Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations
“From Jewish Sect to Gentile Church,” chapter 2 of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine
“Introduction: The Three Paths to Salvation of Paul the Jew,” by Gabriele Boccaccini (with responses by Albert I. Baumgarten and Daniel Boyarin), from Paul the Jew: Rereading the Apostle as a Figure of Second Temple Judaism

B List Readings

Chapters 3, “The New Testament and Anti-Judaism,” and 4, “Stereotyping Judaism,” from The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine
“Paul within Judaism: The State of the Questions,” by Magnus Zetterholm, chapter 1 from Paul within Judaism: Restoring the First-Century Context to the Apostle
“Paul within Judaism: A Critical Evaluation from a ‘New Perspective’ Perspective,” by Terence L. Donaldson, chapter 9 from Paul within Judaism: Restoring the First-Century Context to the Apostle

C List Readings

When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation, by Paula Fredriksen
A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity, by Daniel Boyarin
Paul Was Not a Jew: The Original Message of the Misunderstood Apostle, by Pamela Eisenbaum
Other articles from Gabriele Boccaccini and Carlos A. Segovia, eds., Paul the Jew: Rereading the Apostle as a Figure of Second Temple Judaism
Other articles from Mark D. Nanos and Magnus Zetterholm, eds., Paul within Judaism: Restoring the First-Century Context to the Apostle

Week 5 (The Parting of the Ways: Rabbinic Judaism and Patristic Christianity) Topics and Readings

Topics

From the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) to the expulsion of Jews from Palestine (135 CE)
Failed two-track system for Jewish and gentile Christians
Key moments in the development of Rabbinic Judaism
Development of anti-Jewish polemic

Readings

A List Readings

“Introduction – When Christians Were Jews: On Judeo-Christian Origins,” from Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, by Daniel Boyarin
“Introduction” from Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity, by Daniel Boyarin
“’The Parting of the Ways’ from the Perspective of Rabbinic Judaism,” by Philip S. Alexander, in Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways AD 70-135

B List Readings

“The Babylonian Consolidation of Rabbinic Judaism,” chapter 10 of The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, by Shai Secunda
“Jewish-Christian Relations in Barnabas and Justin Martyr,” by William Horbury, in Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways AD 70-135

C List Readings

The remainder of Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity, by Daniel Boyarin
Jesus in the Talmud, by Peter Schäfer
Other articles from James D.G. Dunn, ed., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways AD 70-135

Week 6 (Typology Bad and Good: Augustine, Faustus, and the Rules of Tyconius) Topics and Readings

Topics

Bad typology and the undermining of historic Israel
Marcion and the early patristic response
Augustine, Faustus and anti-Judaism
Rules of Tyconius as a guide to good typology
Evaluation of the depiction of Jews in early Christian liturgical texts

Readings

A List Readings

“Christian Anti-Judaism: Polemics and Policies,” chapter 38 of The Cambridge History of Judaism, Volume IV (The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period), by Paula Fredriksen and Oded Irshai
“Anti-Jewish Sentiments in Liturgical and Patristic Biblical Interpretations,” chapter 30 of The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity, by Bogdan G. Bucur

B List Readings

Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism by Paula Fredriksen (especially chapters 7 to 10)

C List Readings

The Epistle of Barnabas
Dialogue with Trypho, by Justin Martyr
The Book of Rules by Tyconius
Contra Faustum by Augustine