The Role of Christianity for the Emergence of Rabbinic Judaism

The study’s aim is to explore the role of Jesus-oriented groups (“Christians”) for the emergence of rabbinic Judaism during the 2–4th centuries CE.

Social identity and social conflict theories will be used to support the claim that the redefinition of Jewishness and the introduction of new practices found in early rabbinic texts occurred in response to a Jewish identity crisis largely caused by the challenge to Jewish self-understanding posed by “internal others” (Jesus-oriented Jews) allied with “external others” (Jesus-oriented gentiles) promoting an alternative understanding of the group’s identity.

In antiquity, “religion” and ethnic identity were deeply intertwined and the claim to have replaced Jews as the people of Israel’s God made by some Jesus groups, would have been seen as a threat to Jewish identity and practices.

The broader significance of the project lies in the theory that rabbinic Judaism, and by extension modern Judaism, emerged in response to the need to differentiate non-Jesus-oriented Jews from “Christians,” and as part of an identity formation process precipitated, not by disagreements over theological issues, but by similarities and rivalry with Jesus-oriented groups.

This perspective has the potential to transform our understanding of ancient texts other than those included in this study, and by extension, our reconstructions of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity up to the present day.