Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Part of the problem of recreating the conversation between Christians (many who were Jews) and non-Jesus Jews who rejected the resurrected-Christ story is this: the Jewish nation was effaced, practically speaking, a few short decades after Christ's death. So we don't know what was said, and the silence may not be indicative of Christian's lack of preaching.
Second, the Jews were famous for not acknowledging anything they didn't agree with. Josephus, for example, is a famous and widely attested early Jewish witness. But to read the Rabbis, he never existed. Why? He was a traitor to the 'minim'. So he was wiped from the record.
Third, one may in fact see some reaction to the "Jesus as God" assertions in the early rabbinic reports. There is a well-done scholarly work called "Two Powers in Heaven" by Alan Segal which covers this. (and note that there are not "Three Powers in Heaven" as yet - the "Holy Spirit as God" is not yet an issue, apparently).
An interesting point - if the non-Jesus Jews will come to worship at the feet of Jesus' believers, what does that say about Thomas falling down and worshipping at the feet of the resurrected Jesus?
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Goodness Aron, Two Powers in Heaven sounds like my kind of book, but it isn't cheap. I'm a fan of Larry Hurtado. He was a friend of Segal, and he's trilled that Two Powers in Heaven is back. He considers Segal's book "the most significant books for the study of Christian origins of the last 40 years." And Hurtado was no slouch. Seems Hurtado, Segal, and Bart Ehrman were close ; three top-notched early Christian scholars.
Now I'm going to have to decide if I'm going to cut loose of the money.
Thanks for bringing it up.