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Jewish Solutions to the Gentile Problem · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, usually when we look
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at historical conflicts, especially these ancient
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theological ones, there is this massive temptation to view the
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whole situation like a comic. Book Oh for sure, We really
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prefer our history with clean labels.
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Yeah, we do. You have the hero standing on
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one side and on the other side you have this like solid block
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of faceless antagonists. The narrative is kept super
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clean. It is totally binary.
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The hero holds all the correct ideas, and the opponents are,
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you know, characterized as stubborn or unreasonable.
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Or just completely lacking any logical rationale for what
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they're doing, and we project our own modern battles onto the
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past, assigning the role of the bad guys to whoever represents
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the current ideology we happen to be fighting against today.
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It makes the narrative so much easier to digest.
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I mean when we do not have to consider the opposing viewpoint
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sympathetically at all. And for centuries, readers of
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the Apostle Paul's letters, whether we are talking about the
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early church theologians, the Reformers in the 16th century,
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or even modern academic scholars, they have tended to
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read Paul's opponents as this generic foil.
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They're basically a blank slate for our own theological
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anxieties. Spot on.
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Those opponents get dressed up in the conceptual clothes of
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whatever foe the reader happens to be battling.
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So if you were reading Paul, during a conflict over church
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hierarchy, his opponents suddenly look like these rigid
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institutionalists. Or if you're reading him during
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a debate over grace, the opponents are characterized as
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mean spirited legalists trying to earn their salvation through
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sheer effort. Yeah, that is a very common one.
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But then, you know, you step into the actual historical world
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of the 1st century Mediterranean.
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Specifically, the world of Paul in his letters.
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Right. And suddenly that tidy comic
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book narrative just shatters entirely.
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It really does, which is why I am so thrilled you are joining
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us for today's Deep dive. We are going to look into a
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fascinating body of source material today, specifically
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Matthew Thiessen's chapter Paul and the Gentile Problem.
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It is such a brilliant piece of scholarship.
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It is, and our mission for this deep dive for you listening
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right now is to look at how 1st century Judaism actually viewed
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outsiders, specifically the gentile nations.
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And we want to see how understanding these incredibly
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diverse, intellectually rigorous viewpoints completely rewrites
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our understanding of Paul. And it rewrites our
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understanding of the very real people he was arguing against
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too. Yeah, because Thiessen pushes
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back heavily against those traditional scholarly
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assumptions we just mentioned. He really does.
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He argues that if we want to understand what was actually
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happening in places like Galatia or Rome, we have to drop the
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caricatures. We have to look at the
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historical reality with clear eyes.
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Which means acknowledging that Jewish thinkers in the Second
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Temple period were absolutely not a monolith.
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Not at all. They held at least 5 distinct,
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well reasoned and scripturally backed solutions for how
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Gentiles could relate to Israel's God.
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Five solutions, not just one strict rule.
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Right. They were not just making up
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arbitrary rules to keep outsiders away.
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They were, you know, wrestling with ancient texts to figure out
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the actual mechanisms of divine interaction with the non Jewish
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world. I think the common misconception
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shared by many listeners is that early Judaism maintained a
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single, highly rigid view of outsiders like you either had to
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undergo full physical conversion and become Jewish, or you were
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entirely cut off from the covenant and left to your own
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device. Yeah, the all or nothing view.
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But before we can even begin to understand Paul's specific
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arguments in his letters, we need to map out the actual
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options available to a 1st century thinker looking at the
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surrounding Greco Roman world. Which is what makes Thiessen's
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breakdown so helpful. I like to think of these
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solutions kind of like modern immigration or residency
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policies. So you have some policies that
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allow temporary visitation. Some offer permanent residency
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without the right to vote. Sure.
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Some provide a rigorous path to full naturalized citizenship,
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and then some just locked down the borders completely.
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That is a really helpful analogy for this.
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So the first solution Thiessen outlines, and he is drawing on
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the work of scholar Terence Donaldson.
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Here is what we call sympathization.
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Sympathization. Yeah, this is basically the
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category for the respectful outsider.
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These were Gentiles who respected the God of Israel.
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They respected the ancestral laws or honor the Jerusalem
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Temple, but they did not adopt Jewish practices in their daily
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lives. So they are not keeping kosher
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or resting on the Sabbath. Right.
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And they certainly did not identify themselves as part of
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the Jewish ethnic group. They maintain their gentile
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identity completely. I'm looking at the historical
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sources here and it is fascinating who actually falls
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into this category. You have foreign kings and
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emperors providing vast financial support for the
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Jerusalem Temple. All the financial records are
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amazing. Like the Book of Ezra details
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Cyrus the Great funding the rebuilding of the temple, the
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historian Josephus mentions Xerxes and Antiochus Ucb's and
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the author of Second Maccabees talks about Salucas providing
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funds for the sacrificial services.
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Even Roman emperors got involved.
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Philo records that Caesar Augustus himself arranged for
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regular offerings to be made at the temple.
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But, you know, let's apply some historical friction here for a
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second. When Augustus funds a temple
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sacrifice in Jerusalem, it feels less like a genuine theological
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awakening and more like a modern politician showing up to a local
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cultural festival to eat a corn dog and shake hands.
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Yeah, the photo op. Right, it is good optics.
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It keeps the local population pacified.
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Well, that political cynicism was certainly a major factor for
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the ruling class. I mean, the Roman Empire managed
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a massive array of diverse cultures and keeping the local
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deities appease was just standard administrative
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protocol. Just keeping the peace, yeah.
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But the sources suggest this phenomenon went far beyond
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calculated political maneuvering.
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Consider the letter of Aristius, which depicts the Egyptian king
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Ptolemy the Second Philadelphus honoring the Jewish law.
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What does that text say about him?
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The text portrays him giving thanks to the God who pronounced
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those oracles, recognizing a supreme divine authority behind
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the texts. And Philo claims Tommy's desire
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to translate the Jewish law into Greek, which eventually became
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the Septuagint, was a result of his sincere zeal and
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intellectual longing for the wisdom contained in it.
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OK, so a real intellectual respect.
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Yes. Philo also writes about
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Petronius, who was the Roman governor of Syria under Emperor
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Gaius. Philo claims Petronius harbored
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a genuine respect for Jewish philosophy and piety.
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And we also have Roman writers corroborating this from the
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outside, which I think adds immense credibility because it
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wasn't just Jewish authors bragging about how much the
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gentiles like their laws. No, the Romans were actually
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complaining about. It right The Roman philosopher
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Seneca famously complained about how widespread this Gentile
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attraction to Jewish customs had become.
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What did he say specifically? He lamented that the customs of
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this accursed race. His words obviously had gained
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such influence that they were now accepted throughout all the
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lands. When a Roman Stoic complaints
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about the popularity of a foreign philosophical system
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among his own people, you know you are looking at a massive
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grassroots movement. These sympathizers did not
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abandon their ancestral gods or their Roman identity, but they
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integrated a deep respect for the God of Israel into their
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worldview. Which brings us to the second
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framework. This one is slightly more
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structured ethical monotheism. Ethical Monotheism.
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Right. This pattern builds on the
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sympathizer model, but introduces a highly specific
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theological mechanism. Let me push back on how that
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mechanism functions for a second, because ethical
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monotheism creates an immediate theological puzzle to me.
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How so? Well, if the Mosaic Law given at
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Sinai is the absolute standard of righteousness, how could a
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Gentile in the ancient world be considered righteous by a Jewish
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thinker without knowing a single thing about dietary
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restrictions, Sabbath keeping, or ritual purity?
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That is the big question, and the mechanism relies on A2
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tiered understanding of divine legislation. 2 tiers.
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Yeah, some Jewish thinkers believe that God issued a
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separate universal law to all of humanity, completely distinct
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from the highly specific Mosaic Law given at Sinai.
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Oh, interesting. This universal moral code is
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frequently associated with the Noahide Law because Noah is the
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ancestor of all humanity after the Flood, not just the
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Israelites. Man's given to him.
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Apply to every nation on earth. This solves the theological
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puzzle perfectly. Within this framework, God
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intended all of humanity to observe this universal baseline,
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while He intended only the people of Israel to observe the
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much more extensive, rigorous Mosaic covenant.
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Spot on, and the Book of Jubilees outlines this
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beautifully. It depicts Noah commanding his
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sons to follow some very basic rules.
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What were the rules? They must bless the Creator,
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which establishes a baseline of monotheism.
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They must do justice on their parents, love their neighbors,
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and abstain from sexual immorality and ritual pollution.
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So it is a very streamlined moral code.
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There are no dietary restrictions prohibiting pork or
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shellfish, no demands for Sabbath arrest, and no
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requirement for physical circumcision.
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Right. It is basically basic human
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decency coupled with the recognition of one supreme
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maker. Philo relied heavily on this
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concept. He asserts that all Greeks and
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Barbarians unanimously acknowledge the existence of the
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Supreme Father of Gods and men, the Maker of the whole universe.
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And we see this in other texts too, right?
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Yeah, the Sibling Oracle's, which is a collection of ancient
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texts, expect Gentiles to abandon the worship of idols and
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live morally by not oppressing others, avoiding sexual
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immorality, and refusing to kill their children.
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Which was a very common practice in the Roman world, sadly.
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It was so. The Jews, whose thinking fixed
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this ethical monotheism pattern, believe that Gentiles can remain
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entirely outside the covenant of Moses, living as Gentiles, and
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still be perfectly pleasing to God by following this universal
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baseline. But you know, that creates a
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massive theological deficit in another area.
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What do you mean? If God intends to restore the
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whole world, having the nation's just doing the bare minimum
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Noahide laws feels incomplete. The prophets talk about a total
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cosmic restoration. That tension has to lead
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somewhere else. You are identifying the exact
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friction that birthed the third solution, eschatological
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participation. OK.
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Eschatological participation. Break that down for us.
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This is the belief that the Gentile problem, you know, the
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reality of widespread idolatry and rebellion among the nations,
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cannot be solved by human effort or partial moral codes in the
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prison age. So the Noahide laws aren't
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enough? Right.
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Instead, it requires a direct, miraculous intervention by God
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at the end of days. The end times fix.
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Human solutions are insufficient, so we wait for
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divine action. Precisely.
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You see this heavily in the prophets, particularly in
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Deutero Isaiah. There's this grand sweeping
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vision of Israel's escological restoration, and when that
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restoration happens, the Gentiles will stream to
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Jerusalem. Right, Isaiah says.
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Gentiles who have not known you will call upon you, and peoples
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who have not known you will flee to you.
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Yes, and the book of Tobit prophecies that when God
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rebuilds Jerusalem, the Gentiles will genuinely turn to fear the
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Lord God and bury their idols in the earth.
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But the internal debate regarding what that actually
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looks like on the ground is fierce, isn't it?
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When those Gentiles stream to Jerusalem, do they adopt Mosaic
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law? Do they underbow physical
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conversion to become Jewish? That is the dividing line.
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Some authors did envision Gentiles adopting the entirety
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of the Jewish law at the eschaton.
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Isaiah 2 pictures the nation's coming to the mountain of the
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Lord specifically to undergo instruction in the law.
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Right. Philo anticipates Gentiles
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abandoning their own ancestral customs entirely and honoring
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Jewish laws alone during the Restoration.
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However, other authors perceived this eschatological salvation
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through a completely different lens.
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How so? They envision an influx of
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Gentiles who worship the one true God, but who do so strictly
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as Gentiles. I.
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Want to spend some time on the analogy Thiessen brings up from
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the animal apocalypse found in First Enoch?
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Because the visual imagery here explains the theology better
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than 100 pages of academic prose.
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Oh, the animal apocalypse is brilliant.
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In this apocalyptic vision, humanity is depicted as
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different kinds of animals. The people of Israel are
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depicted as sheep, which are clean animals, acceptable for
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sacrifice, docile and part of the flock right, And the Gentile
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nations are depicted as various unclean animals, wild predators
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like wolves, lions and boars. It is a striking use of
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apocalyptic imagery to demonstrate a fundamental
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ontological difference between the groups.
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You have the protected flock and you have the chaotic predatory
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wilderness outside. Yeah, and at the end of days,
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God steps in and miraculously purifies the wild, unclean
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animals. The wolves and lions are changed
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into clean white bulls. OK, yes, but the crucial detail,
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the part that completely reorients how we understand this
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theology, is that they become bulls.
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They do not become sheep. That is the key.
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They undergo this incredible divine purification to become
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clean, acceptable animals. They are no longer predatory,
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they no longer represent a threat, but they remain A
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distinct biological category from the sheep.
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This illustrates a point made by scholar Paula Fredrickson, which
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Decent heavily relies on. She argues that modern
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interpreters routinely make a category error by assuming
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eschatological inclusion automatically means
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eschatological conversion. Wow, that is a huge distinction.
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It is in the framework of the animal apocalypse.
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Saved Gentiles are not Jews. They are Gentiles who simply no
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longer worship idols. They are purified, clean
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neighbors. They are white bulls, not sheep.
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God values the distinction between the groups and maintains
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it even after purifying the world.
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That distinction is going to be incredibly vital when we start
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talking about Paul's theological crisis later.
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But what if someone in the ancient world did not want to
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wait for the end of time? What if a Gentile encountered
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the God of Israel and wanted full, unrestricted access to the
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covenant right now? That brings us to the 4th
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solution, conversion. Yeah, of the five patterns we
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were discussing, conversion is the only solution where a
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Gentile actually ceases to be a Gentile.
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The prior identity is erased. Entirely.
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They undergo physical circumcision, they take on the
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full yoke of Mosaic Law, and they are fully incorporated into
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the Jewish people. They change their nationality.
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They go from being a resident alien or a friendly neighbor to
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holding a fully naturalized passport.
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We see this mechanism vividly displayed in the Book of Judith
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with the story of a cure, the Ammonite.
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What happens with a cure? After seeing God's miraculous
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delivered of the Jewish people from the Assyrian army, Akir
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believes in God with all his heart.
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The text says. He circumcises the flesh of his
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foreskin and joins the House of Israel, remaining there to this
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day. Akir story is fascinating
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because it highlights a great yet the narrative in Judith
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shows Akir the Ammonite being fully incorporated through the
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rite of circumcision anyway. The ritual of circumcision was
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viewed as potent enough to override ancient ethnic
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prohibitions. We also have historical records
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of the Hasmonean dynasty in the 2nd century BCE enforcing this.
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Right, the political side of things.
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Yes, as the Hasmoneans expanded their territory, they
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incorporated neighboring groups like the Idemians and Atrians
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into the Jewish community via mandatory circumcision.
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If you wanted to live within the expanded borders of Judea, you
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had to become a Jew. Geopolitics and border security
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drove a massive wave of theological conversion.
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But not every Jewish thinker would have celebrated the
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Hasmoneans doing that. The idea of taking a foreign
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population and simply cutting their flesh to make them part of
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the covenant would have horrified certain groups
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absolutely. Which brings us to the 5th and
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final solution to the Gentile problem.
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This one is the hard line. The borders are closed and the
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locks are changed. The 5th solution is exclusion.
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This is the belief that Gentiles simply cannot relate positively
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to Israel's God under any circumstances because of a
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permanent, irremediable genealogical difference.
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You see, this perspective dominate the biblical books of
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Ezra and Nehemiah. When the Exiles returned to
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Jerusalem from Babylon, Esri discovers that some of the
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Jewish men have married foreign women from the surrounding
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nations. And his reaction is intense.
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Ezra's reaction is absolute devastation.
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He commands the immediate expulsion of all foreign wives
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and the children born to them. There is no nuance.
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None. There is no discussion about
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whether these foreign women might want to worship Yahweh, or
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whether they could be taught the Mosaic Law, or whether they
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could undergo some purification ritual.
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The underlying assumption is that Gentiles can never, under
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many circumstances, become part of the community.
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And the logic driving this extreme exclusion is tied
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directly to the concept of holy seed.
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Holy seed, Let's unpack that. Ezra refers to the people of
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Israel as the holy seed. The inevitable implication is
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that the surrounding nations are considered profane seed.
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The mechanics of this are heavily agricultural.
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Right, these are farming communities.
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Yes, ancient farming communities understood that a bad crop meant
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starvation. The Book of Leviticus contains a
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strict command You shall not sow your field with two kinds of
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seed. To those who held this
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exclusivist view, mixing holy and profane human seed through
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intermarriage was not just a social indiscretion, it was
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cosmological vandalism. Cosmological vandalism.
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I like that phrasing. It was defying the physical
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boundaries established by God at creation.
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It is the sheer dread of corrupting the harvest.
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The Book of Jubilees reinforces this exact dread.
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It uses the story of the slaughter of the Shechemites in
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Genesis 34 to establish a rigid legal precedent forbidding
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Jewish fathers from giving their daughters to Gentile men.
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Because it defiles the seed. Yes, Jubilees claims that such a
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union defiles the holy seed of Jacob.
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We even have an ancient text from the Dead Sea Scrolls called
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4 Q MMT that appears to condemn intermarriage between Jews and
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converted Gentiles. Wait, really?
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Converted Gentiles. This suggests that in the minds
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of the exclusivists, even a rigorous purification ritual
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like circumcision cannot change a person's fundamental, profane
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biological nature. If you hold to the exclusion
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framework, a converted gentile is still just a gentile.
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The purification ritual is unlawful, the marriage to them
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is illicit, and the boundary line separating the nations are
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written in the bedrock of creation itself.
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So we now have a robust map of the 1st century mindset.
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We have sympathization, ethical monotheism, eschatological
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participation, conversion, and exclusion.
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It is quite the spectrum. It really is, and with this map
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laid out we can zoom in on the specific historical conflict
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happening in Paul's letters, particularly in the region of
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Galatia. Paul is writing to a group of
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non Jewish Christ followers. Some outside teachers have
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arrived in the community and told these Gentiles believing in
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Christ is a good start, but you need to be circumcised.
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You need to adopt the Mosaic law based on our five solutions.
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These teachers are clearly advocating for solution, for
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conversion, and to make their case to these Gentiles, they
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drop the ultimate biblical trump card, Abraham.
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Abraham is the perfect scriptural paradigm for their
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argument. If you want to convince a grown
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Gentile man that he needs to undergo circumcision to please
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God, you point directly to the patriarch of the faith.
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We need to unpack the back story of Abraham thoroughly here
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because you listening might be bringing a lot of chronological
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assumptions to the text. We read Genesis forward, God
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calls Abram in chapter 12 and we immediately categorize him as
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the first Jew. But a 1st century reader is
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looking at the text differently. To them, wasn't Abraham
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basically a Gentile for the vast majority of his life?
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Yes, he was a Chaldean. He belonged to the nations, and
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early Jewish interpreters universally understood that
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Abraham grew up embedded in a culture of idolatry.
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But when you read the book of Genesis, it simply states that
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God Paul's Abram out of err of the Chaldeans.
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It does not mention anything about him bowing down to statues
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or worshipping foreign gods. Where are they getting this
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background? They are reading Genesis through
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the lens of the book of Joshua. Joshua 24.
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Joshua gathers the tribes of Israel and reminds them of their
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history, saying Your father's lived on the other side of the
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river from of old Terra, the father of Abraham, the father of
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Nahor, and they worshipped other gods.
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OK, so there is the biblical proof text.
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Yes, now the Hebrew text uses a specific word for worship, but
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as scholars point out, there is a fascinating bilingual pun
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operating in the ancient world here.
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A pun. Yeah, in Hebrew, that word root
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means to worship or bow down. But in Aramaic, which became the
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dominant spoken language in the Second Temple period, that exact
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same word root means to make or to manufacture.
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Oh wow, so when an Aramaic speaker reads the text of Joshua
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24, they do not just read that Terra worshipped false gods,
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they read that Terra manufactured false gods.
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But on this linguistic detail birthed the massive tradition of
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stories found in texts like Jubilees, the Apocalypse of
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Abraham, later rabbinic literature like Genesis Raba.
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They depict Taro running a lucrative idol manufacturing
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business. That's so interesting.
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And Abraham is portrayed as this brilliant, precocious teenager
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who starts to realize the family business is a complete sham.
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I love the story from Genesis Raba regarding this.
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Abraham is left in charge of his father's idol.
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Shop for the day A 50 year old man walks in to buy an idol.
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Abraham asked the customer how old he is.
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The man says he is 50. Abraham then mocks him, saying
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you are 50 years old and you are going to bow down to an object
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that I carved with my own hands yesterday.
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Abraham is a terrible salesman because he sees through the
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entire theological charade. He recognizes the absurdity of
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assigning divine authority to wood and stone.
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It is a very humorous story, but it establishes a highly serious
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theological baseline. Abraham was raised in darkness.
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He was Gentile idolater who eventually awakened to the truth
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of the one Supreme God, abandoned his false deities and
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was called by God to leave his homeland.
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Which makes him the perfect model.
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Exactly. I mean, yes, for a 1st century
22:13
Jewish missionary attempting to persuade Gentiles to convert,
22:16
Abraham represents the absolute standard of nobility.
22:19
The philosopher Philo puts it perfectly.
22:22
He calls Abraham the paradigm for all foreigners who abandoned
22:25
the monstrous customs of assigning divine honors to wood
22:28
and stones and who come to settle in a Commonwealth full of
22:31
true life and vitality. The narrative of Abraham's life
22:35
presents a severe chronological friction, though.
22:37
What is a friction? Well, God calls Abraham in
22:40
Genesis 12 when he is 75 years old, but the physical
22:43
requirement of circumcision doesn't arrive until Genesis 17,
22:46
when Abraham is 99 years old. Why let him walk around
22:49
uncircumcised for 1/4 of a century?
22:51
Why the massive delay? That 24 year delay was heavily
22:55
analyzed by early Jewish thinkers trying to understand
22:58
the mechanics of conversion. A fascinating interpretation is
23:01
preserved in the Maquilta de Rabbi Ishmael, an early rabbinic
23:05
commentary. What do They Say?
23:06
It argues that God waiting until Abraham was 99 was a deliberate
23:10
act of divine forbearance. The Rabbi's argue that if God
23:13
had circumcised Abraham at age 20 or 30, then future Gentiles
23:17
who wanted to convert in their old age might look at the text
23:20
and think, I am past that age limit.
23:23
I am too old to convert. Oh, that is brilliant.
23:26
By waiting until Abraham was physically ancient, God ensured
23:30
that no Gentile could ever claim the door was closed to them
23:33
because of their advanced age. God leaves the door permanently
23:36
propped open. Abraham undergoes this procedure
23:39
practically on his deathbed to prove that it is never too late
23:42
for anyone. He becomes the literal father of
23:44
proselytes. According to this reading,
23:46
Genesis 17 provides the explicit legal and physical mechanism
23:50
through which non Israelites can become part of the covenant
23:53
community. So the pitch is pretty
23:54
straightforward. It is if you are a Gentile who
23:57
has abandoned your idols, just as Abraham did in Genesis 12,
24:01
then the next logical, scripturally mandated step is to
24:04
follow Abraham's example in Genesis 17 and undergo
24:07
circumcision to receive the full covenantal blessing.
24:10
I have to ask a practical historical question regarding
24:13
this strategy. To a modern listener, the idea
24:16
of traveling around the Mediterranean basin, walking
24:19
into Greek and Roman cities, and trying to convince grown men to
24:23
undergo adult circumcision sounds like an impossible
24:26
marketing campaign. It sounds incredibly difficult,
24:28
yes. There is no anesthesia, the risk
24:30
of infection is immense, and culturally, Greeks and Romans
24:34
highly valued the unblemished human form.
24:37
Circumcision was often viewed by outsiders as bodily mutilation.
24:42
How did these teachers actually persuade people to do this?
24:45
They bypassed the physical trauma by appealing to a major
24:48
philosophical obsession of the Greco Roman world.
24:52
If you read the prominent philosophers of the time, there
24:54
was a massive cultural focus on the concept of mastering human
24:57
passions and desires. Self mastery.
24:59
Right. The ultimate goal of a virtuous
25:01
life was achieving total self mastery.
25:04
The passions were seen as chaotic forces that needed to be
25:06
tamed. Many Jewish thinkers engaged
25:09
with this culture by positing that the Jewish law was the
25:11
ultimate divinely ordained therapy for human desire.
25:15
It was the highest possible discipline for cultivating
25:17
virtue. So they framed the law not as a
25:20
burdensome set of arbitrary rules, but as a medical or
25:24
philosophical cure for the human condition.
25:26
Yes, and circumcision specifically was viewed as a
25:30
physical manifestation of this discipline.
25:33
Philo makes this argument explicitly relying on a common
25:36
philosophical belief found as early as Plato.
25:39
What was the belief? The prevailing thought was that
25:42
the genital organs were the absolute seat of human passion,
25:45
that they were inherently disobedient, self willed and
25:48
dominated by frenzied lusts. Philo argues that circumcision
25:52
is the physical symbol of the excision of excessive and
25:54
superfluous pleasure. By deliberately cutting the
25:57
organ that ministers to the strongest of human pleasures, a
26:00
man publicly and physically achieves mastery over all other
26:03
forms of chaotic desire. That completely reframes the
26:06
practice for a Greek audience. It is not presented as an
26:09
arbitrary tribal marker. It is presented as a minor
26:11
surgical procedure necessary for moral perfection.
26:14
Hold on. I am recalling the analogy
26:16
Thesin cites from Rabbi Levi in Genesis Rabbi which perfectly
26:20
encapsulates how this was pitched.
26:22
God tells Abraham in Genesis 17 to walk before me and be whole
26:27
or be complete. Yeah, that analogy is fantastic.
26:30
Rabbi Levi compares this interaction to a king talking to
26:33
a noble lady. The king looks at the noble lady
26:35
and tells her she is absolutely perfect.
26:37
She has no defects whatsoever except for the nail of her
26:40
little finger, which is slightly too long, he says.
26:43
Parrot clip it and the defect will be gone.
26:46
Just a tiny cluck. Right, Rabbi Levi says God was
26:49
telling Abraham the exact same thing.
26:51
You have no other defect but this foreskin.
26:53
Remove it and the defect will be gone.
26:56
It is a stunning piece of rhetorical persuasion.
26:58
Circumcision is framed not as a massive traumatic bodily
27:01
alteration, but as a minor clipping, a final tiny
27:05
adjustment needed to achieve total moral perfection.
27:08
If Paul's opponents in Galatia were utilizing this kind of
27:11
sophisticated argumentation, pointing to Abraham as the
27:15
historical precedent, pointing to the philosophical benefits of
27:18
self mastery, and downplaying the physical burden by comparing
27:22
it to clipping a fingernail, you can easily see why their message
27:26
would have been incredibly persuasive to Gentile Con.
27:29
Very persuasive. They were offering a
27:31
scripturally backed, historically validated and
27:34
philosophically appealing path to becoming full naturalized
27:38
citizens of the Covenant community.
27:39
If this therapy of desire was so highly effective and the
27:43
Abrahamic model is so persuasive, did 1st century
27:46
Judaism run organized, aggressive missionary campaigns?
27:50
Were there structured groups of Jewish teachers systematically
27:53
traveling the globe trying to convert gentiles the way Paul
27:56
and his opponents were clearly doing?
27:58
This is a point of significant friction among historians.
28:01
The historical evidence is pretty mixed and scholars fall
28:04
on both sides of the debate. So we do not really know for
28:07
sure. Some scholars maintain the
28:09
Judaism actively and enthusiastically sought out
28:12
converts across the Empire. Others argue that while Jewish
28:16
communities were generally open to accepting converts who
28:18
approach them, they did not actively recruit or proselytize.
28:23
It is debated whether there was anything akin to a modern
28:26
structured missionary movement prior to the Jesus movement
28:29
spreading across the Mediterranean.
28:31
We know conversion occurred, but the mechanisms behind it seem
28:35
decentralized. Can you provide a historical
28:37
example of how this debate played out in real time?
28:40
The clearest, most dramatic example comes from the Jewish
28:43
historian Josephus, who he records the story of the
28:45
conversion of King Izatis. Izatis, who was he?
28:48
He was the ruler of Adiabini in the early 1st century.
28:52
Izatis is instructed in Jewish customs by a Jewish merchant
28:56
named Ananias. But Ananias actively dissuades
28:59
the king from undergoing circumcision.
29:01
Yes, he tells the king that circumcision is entirely
29:05
unnecessary for a right relationship with God.
29:09
Ananias teaching perfectly fits the pattern we discussed earlier
29:12
of ethical monotheism or perhaps sympathization.
29:16
He's basically telling the king you can worship the God of
29:19
Israel and keep the ethical customs without physically
29:22
altering your body or your identity.
29:24
Ananias is offering him solution one or two.
29:26
You can stay a Gentile king, avoid the political fallout of
29:29
mutilating your body, and still be right with the divine.
29:31
But the narrative shifts violently.
29:34
Later, another Jewish teacher arrives at the court.
29:36
A Galilean named Elizar. Josephus describes Eliazar as a
29:40
man who was exceedingly strict and precise regarding the
29:43
ancestral customs of the Jews. Eliazar walks in, finds King
29:47
Izadi's reading the Law of Moses, and severely chastises
29:50
him. He tells the king that reading
29:52
the Law without obeying the specific commandment of
29:54
circumcision is a massive offense against God.
29:57
Wow. Under this intense theological
29:59
pressure is ISIS immediately summons a surgeon and undergoes
30:02
circumcision to become a genuine Jew.
30:04
So Eliezar is aggressively pushing solution for conversion,
30:09
and based on Josephus's description of Eleazar being
30:12
precise regarding ancestral customs, historians generally
30:15
identify him as belonging to the party of the Pharisees.
30:18
The terminology Josephus uses there is strongly associated
30:20
with the Pharisees, and this aligns perfectly with other
30:23
evidence we have linking the Pharisaic movement to an intense
30:26
openness toward, and perhaps advocacy for conversion.
30:30
Like what other evidence? The Gospel of Matthew features
30:33
Jesus issuing A woe against the scribes and Pharisees, stating
30:36
that they cross sea and land to make one proselyte.
30:39
The book of Acts portrays some Pharisees who have become
30:42
believers in Jesus standing up at the Jerusalem Council and
30:45
demanding that Gentile believers must be circumcised and
30:48
instructed to keep the Law of Moses.
30:50
We also have those incredible stories in the Talmud regarding
30:53
Hillel and Shamay, two of the most famous Pharisaic leaders
30:56
operating right around the time of Jesus.
30:58
Those stories perfectly illustrate the internal friction
31:01
regarding conversion, even within the Pharisaic movement
31:03
itself. The Talmud records a series of
31:06
incidents where gentiles approach both Shamay and Hillel,
31:09
asking to undergo conversion. In the most famous story, a
31:13
gentile comes to Shamai and says he is willing to become a
31:16
proselyte, but only on the condition that Shamai teaches
31:19
him the entire Torah while standing on one foot.
31:22
That is an incredibly arrogant, almost mocking request from the
31:26
Gentile. He is essentially saying distill
31:29
the infinite wisdom of the divine into a sound bite while
31:32
you perform a balancing act for me.
31:34
It is very arrogant. And Shamai, who is known for his
31:37
uncompromising strictness, react precisely how you would expect a
31:42
scholar to react. He chases the man out of the
31:44
building with a builder's ruler that he happens to be holding.
31:47
This is a very vivid image, yeah, But the narrative
31:50
continues. Yeah, that same gentile goes to
31:52
Hillel with the exact same mocking request.
31:55
Hillel accepts the challenge. He stands on one foot and
31:58
delivers a stunning summary of the law.
31:59
What does he say? He says what is hateful to you
32:02
do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah.
32:05
The rest is commentary. Go and study.
32:07
Hillel patiently welcomes a man into the community despite his
32:10
initial arrogance. So we have two very different
32:13
reactions. Yes, we can interpret Shamay's
32:16
violent rejection in a couple of ways.
32:19
Perhaps he believed in the theology of conversion but
32:22
simply lacked patience for arrogant seekers.
32:25
Or perhaps Shamay represents a stream of thought within Judaism
32:29
that was suspicious of or entirely hostile to the idea
32:33
that Gentiles could ever truly become Jews.
32:36
However, the editors of the Talmud clearly side with
32:39
Hallel's approach. Gentiles can convert and they
32:42
should be graciously welcomed into the fold.
32:44
Yet even when a gentile was graciously welcomed by someone
32:47
like Hallel and legally converted, the transition was
32:49
not always smooth. There was this lingering,
32:51
persistent social and genealogical friction that the
32:55
law could not easily erase. This is a vital point regarding
32:58
ancient identity. Even when conversion was legally
33:01
recognized, when it was halachically valid, the social
33:03
realities on the ground were incredibly complicated.
33:06
How bad did the social friction get?
33:08
Well, the Tosefta Baba Mencia, an early rabbinic text,
33:11
explicitly warns born Jews not to taunt converts.
33:15
It dictates that if you see a proselyte coming to study the
33:18
Torah, you must not say to him, look who is coming to study
33:22
Torah? This one who used to eat carrion
33:24
and creeping things. The mere fact that they had to
33:26
codify a rule against saying that tells you that people were
33:29
absolutely doing it. Oh, without a doubt.
33:31
They were weaponizing the converts past diet as a way to
33:35
undermine their current status. They weaponized it because the
33:38
core tension stems from the fact that Jewishness was
33:42
fundamentally genealogical. It was a matter of kinship,
33:45
ancestry, and bloodlines. A convert changed their legal
33:48
status, they changed their religious practice, and they
33:51
altered their physical body. But could they truly claim the
33:54
ancient patriarchs as their own flesh and blood?
33:56
That is the question. Could someone whose direct
33:59
ancestors were idol worshipping outsiders genuinely stand up and
34:03
pray to the God of our fathers that underlying anxiety about
34:06
identity and bloodlines never fully dissipated?
34:09
The ontological gap was difficult to bridge completely.
34:12
That precise genealogical anxiety brings us directly to
34:15
the doorstep of the Apostle Paul, because this is the exact
34:19
theological crisis he is wrestling with in his letters.
34:22
Yes, it all leads to Paul. We know Paul used to be a
34:24
Pharisee. We know from his own writings
34:27
like Galatians 5 point oven that he used to preach circumcision.
34:30
He used to actively advocate for the Gentile conversion model,
34:34
but then after his encounter with Christ on the road to
34:36
Damascus, he abruptly stops. He entirely abandons the pro
34:40
circumcision message. Why the radical shift?
34:43
The answer, according to TSN, lies in the intense
34:46
misunderstanding of a single Greek word, eudaismos.
34:49
Eudaismos. This linguistic detail is the
34:52
absolute turning point of the entire historical analysis.
34:55
In Galatians chapter 1, Paul is defending his new message to the
34:58
churches, and he references his past life.
35:00
Most standard English Bibles translate the verse along these
35:03
lines. You have heard of my previous
35:05
way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the
35:07
Church of God. I was advancing in Judaism
35:10
beyond many of my own age. The traditional reading of that
35:12
translation assumes Paul is saying he abandoned the Jewish
35:15
religion for a brand new religion called Christianity.
35:19
He left Judaism behind to start something else.
35:21
But Thiessen, building on the rigorous philological work of
35:25
scholars like Steve Mason and Shay JD Cohen, argues that
35:29
translating Ayudusmos as Judaism is a massive historical
35:33
anachronism. Why is it an anachronism?
35:35
It forces a modern post enlightenment concept of
35:38
distinct world religions onto an ancient text that predates that
35:42
concept by centuries. The noun udismos is actually
35:46
incredibly rare in ancient Greek literature, and it is tied
35:49
grammatically to the Greek verb eudaisim, which translates
35:53
literally to Judaize. We need to look closely at how
35:56
these specific verbs functioned in ancient Greek, because
35:59
understanding the mechanics of this grammar changes everything
36:02
about how we read false letters. In ancient Greek grammar, when
36:04
you have a verb ending in the suffix aizim that is attached to
36:07
a specific ethnic group, it describes the act of adopting
36:10
the customs of that group when you do not actually belong to.
36:13
It. Oh, so it is about imitating,
36:14
right? It refers strictly to behavioral
36:17
imitation, not an essential change of identity.
36:20
For example, people born in media do not meet an ICE.
36:24
Only Greeks who adopt Median customs meet ice.
36:27
Spartans do not like an ice. Only non Spartans who start
36:31
acting like Spartans like an ICE.
36:32
Let me build an analogy for this, because the psychological
36:35
dissonance here is crucial. Imagine a guy born and raised in
36:39
London. He has a British passport, a
36:41
British accent, and he has lived in the UK his entire life.
36:44
One day, he decides he absolutely loves the culture of
36:47
Texas. OK, a London Texan.
36:49
Yeah, he buys a pair of expensive leather cowboy boots.
36:52
He purchases a 10 gallon hat. He starts saying y'all with a
36:55
highly practiced fake southern drawl, and he tells everyone he
36:58
meets that he is a Texan. He is adopting the customs of a
37:01
group he fundamentally does not belong to.
37:03
He is imitating. He is behaviorally imitating a
37:05
Texan, but his essential identity, his citizenship, and
37:08
his actual origin have not changed one bit.
37:11
That analogy perfectly captures the dynamic and importantly, as
37:15
Cohen notes in his research, these I sign verbs generally
37:18
carried a negative comic or openly mocking valence in the
37:21
ancient world. Because you look ridiculous
37:24
doing it. Right.
37:25
They implied that a person was acting contrary to their true
37:27
nature. They were seen as a poser.
37:30
It is not inherently bad to be a Mead, but it is considered
37:34
shameful and ridiculous for a Greek to act like a Mead in the
37:37
exact same way. Using the word Judaizing implies
37:40
that a person is pretending to be a Jew, acting like a Jew,
37:43
putting on the cultural clothes of a Jew, but not actually
37:46
becoming a Jew. The verb highlights the massive
37:48
discrepancy between the exterior behavior being performed and the
37:52
interior reality of the person. Yes, we see this specific word
37:57
used exactly this way and other ancient texts to describe people
38:00
faking it, don't we? We do in the Greek translation
38:03
of the book of Esther. After the Jewish people are
38:05
saved from Hammonds plot and the tables are turned on their
38:08
enemies. The text says that many Gentiles
38:11
in the Persian Empire Judaized out of fear of the Jews.
38:14
So they were scared. Very scared.
38:16
The original Hebrew text uses a form that strongly implies they
38:19
were pretending to be Jews to avoid being slaughtered.
38:22
They were passing as Jews to survive.
38:25
The historian Josephus also uses the word in his comprehensive
38:28
history of the Jewish War. He talks about Syrians Judaizing
38:31
to avoid violence during a time of intense conflict.
38:34
That is just basic survival instinct.
38:35
In another incredible, desperate story, Josephus writes about a
38:39
Roman commander named Matilius. Matilius Garrison is being
38:42
massacred in Jerusalem by Jewish rebels.
38:45
Matilius begs for his life, promising the rebels that if
38:48
they spare him, he will Judaize up to the point of circumcision.
38:51
Matilus is essentially saying, I will adopt all your customs, I
38:54
will wear the clothes, I will even undergo the agonizing
38:56
surgery. Just do not kill me.
38:58
He is not experiencing A genuine theological awakening.
39:02
He is desperately trying to survive by adopting the external
39:05
physical markers of the group currently holding the swords.
39:08
Precisely. Now, for some Jewish thinkers,
39:12
going all the way to the point of circumcision was considered
39:14
full, valid conversion. But for others, especially in
39:18
light of the genealogical anxiety we discussed earlier,
39:21
even circumcision was viewed as just the ultimate form of
39:24
Judaizing. It was a gentile putting on a
39:26
very convincing permanent costume.
39:28
But remaining fundamentally A gentile underneath the ritual.
39:33
And this is how Paul utilizes the verb in his own writing.
39:37
We see this clearly in Galatians 2.
39:39
Paul recounts his famous, highly public confrontation with the
39:42
Apostle Peter in the city of Antioch.
39:44
Peter had been eating meals with the uncircumcised Gentile
39:47
believers, fully accepting them. But when some strict Jewish
39:51
believers arrived from Jerusalem, Peter panicked.
39:53
He got intimidated by the strict.
39:55
Group, right? He pulled back and separated
39:57
himself from the Gentiles to appease them, and Paul calls him
39:59
out publicly. Paul says to Peter, If you,
40:02
though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how
40:05
can you compel the Gentiles to Judaize?
40:07
That single verse is the interpretive key to the entire
40:10
letter. Paul uses the verb ayude sign
40:14
negatively. Paul realizes A profound, well,
40:16
a major symmetry here. Just as Peter acting like a
40:20
Gentile for an afternoon does not actually make Peter a
40:23
gentile, A Gentile acting like a Jew does not make them a Jew.
40:26
It is all just outward behavior. Gentile undergoing circumcision,
40:30
keeping the Sabbath, and eating kosher food is just IU designed.
40:33
It is play acting. It is behavioral imitation that
40:36
cannot bridge the genealogical gap.
40:38
So when Paul talks in Galatians One about his former life in IU
40:41
Deuce Most, he is not saying I used to practice the Jewish
40:44
religion and now I practice the Christian religion.
40:47
He is saying I used to be fiercely violent, silently
40:49
dedicated to the project of forcing Gentiles to Judaize.
40:52
He used to be the guy demanding that the Londoner put on the
40:54
cowboy boots and the hat and pretend to be a Texan.
40:57
Yes, Paul absolutely did not abandon his Jewish identity.
41:01
Throughout his letters, he repeatedly and proudly calls
41:03
himself a Hebrew, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin.
41:07
What he abandoned was his former missionary strategy regarding
41:10
outsiders. The Damascus Rd. encounter
41:13
completely shifted his view on this.
41:15
His encounter with Christ caused an absolute paradigm shift in
41:19
his theology. He realized that the Jewish law
41:21
did not actually solve the Gentile problem at all.
41:24
Having Gentiles undergo circumcision and adopt dietary
41:27
laws did not alter their fundamental genealogical
41:31
identity as outsiders. It was just an external behavior
41:33
modification. They were still Gentiles, still
41:36
trapped in the profane seed, just attempting to pass his Holy
41:39
See. They were just dressing up, and
41:41
Paul is arguing that the Christ event demands a solution much
41:44
more radical than a cultural costume change.
41:47
The opponents in Galatia are pushing solution for conversion
41:50
model heavily on the story of Abraham and the therapy of
41:53
desire. But Paul has realized that
41:55
solution 4 is structurally flawed because it relies
41:58
entirely on IUD ismos on imitation.
42:01
When we strip away the long standing and acronistic
42:03
assumptions about Paul fighting some generic form of legalism,
42:07
we see a much more rigorous, historically grounded
42:09
intellectual debate occurring in these texts.
42:11
So he is not fighting a monolithic, irrational enemy.
42:15
No, he is engaging directly with a historically valid,
42:19
scripturally supported, highly persuasive option for how
42:22
outsiders relate to the divine. He just believes that in light
42:26
of the revelation of Jesus, that specific option is no longer the
42:29
correct one. The Gentile problem, the
42:32
alienation of the nations from God, is solved through Christ,
42:35
not through adopting the external customs of the Mosaic
42:38
Law. That is a staggering shift in
42:40
perspective to summarize all these massive historical and
42:44
theological threads we have pulled today. 1st century
42:47
Judaism was not a single closed off fortress with one door.
42:50
It was an incredibly diverse intellectual landscape.
42:53
Very diverse. It offered multiple avenues for
42:55
outsiders to relate to God, from sympathizing from a distance and
42:59
funding the temple to follow me Universal moral baseline like
43:02
the Noahide laws. Or waiting for an end times
43:04
purification where wolves become white bulls.
43:07
Right, or full physical conversion and integration.
43:11
Paul's opponents in Galatia were offering one of these
43:13
historically valid, scripturally backed options using the
43:16
Abrahamic model. But Paul, understanding the
43:19
linguistic reality and the theological limits of Judaizing,
43:23
rejected the idea that Gentiles should play dress up to access
43:26
the covenant. The value of understanding this
43:29
specific historical context is massive for how we read ancient
43:32
texts. When you strip away the
43:34
monolithic stereotypes of the opponents, when you stop
43:37
treating them as generic bad guys designed just to make the
43:40
hero look good, it allows you to see the actual rigorous
43:44
intellectual debates happening in the ancient world.
43:47
It really breathes life into the letters.
43:49
It shows us that these were real people dealing with complicated
43:52
social and theological questions, using their ancient
43:55
scriptures to find logical, workable solutions to the
43:58
problem of human division. It makes the history so much
44:00
more human, it grounds it in reality, and it leaves us with a
44:04
challenging thought to ponder long after the audio stops
44:07
today. What is that?
44:08
Well, if Paul concluded that adopting the external customs of
44:11
another group was basically play acting rather than a true shift
44:15
in identity, how does that challenge the way we construct
44:18
our own ideological identities today?
44:21
Oh. That is a great question.
44:23
When we adopt A new belief system or join a new community,
44:26
are we undergoing a true internal shift in who we are, or
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are we just trying on a new set of cultural clothes to fit in
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with the locals? That is certainly a thought
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worth considering. Thanks for joining us for this
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deep dive. We will catch you next time.