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“Gentile Christianity” as a Category in the Study of Christian Origins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2013

Terence L. Donaldson
Terence L. Donaldson*
Affiliation:
Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
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Extract

At least since the time of Ferdinand Christian Baur in the mid-nineteenth century, the concepts of “Jewish Christianity” and “Gentile Christianity,” together with related binary pairs (Jewish Christian / Gentile Christian, Jews / Gentiles), have functioned as basic categories in the critical investigation of Christian origins. Adopting the voice of his hero Paul, Baur speaks of “my Gospel of Gentile Christianity, as opposed to Jewish Christianity,” the English terms rendering Heidenchristentums and Judenchristentums, respectively. Speaking of Paul's success in establishing “a Gentile Christianity,” Baur says that “the greater the strides were which the Gospel made among the Gentiles, the greater was the importance which the Gentile Christians assumed over the Jewish Christians.” Such increase in importance notwithstanding, the “Jewish-Christian party opposed to [Paul],” he says, remained “powerful,” and the “conflict between the Pauline and Jewish Christianity” continued to mark the early history of the movement. The place of this conflict in Baur's reconstruction of Christian origins is well known, and his characteristic terminology is readily recognized.

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Articles
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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 106 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 433 - 458
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Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2013 

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References

1 Baur, Ferdinand Christian, Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ: His Life and Works, His Epistles and Teachings: A Contribution to a Critical History of Primitive Christianity (ed. Zeller, Eduard; trans. Menzies, Allan; 2 vols.; 2nd ed.; Theological Translation Fund Library 2, 6; London: Williams & Norgate, 1873–1875) 1:128–29Google Scholar; for the German, see idem, Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi. Sein Leben und Wirken, seine Briefe und seine Lehre; Ein Beitrag zu einer kritischen Geschichte des Urchristenthums (ed. Eduard Zeller; 2 vols.; 2nd ed.; Leipzig: Fues [Reisland], 1866–1867) 1:141.

2 Baur, Paul, 1:128. The German terms were Heidenchristen and Judenchristen.

3 Ibid., 1:12.

4 Ibid., 1:125.

5 He asked how it was that “Christianity, so closely interwoven with Judaism, broke loose from it and entered on its sphere of world-wide historical importance.” He continued:

How these bounds [of national Judaism] were broken through, how Christianity, instead of remaining a mere form of Judaism, although a progressive one, asserted itself as a separate, independent principle, broke loose from it, and took its stand as a new enfranchised form of religious thought and life, essentially differing from all the national peculiarities of Judaism is the ultimate, most important point of the primitive history of Christianity. (Baur, Paul, 1:3)

6 Important recent studies, with extensive bibliographies, include the following: Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (ed. Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007); Jewish Christianity Reconsidered: Rethinking Ancient Groups and Texts (ed. Matt Jackson-McCabe; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007); and Paget, James Carleton, Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity (WUNT 251; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010)Google Scholar.

7 The point scarcely requires demonstration but, to cite one example, in the index to the second edition of Bart Ehrman's widely used The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (2nd ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), all references to believing Gentiles are found under the heading “Gentile Christianity.” Interestingly, in subsequent editions this heading has given way to “Gentiles” and “pagans.”

8 For example, even though Skarsaune and Hvalvik, the editors of Jewish Believers in Jesus, prefer to speak of “Gentile (or Jewish) believers in Jesus,” “Gentile Christianity” is found frequently, both in their own chapters (“Jewish Believers in Jesus in Antiquity—Problems of Definition, Method, and Sources,” 3–21, at 4, 7–8; and “Jewish Believers and Jewish Influence in the Roman Church until the Early Second Century,” 179–216, at 192, 194, 198, respectively) and frequently in other chapters in the volume. See also, e.g., Schoeps, Hans-Joachim, Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969) 9Google Scholar; Koester, Helmut, History and Literature of Early Christianity (vol. 2 of Introduction to the New Testament; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982) 2:87Google Scholar.

9 Parkes, James, who was perhaps the first scholar to speak of “the parting of the ways” (The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue: A Study in the Origins of Antisemitism [London: Soncino, 1934])Google Scholar, refers frequently to “Gentile Christians” (e.g., 77, 81, 85, 91, 94, 96), usually in contrast with Judeo-Christians, and occasionally to the “Gentile Church” (93, 96). In the concluding chapter to his The Partings of the Ways, Dunn, James D. G. begins his section on Jewish Christianity this way: “If Judaism did not become rabbinic Judaism overnight, neither did Christianity become Gentile Chris-tianity overnight” (The Partings of the Ways between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity [London: SCM, 1991] 232)Google Scholar. In her contribution to The Ways That Never Parted, Annette Yoshiko Reed speaks of “the broader tendency to treat the post-70/post-135 survival of ‘Jewish Christianity’ as merely a footnote to a narrative about early Christian history in which its alleged demise functions as a necessary contrast to the triumphant rise of ‘Gentile Christianity’ and as a necessary corollary to the ‘Parting of the Ways’ with Judaism” (“ ‘Jewish Christianity’ after the ‘Parting of the Ways’: Approaches to Historiography and Self-Definition in the Pseudo-Clementines,” in The Ways That Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages [ed. Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed; 1st ed.; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007] 189–231, at 201); similar sentiments are expressed at 203 and 231. See also Boyarin, Daniel, Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) 16, 29, 65Google Scholar.

10 For example, while it by no means provides a definitive bibliography, a search of ATLA periodicals from 1945 to the present reveals more than ninety items with “Jewish Christianity” in the title (both articles and reviews of books with the phrase in the title), but only four for “Gentile Christianity.” Of the latter, the two most significant for my purposes are Nock, Arthur Darby, Early Gentile Christianity and Its Hellenistic Background (New York: Harper & Row, 1964)Google Scholar and Brown, Raymond E., “Not Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity, but Types of Jewish/Gentile Christianity,” CBQ 45 (1983) 74–79Google Scholar.

11 Baur, Paul, 1:59.

12 Speaking with respect to “Jewish Christian,” Skarsaune says: “We have to take account, however, of the later development of the connotations attached to the term Christian to Jewish ears. It has become a term denoting something by nature Gentile, and by implication, non-Jewish” (“Jewish Believers in Jesus,” 4 [italics in original]).

13 While this is not the place for any wide-ranging analysis, this process of reexamination has been driven by a number of factors, among which are the post-Holocaust reassessment of Christian attitudes to Jews and Judaism; the development of Jewish-Christian dialogue; the waning of Christendom; the globalization of culture, including scholarly culture; renewed interest in ethnicity, empire, and identity; abandonment of essentialist definitions of religion in favor of more socially constructed approaches; and so on.

14 E.g., Smith, Jonathan Z., Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990)Google Scholar; and Ehrman, Bart D., Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)Google Scholar.

15 E.g., Smith, Jonathan Z., “Comparing Judaisms” (review of E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism), History of Religions 18 (1978) 177–91Google Scholar; Segal, Alan F., The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity (BJS 127; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987)Google Scholar; and Judaisms and Their Messiahs at the Turn of the Christian Era (ed. Jacob Neusner, William Scott Green, and Ernest S. Frerichs; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1987).

16 See, e.g., Nanos, Mark D., The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish Context of Paul's Letter (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996) 21 n. 1Google Scholar; also, in a more thoroughgoing way, his The Irony of Galatians: Paul's Letter in First-Century Context (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002); and Eisenbaum, Pamela, Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle (New York: HarperOne, 2009)Google Scholar.

17 See especially Boyarin, Border Lines, 1–17. On the (rare) occurrences of Ἰουδαϊσμóς and Ἰουδαΐζω in Jewish usage, see the next note.

18 E.g., Mason, Steve, “Jews, Judeans, Judaizing, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History,” in Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2009) 141–84Google Scholar; also Cohen, Shaye J. D., “Ioudaios, Iudaeus, Judaean, Jew,” in The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) 69–106Google Scholar.

19 Baur speaks of “the universality [Universalität] of Christianity” and sees “the bounds of the national Judaism” as representing “the chief obstacle to its universal historical realization” (Paul, 1:8, 3). Dunn sums up Baur's view this way: “The dispute between the Petrine and Pauline parties was thus a dispute between Jewish particularism and Christian universalism” (The Partings of the Ways, 2 [italics in original]).

20 See Runesson, Anders, “Particularistic Judaism and Universalistic Christianity? Some Critical Remarks on Terminology and Theology,” ST 53 (1999) 55–75Google Scholar; see also Donaldson, Terence L., Judaism and the Gentiles: Jewish Patterns of Universalism (to 135 CE) (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

21 E.g., Birnbaum, Ellen, “Some Particulars about Universalism,” in Ambiguities, Complexities, and Half-Forgotten Adversaries: Crossing Boundaries in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (ed. Stratton, Kimberly and Lieber, Andrea; JSJSup; Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

22 Stendahl, Krister, Paul among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976) 7Google Scholar.

23 Often in parallel with : e.g., “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples ()” (1 Chr 16:24; all biblical quotations in English are taken from the nrsv, except where otherwise noted). Other examples: Ps 33:10; 47:3; Isa 14:6; 33:3; 49:22; Ezek 36:15; Micah 4:3; Hab 2:13). The term also appears in this sense on its own (e.g., Gen 49:10; Ps 45:5; Isa 14:2; 51:5; Hos 10:10; Micah 1:2; 4:1; Zeph 3:9; Zech 8:20, 22). The “nations” are denoted by other terms as well: (17 occurrences) and the Aramaic (7 occurrences).

24 The only clear exception is Ezek 37:22, which refers to the two “nations” of Judah and Israel. While the plural is found in Ezek 2:3, the singular, found in the Syriac version, makes more sense and thus is to be preferred. In its nrsv rendering, Ezek 25:8 seems to imply that Judah is one of the nations (“The house of Judah is like all the other nations”), but “other” is supplied by the translators; the text simply reads “like all the nations.”

25 Even when the term is used without further qualification: e.g., Deut 29:24; 1 Chr 14:17; 2 Chr 32:23; Ps 59:6; Isa 2:2; 14:26; 34:2; 40:17; 66:20; Jer 3:17; Ezek 39:21; Joel 3:2; Hag 2:7; Zech 14:2.

26 A frequent occurrence: e.g., Deut 32:8; 2 Sam 22:50; 2 Chr 16:25; Ps 2:1, 8; 10:16; 22:8; 115:2; 135:15; Isa 42:1; Jer 46:1; Ezek 5:8; 20:14. The nrsv occasionally uses “other nations,” which seems to imply that Israel might be classed among “the nations.” In each case, however, “other” is supplied by the translators; the Hebrew is simply a form of (Sam 8:5, 20; Neh 5:8; Ezek 25:8; also ي [Hos 9:1]).

27 E.g., Josh 5:6, 8; 10:13; Ps 82[83]:4; Isa 51:4; Ezek 2:3. Exceptions occur, however (e.g., Gen 12:2; Exod 19:6; 2 Sam 7:23).

28 While the nrsv frequently uses “Gentiles” in the Apocrypha (67 times), the term does not appear in the OT, where “nations” is preferred for .

29 2 Macc 8:9 speaks of παμφύλων ἔθνη οὐκ ἐλάττους τῶν δισμυρίων, “no fewer than twenty thousand ἔθνη of all tribes.” Other instances: 1 Macc 3:10; 5:9, 38; 6:53; 2 Macc 8:16; 14:14–15. 1 Macc 5:22 (“as many as three thousand ἐκ τῶν ἐθνῶν fell”) probably belongs here as well; those who were killed by Simon are probably to be seen as drawn from a larger body of non-Jewish soldiers rather than from “the (non-Jewish) nations” (see 1 Macc 11:74: “three thousand ἐκ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων”). Although instances in other Hellenistic Jewish literature are less common—the usage is absent, e.g., from Josephus and Philo—they do exist (see, e.g., Pss. Sol. 2:2; also L.A.B. 9.5, extant in Latin but almost certainly written in Greek). In Hebrew, is used with reference to non-Jewish individuals as early as CD 12.9 (perhaps also in the original version of Jub. 22:16 and 30:11), a usage that becomes common in rabbinic literature, where the singular form also appears with reference to individual non-Jews; see Jastrow, Marcus, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (2 vols.; London: Luzac, 1903)Google Scholar ad loc.

30 See further below.

31 Thirteen times in 1, 2, and 3 Maccabees, all in the plural. The plural appears some 240 times in the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Curiously, the great majority render , “Philistines”; the most natural equivalent—forms of —is rendered with forms of ἀλλóφυλος only twice (Isa 2:6; 61:5). The word, in the singular, appears once in the Greek NT (Acts 10:28).

32 The only clear exception is Lam 1:10, which, in a manner analogous to the texts discussed below, speaks of the desecration of the temple by Babylonian troops as the work of “the nations.”

33 1 Macc 2:40, 44; 4:7, 54, 60; 6:53; 14:36; 3 Macc 6:9.

34 The use of the term, however, did not originate with Jerome; it appears, for example, in Cyprian (Testimonies against the Jews 3.44, 59, 62, 69, 106). By contrast, Tertullian tends to use forms of the loan word ethnicus when he needs to speak of individual non-Jews (e.g., Idolatry 14.1, 4, 7; 15.1; 21.4; Prescription against Heretics 23.10; 26.6).

35 Specifically, in eight of the eleven cases. In 2 Macc 8:16, he uses hostes (“enemies”) and in 2 Macc 14:14–15, where ἔθνη appears twice, he avoids the repetition by using nationes for the second occurrence. In the third case (2 Macc 6:4), ἔθνη is simply not translated.

36 For or λαóς he generally uses populus or (much less frequently) plebs.

37 Singular: 2 Macc 4:10, 13; Mark 7:26; Acts 16:1, 3; Gal 2:3. Plural: Acts 17:12.

38 Singular: Col 3:11. Plural: Tob 1:12; 1 Esd 5:9; 2 Macc 6:8, 9; John 12:20; Acts 14:5; 17:4; 19:10, 17; 20:21; 21:28; Rom 15:27; 1 Cor 10:32; 12:13.

39 Gentilitas (the relationship between the members of a gens) is used in Jdt 14:6; gentiliter (the adverb formed from gentilis) appears in Gal 2:14.

40 In Jdt 14:6 (nrsv 14:10) the related noun gentilitas appears with the basic sense of “the relationship between the members of a gens.” The phrase in which it occurs is an explanatory gloss, with no counterpart in the Greek: “When Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, relicto gentilitatis ritu (the religious customs of his tribe having been left behind) he believed firmly in God.”

41 In Gal 2:14 Jerome uses the adverb gentiliter for ἐθνικῶς (“in the manner of the ἔθνη”).

42 Ἕλλην: John 12:20; Acts 16:1, 3; 17:4; 19:10, 17; 20:21; 21:28; 1 Cor 10:32; 12:13; Gal 2:3; Col 3:11. Ἑλληνίς: 2 Macc 6:8; Mark 7:26; Acts 17:12. Ἑλληνικóς: 2 Macc 4:10; 6:9. Ἑλληνισμóς: 2 Macc 4:13. The pattern is dominant but not thoroughgoing; in addition to instances where a form of Graecus could scarcely have been avoided (e.g., 1 Macc 1:10; 2 Macc 11:24; Rom 1:14), there are several instances where Jerome chose a form of Graecus when, given the dominant pattern, he might have chosen gentilis instead (2 Macc 4:15, 36; Acts 14:1; perhaps also Rom 2:9; 10:12; 1 Cor 1:22, 24).

43 Also the “devout Greeks” of Acts 17:4 and the “Greek women of high standing” of Acts 17:12.

44 The singular form appears in Col 3:11.

45 See the pertinent entries in Middle English Dictionary (ed. Hans Kurath, Sherman M. Kuhn, and Robert E. Lewis; 13 vols.; Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1952–2001).

46 Analogous developments took place in various Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese).

47 In addition to “nations,” Wycliffe often used “heathen” or “heathen men.”

48 The kjv uses “Gentiles” in only three of the eighteen instances where the Vulgate has gentilis for a form of Ἑλλην (2 Macc 6:9; 1 Cor 10: 32; 12:13); however, the kjv introduces five additional instances of its own (2 Macc 11:2, 24; John 7:35 [twice]; Rom 3:9).

49 In Luther's translation, Heiden appears some 499 times and Völker, 279.

50 Isa 11:10; 42:1, 6; 49:6; 49:22; 54:3; 60:3, 5, 11, 16; 61:6, 9; 62:2; 66:12, 19.

51 E.g., “Gentiles” appears in Jer 14:22 in a negative context; “heathen” sometimes appears in positive contexts (e.g., 2 Sam 22:50; Ps 18:49; 96:3; Amos 9:12; Zeph 2:11; Mal 1:11).

52 1 Esd 8:66; GEsth 10:9, 10; Jdt 8:22; Tob 1:10 (the only place where the Vulgate uses gentilis); 13:3; 1 Macc 2:12, 48; 3:10; 4:60; 6:53; 2 Macc 6:4; Wis 14:11.

53 Fifteen instances of “heathen” (1 Macc 1:14; 2:40, 44; 4:7, 14, 45, 54; 5:9, 22, 38; 14:36; 2 Macc 8:16; 14:14, 15; 3 Macc 6:9), five of “Gentiles” (1 Macc 2:12; 3:10; 4:60; 6:53; 2 Macc 6:4); “nations” appears twice (2 Macc 6:14; 8:9).

54 John 7:35 (twice); Rom 3:9; 1 Cor 10:32; 12:13.

55 In the resource “Early English Books Online,” which contains the majority of works published before 1700, “Gentile Christianity” does not appear, but there are frequent occurrences of “Gentile Christian(s)” (accessed September 30, 2011, http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The earliest appearance of “Gentile Christianity” is in lectures by John King (given in 1594, published in 1599). Other early instances include: Samuel Gardiner (1606); Patrick Forbes (1613); Edward Kellett (1628); Henry Burton (1640); John Archer (1642); Johann Crell (1650); Jeremy Taylor (1651); Henry Hammond (1654); John Lightfoot (in his Horae Hebraicae and Talmudicae, which was published in several parts from 1658 to 1674); John Owen (1689); Richard Baxter (1691).

56 James Carleton Paget, “The Definition of the Term ‘Jewish Christian’ / ‘Jewish Christianity’ in the History of Research,” Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity, 289–324. The essay appeared originally in Jewish Believers in Jesus, 22–52.

57 The full title was Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity. The work itself, with a good introduction, is found in Champion, Justin, John Toland: Nazarenus (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1999)Google Scholar.

58 John Toland: Nazarenus, 117. The page reference is to Champion's edition; in the original, these quotations appear on p. iv.

59 Morgan, Thomas, The Moral Philosopher: In a Dialogue between Philalethes a Christian Deist, and Theophanes a Christian Jew (3 vols.; London: Printed for the author, 1737–1740) 377Google Scholar; accessed through “Early English Books Online,” accessed July 20, 2011, http://eebo.chadwyck.com.

60 Morgan, The Moral Philosopher, 378.

61 In keeping with the theme of his article, Carleton Paget did not provide evidence for “Gentile Christians” and “Gentile Christianity.”

62 John Toland: Nazarenus; e.g., 118 (vi), 119 (vii), 153 (28), 158 (36), 159 (37), 167 (49), 168 (50); the page numbers in parentheses are from the original. The Moral Philosopher, e.g., 377, 378, 395.

63 E.g., the statement quoted in the previous paragraph in which “Peter's Religion and Paul's” is used synonymously with “the Jewish and Gentile Christianity” [italics in original].

64 While ἐθνικóς appears on several occasions, in each case it is used substantively (the singular form in Matt 18:17; the plural in Matt 5:47; 6:7; 3 John 1:7).

65 ἀλλογενής appears once in the NT (Luke 17:18) and sixteen times in the Apocrypha; ἀλλóφυλος appears in Acts 10:28 and four times in the Apocrypha; ἐθνικóς appears only in the NT (see previous note).

66 Undisputed cases are rare, but Luke 24:47 seems to be one clear instance: “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name εἰς πά ντα τὰ ἔθνη, beginning from Jerusalem.” See also 1 Clem. 59.3.

67 In Simeon's hymn, ἐθνῶν stands in parallel with “your people Israel” (Luke 2:32); a similar parallel is present in Acts 26:23, where Paul declares that the Messiah would “declare light both to the people [i.e., Israel] and τοῖς ἔθνεσιν.” See also Acts 26:17; Diogn. 11.1–3.

68 Clearly it is individual non-Jews who “heard this” (Acts 13:48), who were “stirred up” by “unbelieving Jews” (Acts 14:2), and who “have become believers” (Acts 21:25). Likewise where ἔθνη stands in parallel with Ἰουδαῖοι (Rom 3:29; 9:24) and in the direct address “you ἔθνη” (Rom 11:13; Eph 3:1). See also Ignatius, Smyrn. 1.2; Mart. Pol. 12.2.

69 This is explicit in 1 Cor 12:2 (“when you were ἔθνη”). It is implied in other passages where a contrast is drawn between (non-Jewish) believers and the ἔθνη (1 Cor 5:1; Eph 4:17; 1 Thess 4:5; 1 Pet 2:12; 4:3). See also Ignatius, Trall. 8.2; Mart. Pol. 19.1; and frequently in the Shepherd of Hermas.

70 See, e.g., the interchange between John Meier (“Nations or Gentiles in Matthew 28:19?,” CBQ 39 [1977] 94–102) and Douglas Hare and Daniel Harrington (“‘Make Disciples of All the Gentiles’ [Mt 28:19],” CBQ 37 [1975] 359–69). Part of the debate turns on the sense of πάντα τὰ ἔθνη earlier in Matthew (24:9, 14; 25:32). Similar questions can be raised with respect to Matt 10:18 and Mark 13:10.

71 On this point, see Elliott, Neil, The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Paul in the Shadow of Empire (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008) 46Google Scholar; and Lopez, Davina C., Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul's Mission (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008) 5–8Google Scholar.

72 Analogous pairings of ἔθνη and λαóς appear in Acts 26:17, 23.

73 Also, with variations in descriptors, the parallels in Matt 20:25 and Mark 10:42.

74 The question arises in the case of similar constructions with ἐκ (Acts 15:23; Gal 2:15) or ἀπó (Acts 15:19).

75 On Paul's sense of apostolic territory, see my “ ‘The Field God Has Assigned’: Geography and Mission in Paul,” in Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity (ed. Leif Vaage; ESCJ 18; Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006) 109–37.

76 A point that was made long ago by Johannes Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (trans. Frank Clark; London: SCM, 1959) 36–68.

77 See Stanley, Christopher D., “‘Neither Jew nor Greek’: Ethnic Conflict in Graeco-Roman Society,” JSNT 64 (1996) 105Google Scholar; Elliott, The Arrogance of Nations, 46; and Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered, 5.

78 For a particularly fine discussion of the point with respect to “Judaism,” see Mason, “Jews, Judeans, Judaizing, Judaism,” especially 159–65.

79 See my article “ ‘We Gentiles’: Ethnicity and Identity in Justin Martyr,” Early Christianity 4 (2013) 216–41.

80 See especially Hall, Jonathan M., Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002); Isaac, Benjamin H., The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity (ed. Irad Malkin; Center for Hellenic Studies Colloquia 5; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001); Perkins, Judith, Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era (London: Routledge, 2009)Google Scholar; and van der Vliet, Edward, “The Romans and Us: Strabo's Geography and the Construction of Ethnicity,” Mnemosyne 56 (2003) 257–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 E.g., Avidov, Avi, Not Reckoned Among Nations: The Origins of the So-Called “Jewish Question” in Roman Antiquity (TSAJ 28; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009)Google Scholar; Boyarin, Border Lines; Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness; and Mason, “Jews, Judeans, Judaizing, Judaism.”

82 Especially Ethnicity and the Bible (ed. Mark G. Brett; Leiden: Brill, 1996); Buell, Denise Kimber, Why This New Race?: Ethnic Reasoning in Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hodge, Caroline Johnson, If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lieu, Judith, Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered; Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies (ed. Laura Nasrallah and Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009); and Schott, Jeremy M., Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

83 Brown makes use of this typology in the work he co-authored with Meier, John, Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity (New York: Paulist, 1983)Google Scholar.

84 Brown, “Not Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity,” 74, 76.

85 As I have attempted to document in my Judaism and the Gentiles.

86 See my attempt to construct a “typology of early Christian self-definition” in an article entitled “Supersessionism and Early Christian Self-Definition,” to appear in Ambiguities, Complexities, and Half-Forgotten Adversaries.

87 Brown, “Not Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity,” 76.

88 A theme developed by Elliott, The Arrogance of Nations; and Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered.

89 For recent studies, see, e.g., Gruen, Erich S., Rethinking the Other in Antiquity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011)Google Scholar; Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World: Cultural Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity (ed. Ralph W. Mathisen and Danuta Shanzer; Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate, 2011); Richter, Daniel S., Cosmopolis: Imagining Community in Late Classical Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Perkins, Roman Imperial Identities; Schott, Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion; Dench, Emma, Romulus’ Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rome the Cosmopolis (ed. Catharine Edwards and Greg Woolf; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire (ed. Simon Goldhill; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001); and Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire (ed. Janet Huskinson; London: Routledge, 2000).

90 Other terms include γένος, λαóς, οἰκουμένη, πατρίς, πολιτεία, and φυλή on the Greek side, and genus humanum, natio, orbis terrarum, and populus on the Latin.

91 The translator of the Loeb volume (Harry Caplan) renders this as “all the civilized peoples, kings and barbarous nations.” In addition to the fact that I am not convinced of this distinction between gentes and nationes, it is more convenient for my purposes to render gentes here (and elsewhere) as “nations.” Otherwise, the quotations in this section are all from the Loeb volumes, with the exception of Aelius Aristides, for which I have used Behr, Charles A., P. Aelius Aristides: The Complete Works (2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1981, 1986)Google Scholar.

92 Library 32.4.4–5 (ca. 30 b.c.e.). Florus's Epitome of Roman History provides another example (2.34.1): “Now that all the nations (omnibus . . . gentibus) of the west and south were subjugated, and also the races of the north, those at least between the Rhine and the Danube, and of the east between the Cyrus and the Euphrates, the other nations too, who were not under the rule of the empire, yet felt the greatness of Rome and revered its people as the conqueror of the nations (victorem gentium).” Also Sallust, The War with Jugurtha 31.20; Aelius Aristides, Regarding Rome 28; 67; 88. For similar themes expressed with different vocabulary, see Florus, Epitome of Roman History 2.34.1; Livy, History 36.17.16; and Strabo, Geography 9.2.2; 9.4.15.

93 History of Rome 2.36.1 (ca. 30 c.e.). See also Cicero, On Behalf of King Deotarus 15; Suetonius, Life of Caesar 7.2; Tacitus, Annals 3.59, 68. Plutarch says similar things of Alexander: “the lord and master of the inhabited world” (τὸν τῆς οἰκουμένης βασιλέα καì κύριον)” (On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander 21.5 [344 C]).

94 Regarding Rome, 92 (155 c.e.). Compare to Plutarch's similar comments about Alexander (On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander 1.5 [328 E]).

95 Regarding Rome, 31.

96 Geography 2.5.26.

97 For expressions of this theme in other terms, see Tacitus, Annals 14.44; Aelius Aristides, Regarding Rome 36; 63; 100. For Alexander as the precursor and model, see Plutarch, On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander 1.6 (329 B-C).

98 On Behalf of Marcellus 9; of course, he did not always speak of Caesar in such glowing terms. A similar note is struck by a later writer: “the fame of your prowess will surely wing its way to all nations (per gentes omnes)” (Letter to Caesar 13.1–4; attributed, wrongly, to Sallust). See also Cicero, Against Catiline 4.10. Cf. Livy, History 36.17.13–16; Florus, Epitome of Roman History 1.Intro.1–2.

99 Cicero, On Behalf of Milo, 19; see also his On Behalf of King Deotarus, 15.

100 Respectively, Against Catiline 4.1; On Behalf of Milo 90; On the Agrarian Laws 1.18; Against Catiline 4.6. Cicero can also describe Caesar as “the fairest light of all nations and all history (omnium gentium atque omnis memoriae clarissimum lumen)” (On Behalf of King Deotarus 15).

101 LaGrand's categorical rejection of “Gentiles” on the grounds that the term is obsolescent seems ill-founded, and his suggested replacement (“nationals”) is not without problems; see LaGrand, James, “Proliferation of the ‘Gentile’ in the New Revised Standard Version,” BR 46 (1996) 77–87Google Scholar. The practice adopted by some scholars of using the lower case (“gentile”) as a way of acknowledging the problems associated with the term does little to address them directly.