Image and Reality: The Jews in the World of the Christians in the Second Century »

A major feature of recent scholarship has been a new interest in the changing relationship between Judaism and Christianity during the first centuries CE. Two factors have been of great importance in this development. Firstly, new methods such as the social scientific study of new texts, redaction criticism, and a fresh approach to both Palestinian and diaspora Judaism. Secondly, a much needed and painful awareness of the terrible legacy of the Christian 'teaching of contempt' towards its Jewish heritage and partners. Judith Lieu builds upon such analysis but seeks to approach the question from a different perspective: what is the rhetorical function of Jews and Judaism in the early texts, after those of the New Testament but before the increasingly stereotypical polemic and diatribe of third and fourth century authors? How does this rhetorical function relate to the historical, theological and social frameworks within which these texts arose and were read? How, in turn, did it help constitute the framework for later texts? The texts examined come from the second century and all have some link with Asia Minor, an area where we have a range of evidence for Judaism, which can be used as a point of contrast with the literary image. They also represent a spread of literary genres reflecting new developments in the period. This study is an attempt to acknowledge the complex nature of an issue which is too easily proclaimed 'Christian anti-Semitism'. Only by understanding this tangled web of the past can we hope to build a better future.