All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him ( Read more... )

The implication is that when halakhic traditions differ, even widely, as did those of the Houses of Shammai and Hillel, then, despite the Torah being made into two Torot (Tosefta Sotah 14:9), heresy has not been produced. When fundamental doctrinal tenets are transduced, however, then we have heresy. We have here,* I think, the rudiments of a full- ( Read more... )

Throughout the Dialogue, Justin is very concerned to define the Jews as those who do not believe in the Logos ... Belief in the Logos of God as a second devine person is taken by most authorities, ancient and modern, as a virtual touchstone of the theological difference of Christianity from Judaism. In contrast to this consensus, a major part of ( Read more... )

We can conclude, then, that Jesus was recalled as speaking on the subject of purity, and as insisting that purity of heart is more important than ritual purity (cf. Matt 5.8; Matt 23.25/Luke 11.39). Some heard Jesus as not content to debate issues ( Read more... )

I am reading about Jesus and ritual purity. From an article by James Dunn ( Read more... )

In the end--at least in the end of late antiquity--rabbinic Judaism refused the option of becoming a religion, another species of the kind that Christianity offered ... Judaism is not and has not been, since early in the Christian era a "religion" in the sense of an orthodoxy whereby heterodox views, even very strange opinions,* would make one an ( Read more... )

First of all, I will insist that the borders between Christianity and Judaism are as constructed and imposed, as artificial and political as any of the borders of the earth ... Rather than a natural-sounding "parting of the ways," such as we usually hear about with respect to these two "religions," I will suggest an imposed partitioning of what was ( Read more... )

Use the baths, take care of your body, throw yourself into the marketplace, have your household, let your servants serve you, and make use of food and drink; but everywhere drive out excess. For this is what causes sin.

--John Chyrsostom (347-407 A.D.), Hom. XIII in Eph. 3

"Somebody I respect (two somebodies even) said that in some ways they feel as though as an adult they've lost some or all of their faith but have instead gained a rich and immersive fantasy life. Part of me, again, says well that's bad fantasy lives are bad! And another part of me, the part I think is wiser than other parts, says of course that's ( Read more... )

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