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Contesting Conversion
Genealogy, Circumcision, and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Matthew Thiessen
256 pages
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235x156mm
978-0-19-979356-3
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Hardback
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29 September 2011
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- Posits the controversial thesis that ancient Jews, unlike most modern religions, did not believe it possible for outsiders to convert to 'Judaism'
- Argues that some Jews in the late Second Temple period continued to define Jewishness in strictly genealogical terms
Matthew Thiessen offers a nuanced study of the nature of Jewish thought with regard to Jewishness, circumcision, and conversion. Examining texts from the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity, he gives a compelling account of the various forms of Judaism from which the early Christian movement arose.
Beginning with analysis of the Hebrew Bible, Thiessen argues that there is no evidence that circumcision was considered to be a rite of conversion to Israelite religion. In fact, circumcision, particularly the infant circumcision practiced within Israelite and
early Jewish society, excluded from the covenant those not properly descended from Abraham.
In the Second Temple period, many Jews began to subscribe to a Jewishness that enabled Gentiles to become Jews. Other Jews found this definition of Jewishness problematic, and defended their own definition by reasserting a strictly genealogical conception of Jewish identity. As a result, some Gentiles who underwent conversion to Judaism in this period faced criticism because of their suspect genealogy.
This examination of the way in which Jews in the Second Temple period perceived circumcision and conversion allows a deeper understanding of early Christianity. Contesting Conversion shows that careful attention to a definition of Jewishness that was based on
genealogical descent has important implications for understanding the variegated nature of early Christian mission to the Gentiles in the first century c.e.Readership: Scholars of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and New Testament
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Matthew Thiessen, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, College of Emmanuel and St. Chad and Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon Theological Union Senior Lecturer in New Testament at the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Genealogy and Circumcision in the Hebrew Bible
Chapter 1: Ishmael, Isaac, and Covenantal Circumcision in Genesis 17
Chapter 2: Uncircumcised and Circumcised Gentiles in the Hebrew Bible
Part II: Genealogy and Circumcision in Early Judaism and Christianity
Chapter 3: Eighth-Day Circumcision in Jubilees
Chapter 4: Jewishness as Genealogy in the Late Second Temple Period
Chapter 5: Jews, Gentiles, and Circumcision in Early Christianity
Conclusion
Bibliography
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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