Context Matters

Steven Notley: Parting of the Ways

Episode Summary

If Jesus was Jewish, and the disciples were Jewish, how did Christianity and Judaism become two separate religions? I begin a new series this week about the development of the early Christian church. I begin with a conversation with Dr. Steven Notley about studying the Jewishness of the gospel context and what happened to result in the break between the earliest Jewish-Christian church and the Jewish synagogue. Contrary to many assumptions, the split was more sociological than theological, which begs the question about what the contributing factors were.

Episode Notes

We talk about many of Dr. Notley’s works with great scholars. You can find these links below.

The translation of David Flusser’s work: The Sage from Galilee

Anson Rainey and Steven Notley: The Sacred Bridge

Ze’ev Safrai and Steven Notley: Parables of the Sages

To follow along with the El-Araj project and the discussion over the location of the gospel town of Bethesda, go to the El Araj page HERE. They have all kinds of pictures, videos, and articles available.