THE GOSPEL OF THE MEMRA: JEWISH BINITARIANISM AND THE PROLOGUE TO JOHN

Abstract

Most Christian and Jewish scholars have been heavily invested in asserting the radical difference and total separation of Christianity from Judaism at a very early period. Thus we find the following view expressed by one of the leading historians of dogma in our time, Basil Studer: From the socio-political point of view Christianity fairly soon broke away from Judaism. Already by about 130 the final break had been effected. This certainly contributed to an even greater openness towards religious and cultural influences from the Greco-Roman environment. Not without reason, then, it is exactly at that time that the rise of antijudaistic and hellenophile gnostic trends is alleged. Christian theology began gradually to draw away from Judaic tendencies. … In the course of separation from the Synagogue and of rapprochement with the pagan world, theology itself became more open towards the thinking of antiquity with its scientific methods. This is particularly evident in the exegesis of Holy Scripture in which the chasm separating it from rabbinic methods broadened and deepened, whereas the ancient art of interpretation as it was exercised especially in Alexandria gained the upper hand. ² Basil Studer, Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church (ed. Andrew Louth; trans. Matthias Westerhoff; Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1993) 14.

Footnotes

¹I wish to thank the followinsg colleagues and friends who have commented on earlier versions of this paper and contributed much to whatever success its final form bears: Daniel Abrams, Carlin Barton, François Bovon, Virginia Burrus, Harvey Cox, Richard Hays, Karen King, Catherine Keller, Helmut Koester, Moshe Idel, Stephen D. Moore, Maren Niehoff, Birger Pearson, Dina Stein, Krister Stendahl, Rob Wall, and Azzan Yadin, as well as the graduate students in my seminar on the Fourth Gospel at Harvard Divinity School in the spring of 2000. A shorter version was delivered as a public lecture at HDS, 24 April 2000. In addition to the above-mentioned colleagues, others asked good and useful questions at this lecture, too. Virginia Burrus was also, as frequently in the last several years, a vital conversation partner in the generation of these ideas. I alone take responsibility in the end for both ideas and form. Gratitude as well to Asi, Tsahi, Hila, and Na^{\supset}ama for making a stay in Jerusalem while I was completing this essay incomparably more pleasant.

²Basil Studer, Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church (ed. Andrew Louth; trans. Matthias Westerhoff; Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1993) 14.