Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman

Bar Kokhba Coin, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bar_Kokhba_Coin.jpg

For the Jewish community of Palestine, the years between 80 and 130 C.E. were simultaneously years of reconstruction of the country and preparation for the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Throughout this period Christianity continued to grow while its Jewish element was being reduced. In actual fact, the juridical basis for the Gentile domination of Christianity was laid in the time of Paul, when the legitimacy of Gentile Christianity was established. The effect of these actions was not actually felt by the tannaim until the early years of the second century.

By the time of the Bar Kokhba war (132-5 C.E.), Gentile Christianity had most probably still not taken over the Jerusalem Church nor become the dominant element in the Palestinian Christian community. Accordingly, the tannaim would still have seen the early Christians as Jews.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt did much, however, to highlight the emerging separation of the Christians from the Jewish community. It is certain that among the factors contributing to both the popular and Rabbinic support enjoyed by Bar Kokhba was the view of some who saw Bar Kokhba as a Messianic figure.  Indeed, some of the leaders of the earlier revolt against Rome… Continue reading →

T. Hullin 2 contains a series of traditions regarding minim, which in the opinion of the redactor referred to the Jewish Christians. Even if these traditions were actually applied to all kinds of minim, they portray something of the tannaitic attitude to the Jewish Christians evident in halakhic enactments.

T. Hullin 2 :2021 states:

If meat is found in the hand of a non-Jew, it is permitted to derive benefit from it. (If it is found) in the hand of a min, it is forbidden to derive benefit from it. That which comes forth from the house of a min, indeed it is the meat of sacrifices to the dead (idolatrous worship), for they said: The slaughtering of a min is idolatry; their bread is the bread of a Samaritan; their wine is the wine of (idolatrous) libation; their fruits are untithed; their books are the books of diviners, and their children are mamzerim. We do not sell to them, nor do we buy from them. We do not take from them, nor do we give to them, and we do not teach their sons a craft. We are not healed by them, neither healing of property nor healing of… Continue reading →

Codex Boreelianus

While the benediction against the minim was certainly the most important step taken by the tannaim to combat Jewish Christianity, they also took steps to emphasize that the Christian Scriptures were not holy.  First, the Jewish Christians themselves copied scrolls of the Bible (sifre minim). The question here was the sanctity of the entire text.  Second, beginning in the second half of the first century, early recensions of the Gospels and Epistles began to circulate. The sanctity of those sections of these Christian texts that quoted the Hebrew Scriptures directly also had to be determined. In view of the role of the Gospels and Epistles as a vehicle for the dissemination of Christianity, it is easy to understand why the Rabbis went out of their way to divest them of sanctity and halakhic status.

T. Shabbat 13 (14):5 deals with these texts:

We do not save from a fire (on the Sabbath) the Gospels and the books of the minim (“heretics”). Rather, they are burned in their place, they and their Tetragrammata. Rabbi Yose HaGelili says: During the week, one should cut out their Tetragrammata and hide them away and burn the remainder. Said Rabbi Tarfon:… Continue reading →