Gentile Christian Identity— Part Twelve

Gentile Christian Identity— Part Twelve

Q. I was a bit surprised that you don’t really deal in this book anyway with the use of the term christianos (meaning something like partisans of Christ or perhaps belonging to Christ on a par with Herodianos) which is depicted as outsider language used to describe the Jewish and Gentile followers of Christ in Antioch in the book of Acts. How come you don’t, especially in the light of the later use of similar language in the late second century by Gentile Christ followers themselves?

A. I admire the comprehensive inventory of identity terms—both self-designations and outsider designations—that Paul Trebilco has assembled and discussed in two of his books. All I can say is that in this book I was interested in ethnē as an identity term in particular and that it took me almost 500 pages (!) to deal with it to my satisfaction.


Browse Our Archives