Q. At various points in the book you point out how Jews accepted Gentiles as God-fearers and as proselytes. True, but as Scot McKnight showed long ago, the real evidence of Jews having some sort of mission to actually go out and recruit Gentiles to Judaism is lacking. This, it seems to me, is a fundamental difference in modus operandi with Paul and his co-workers, and in general with the attitude of the earliest followers of Christ who believed in... Read more

Q. Much of the focus of this book is on the varied and changing use of specific terms like ethne and what it might reveal about the changing perspectives not only on Gentiles but also on non-Christ following Jews. If I’m reading you right, while there is a spectrum of belief about these things in the earliest period in the NT era itself and perhaps on into the beginning of the second century clear supersessionism or replacement theology (the church... Read more

Q. How were these various challenges met? A.  In order to address this set of challenges, Christian apologists such as Justin made several moves. One was to claim ethnē as an identity term and to identify themselves with “the nations” that were frequently referred to in Israel’s scriptures. This enabled them to claim a kind of antiquity; as Christ-believing ethnē, they were the ones whom the ancient prophets had foreseen. It also enabled them to position themselves favorably with respect... Read more

Q. Basically your study chronicles how the term ethne goes from being outsider language used by Jews of ‘the other ethnic groups’ and used in mostly the same way by Jewish Christ followers, to it becoming an ‘insider’ term of self-identification for Justin and others thereafter from the late second century on. In some ways this development doesn’t seem terribly surprising since the major of Christians from Justin’s time on actually were from the ethne, and most of them were... Read more

Q.  So this matter becomes the more and more complex, the more ways you look at it? A. I don’t see any easy way of solving this set of problems. When I want to be precise, I use “non-Jewish nations” (or ethnic people groups) and “members of non-Jewish nations” (or ethnic people groups) for the two different Jewish uses of ethnē. But these are cumbersome phrases, awkward enough in academic prose and unthinkable in full translations of ancient sources. For... Read more

Q. The term ethne, sometimes translated nations, sometimes translated Gentiles, has caused a good deal of confusion in various ways about the Greco-Roman world. Strictly speaking, there were no nation states in the modern sense of the term (as you note on p. 250). There were kingdoms, empires, tribes and various ethnic groups, and of course the English word ‘ethnic’ comes from this Greek collective noun ethne. In your discussion on p. 204 one begins to get the sense that... Read more

Q. Obviously, there are limitations to any methodology. It has been said that methodology is not an indifferent net. It catches what it intends to catch. One of the limitations of social identity theory is it focuses on socialization in various forms focusing on terms used by converts and others as self-descriptors even in its analysis of what can be called conversion. There doesn’t seem to be much if any discussion of the role conversion experiences play in the process... Read more

Q. Let’s talk methodology for a moment. Obviously, how one arranges the chronology of sources you use affects the trajectory of change or difference you find in the way key terms like ethne are used. Let’s take one example. Suppose the earlier work of Stephen Wilson on the Pastorals is correct and they seem to have been written by a co-worker of Paul, namely Luke. There are some 42 words or phrases in the Pastorals found nowhere else in the... Read more

Q. This book reflects an enormous amount of good research and reflection on both primary and secondary sources, though this subject has been treated in part by you in previous monographs. How long did it take you to put this detailed work together, especially considering the substantial discussion of the period beyond the NT era up to Constantine? A. Thanks for the question, Ben, and for this opportunity to engage in some extended conversation about my book. While I have... Read more

Terry Donaldson is a top drawer scholar who for some time has worked in the social side of the discipline of NT studies, and in this case the social scientific theory of social identity, which is used to study the development of self-understanding in earliest Christianity.  In particular this is an examination primarily of the evolving uses of the Greek term ethne. This book is a detailed, carefully researched important study of more than 550 pages complete with copious notes and... Read more