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<\/a><\/p>\nPaul Trebilco\u2019s work is very important and here is a useful post about it. BW3<\/p>\n
Trebilco on Early Christian Self-designations
\nby larryhurtado<\/p>\n
In recent years a lot of scholarly effort has been given to questions about early Christian \u201cidentity,\u201d how early and in what ways early believers in Jesus saw themselves and acted as distinct groups with their own identity. Major research projects continue to be devoted to this sort of question (e.g., the project on Prayer and Early Christian Identity, based in Oslo, with which I\u2019m connected currently). Paul Trebilco has now published an important study relevant to these questions: Self-designations and Group Identity in the New Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).<\/p>\n
Trebilco is a proven scholar in the field, with important earlier publications, e.g., Jewish Communities in Asia Minor (1991), and The Early Christians in Ephesis from Paul to Ignatius (2004). His new book comprises a further significant contribution to the study of earliest Christianity. Drawing on observations about how groups develop their own \u201csocial dialects\u201d (\u201cin-group\u201d terms and expressions), he focuses on the key terms evidenced in NT writings that appear to have been used to refer to early Jesus-believers, each term given a chapter-length analysis.<\/p>\n
These terms = \u201cthe brothers\u201d (\u03b1\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u03bf\u03b9), \u201cthe believers\u201d, \u201cthe saints\u201d (\u03bf\u03b9 \u03b1\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03b9), \u201cthe church\u201d (\u03b7 \u03b5\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03b1), \u201cdisciples\u201d (\u03bc\u03b1\u03b8\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9), \u201cthe way\u201d (\u03b7 \u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2), and \u201cChristian\u201d (\u03a7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2). Among his conclusions, he contends that \u201c\u03b5\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03b1\u201d originated among \u201cJewish Christian Hellenists\u201d (\u201cmost likely in Jerusalem,\u201d p. 301), but he further argues that this does not mean that they no longer considered themselves also part of the larger Jewish community. He judges the term \u201cChristian\u201d to have originated among outsiders\/observers of early Jesus-believers, thereafter appropriated by believers, especially in the later period of persecutions.<\/p>\n
As to the larger question about when and how believers saw themselves as a distinct group, Trebilco contends (rightly in my view) that the use of these terms indicates that \u201cthey were creating and shaping their identity\u201d already before the time of our earliest texts. This means easily within the first couple of decades after Jesus\u2019 execution. (I\u2019d say likely within the first few months.) Trebilco again: \u201c\u2026these designations also involve the claim of a distinctive identity . . .\u201d (p. 308), \u201chave clear boundary-marking roles,\u201d and \u201cdistinguish this new group from other Jews and from Gentiles\u201d (309).<\/p>\n
I mean no criticism in saying that this all seems rather obvious to me, but in view of the nature of recent scholarly discussion (e.g., Boyarin\u2019s claim that we don\u2019t have \u201cChristianity\u201d as such before the fourth century CE), I\u2019m very grateful to Trebilco for this fine evidence-based study, which will further confirm his status as a noteworthy figure in NT\/Christian Origins.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul Trebilco\u2019s work is very important and here is a useful post about it. BW3 Trebilco on Early Christian Self-designations by larryhurtado In recent years a lot of scholarly effort has been given to questions about early Christian \u201cidentity,\u201d how early and in what ways early believers in Jesus saw themselves and acted as distinct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n