For you, brothers {and sisters,} became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last.
1st Thessalonians, 2: 14-16 (NRSV)
This NT passage would appear to support the view that Paul himself actually believed that they did in fact do so, but is such a viewpoint historically credible?
The statement is widely considered by many modern commentators and historians [quite correctly in my opinion] as a later interpolation into the original text of the letter - the mentioning of divine wrath upon the Jews being seen as a reference to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple by the Roman army in 70 CE - Paul being, in all probability, dead by this date.
Does this extract merely reflect and lend credence to the markedly anti-Semitic tone of the gospel passion narratives, or was the historical situation in fact something rather different?
Was the condemnation and execution of Jesus of Nazareth merely a routine Roman administrative process for dealing with messianic agitators accused of sedition or had this Galilean holy man committed any offence against Jewish religious law, and if he had done so, would a Roman military governor be cognisant of such matters?
1st Thessalonians, 2: 14-16 (NRSV)
This NT passage would appear to support the view that Paul himself actually believed that they did in fact do so, but is such a viewpoint historically credible?
The statement is widely considered by many modern commentators and historians [quite correctly in my opinion] as a later interpolation into the original text of the letter - the mentioning of divine wrath upon the Jews being seen as a reference to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple by the Roman army in 70 CE - Paul being, in all probability, dead by this date.
Does this extract merely reflect and lend credence to the markedly anti-Semitic tone of the gospel passion narratives, or was the historical situation in fact something rather different?
Was the condemnation and execution of Jesus of Nazareth merely a routine Roman administrative process for dealing with messianic agitators accused of sedition or had this Galilean holy man committed any offence against Jewish religious law, and if he had done so, would a Roman military governor be cognisant of such matters?
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