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Lecturer(s)
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Visi Tamás, doc. Ph.D., M.A.
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Course content
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Topics to be discussed 1. Alphabets, languages, textual corpora. Hebrew sources. Aramaic sources. Greek sources. Latin sources. Syriac sources. Coptic sources. Ge'ez sources. 2. Second Temple Judaism, a key concept. Literature of the Second Temple times. Ideological paradigms. Institutions. Cultic community and pluralism. Sectarianism. Historical overview. 3. Religious ideas. Miqwaot: texts and archeological excavations. Food taboos. Taboos of commensality. Monetization and anxiety about sinful money. Priests and non-priests. "The holy man in late antiquity" (Peter Brown). 4. The Debate about Antipas' Galilee. Was the Jesus movement a response to Herod Antipas' economic policies in Galilee? (Freyne, Crossan, Reed, Arnal, etc.) Archeological researches. Numismatic researches. Theoretical models: Weber, Polányi, Finley, and their critiques. "Capstone government". Roman rule: what it was, and what it was not. Military occupation (or its lack). Taxation. Elite vs. "non-elite." A case study: Magdala in the 1st century CE. 5. "The quest for the historical Jesus". The First Quest. The Second Quest. The Third quest. Methodological questions: The Synoptic Problem, and the hypothetical reconstruction of Q. Methodological questions: form criticism of the New Testament. Methodological problems: the criteria of authenticity. Methodological problems: the "Memory approach." 6. Jesus the Jew. Vermes' seminal book. Sanders' criticism of Christian scholarship. Jewish commentaries on the gospels. Rabbi Jesus: the parables. Rabbi Jesus: halakha. The problem of Aramaic gospels. Goodman on the origins of antisemitism. 7. Critical issues: Jesus and John the Baptist. A chronological conundrum. Baptist traditions in the Gospel. Was Q a Baptist collection originally? (Claire Rothschild) Was Jesus a revolutionary? or a "Cynic peasant"? (Crossan) Or an "apocalyptic prophet"? (Schweitzer) Or a "Galilean Hasid"? (Vermes) Stories and facts. 8. The fate of the Jesus movement after Jesus' death. Fractions in the movement. Jacob the Just. The rich boys vs. the fishermen. Enters Paul. "The beginning of the gospel." "I did not baptize anybody" - Paul on baptism and on the Lord's supper. Paul and the synoptic tradition. Luke, the major author of the New Testament. 9. Judaism and Christianity in broader perspective. The antinominalist trend. Paul's antinominalism. The fourth gospel's antinominalism. Gnosticism. Goodman on the origins of antisemitism. Heikhalot mysticism as "Jewish Gnosticism" (Scholem).
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Work with Text (with Book, Textbook)
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Learning outcomes
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The Origins of Christianity In recent decades a new scholarly consensus emerged that sees the Jesus movement and early Christianity in the context of Second Temple Judaism. The purpose of this seminar is to explore this approach, to highlight the major problems, proposed solutions and ongoing debates, and by this to connect students to current academic discussions about Jesus of Nazareth as a historical person, and the beginnings of Christianity.
Basic knowledge of relevant source material. Familiarity of recent results and orientation in the ongoing debates among historians about the origins of Christianity and its relationship to Judaism. Better understanding of the religious and historical background of contemporary political and social conflicts
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Student performance, Systematic Observation of Student, Seminar Work
Attendance, reading selected primary and secondary sources on a weekly basis, active participation. At the end of the semester: oral exam or term paper (to be discussed with the lecturer).
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Recommended literature
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+ V závislosti na tématu semináře/Depending on the topic of seminar.
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Anthony Keddie. (2019). Class and Power in Roman Palestine. Cambridge.
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Morten H Jensen. Herod Antipas in Galilee. Tubingen. 2006.
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Stanley E. Porter - Andrew W. Pitts. (2018). Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement. Leiden.
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