Mr Spinkles
Mr
Assuming this is true, how is it relevant?NetDoc said:During the first century, every city had but one synagogue. Unlike today, where we have an abundance of synagogues and churches in every town. Most cities and towns were divided ethnically as well. In this type of situation, the elders represented the entire congregation and thus the entire Jewish population of that city. When the elders spoke, the entire ongregation/city spoke.
This is largely from inference on my part... for that's how the early churches were formed and run and they seemed to have used much of what they were already used to.
Good point, NetDoc. However, "the Jews" in this work are not portrayed nearly as negatively as they are in the NT. Fighting the Romans is one thing, but (supposedly) trying to kill someone for healing on the Sabbath is another. It's also important that Josephus identifies himself as a Jew, unlike the authors of John. I think that in this case, the author's use of "the Jews" indicates more his audience (which includes gentiles) than his prejudices.NetDoc said:Now go read this excerpt on the Jewish Wars by Flavius Josephus. "the Jews" is used EXTENSIVELY, and he IS a Jew... not even a convert to Christianity. WAY more extensively than in John.
"This is largely from inference on my part..." I'm not sure what you mean by 'modern data' but it looks like we're both making inferences.NetDoc said:You are making inferences about a culture far removed from YOU that are based on modern data.
Nothing, as far as I understand it. However, we have to keep in mind that this gospel was written over a number of years by a number of different people (if we accept wikipedia). Different verses may reflect the attitudes/beliefs of different authors from different decades. Some of the verses may reflect anti-semitism, while others do not, just as some of the things in the NT may be historical while others are not. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.NetDoc said:As for John, what is "bigoted" about this statement??
John 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
I would like to know what you think of John 5: 7-18 and my comments regarding those verses. Also, I would be interested in seeing some writings by Saducees that talk about "the Jews" so that we can analyze whether or not those writings are anti-semitic.