The Temple in Early Christianity: Experiencing the Sacred

496 Pages·2019·1.791 MB·English

by  Eyal Regev

The Temple in Early Christianity
The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
is a project of international and interfaith scope in which
Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from many countries
contribute individual volumes. The project is not sponsored by
any ecclesiastical organization and is not intended to reflect
any particular theological doctrine.
The series is committed to producing volumes in the tradition
established half a century ago by the founders of the Anchor
Bible, William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman.
It aims to present the best contemporary scholarship in a way
that is accessible not only to scholars but also to the educated
nonspecialist. It is committed to work of sound philologi-
cal and historical scholarship, supplemented by insight from
modern methods, such as sociological and literary criticism.
John J. Collins
General Editor
The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
The Temple
in Early
Christianity
Experiencing the Sacred
eyal regev
new haven
and
london
AYBRL
“Anchor Yale Bible” and the Anchor Yale logo are registered trademarks of
Yale University.
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Amasa
Stone Mather of the Class of 1907, Yale College.
Copyright © 2019 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not
be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond
that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the
publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational,
business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail sales.press@yale
.edu (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office).
Set in Adobe Caslon and Bauer Bodoni types by Newgen North America.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952551
isbn 978-0-300-19788-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of my mother, Hannah Regev (Buchman)
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface, ix
Editions and Translations, xiii
Introduction, 1
1. Jesus: “Cleansing,” Trial, and Last Supper, 18
2. Paul’s Letters: Temple Imagery as Religious Identity, 53
3. Mark: Criticism or Rejection?, 96
4. Q and Matthew: The Sacred Temple, 127
5. Luke–Acts: Living and Dying with the Temple, 153
6. The Gospel of John: Temple and Christology, 197
7. The Book of Revelation: The Alternative Temple, 222
8. Hebrews: The New Heavenly Temple Cult Based on the
Old One, 252
9. Relating to Judaism, Experiencing the Sacred, 285
10. Concluding Thoughts, 314
Notes, 319
Bibliography, 415
General Index, 451
Index of Ancient Sources, 456
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
This book discusses the Temple, its meaning and function and how
it was viewed by early Christians. It shows how early Christian self-
identity developed through the relationship with and attitude to-
ward the Temple and the sacrificial cult.
I was not always consciously aware of my interest in the Temple.
It took several years for me to realize that most of my research re-
lates to it despite my not having any particular intention or agenda.
It would seem that the Temple is present almost everywhere in
Second Temple Judaism, whether or not one is aware of it. Could
studying the Temple still be counted as offering a sacrifice, as some
ancient rabbis argued long ago?
I began studying the New Testament (NT) when I wrote my
doctoral dissertation on the Sadducees. At first I treated it as a direct
source for the Sadducees and Pharisees. Reading the NT in a Jewish
Israeli so-called orthodox contemporary milieu elicited some critical
comments from friends. Nonetheless, the text piqued my curiosity
about the creation of a new belief system in first-century Judaea.
I realized that the study of early Christianity has the potential to
contribute to a deeper understanding of Judean society and religion.
Only at a later stage did I become interested in understanding early
Christianity for its own sake, as a fascinating, extremely complex
socioreligious phenomenon, similar to my interest in the Dead Sea
Scrolls and the Qumran sectarians.
The intersection of early Christianity and the Jerusalem Tem-
ple presents diverse potential directions for understanding the past
and looking at the present and future of Judaism and Christian-
ity. H owever, my intentions are restricted to the study of ancient
history in as accurate and as learned a manner as possible, primar-
ily through a t extual-critical attitude but also employing a social-
ix
x Preface
scientific approach. Any implications of this study for our contemporary
religious thinking and dialogue are beyond my scholarly scope.
This book originated with several articles published in the Harvard
Theological Review, New Testament Studies, and Cathedra (in Hebrew) and
in the edited volumes Text, Thought, and Practice in Qumran and Early
Christianity, Studies in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity, and Sound-
ings in the Religion of Jesus. In the course of writing this book, which took
four years, I revised my earlier treatments of the subject. The various NT
texts and the vast number of books and articles on the subject in different
languages demanded a substantial amount of time and effort to produce
a readable, sensible monograph which presents the texts and my study of
them in detail while also providing a fresh perspective on approaches to-
ward the Temple in early Christianity. I can only hope that I have done jus-
tice to the complexity and richness of the early Christian discourse about
the Temple and subsequent scholarship on the topic.
Many teachers, colleagues, and friends deserve my gratitude. First and
foremost, my doctorvater, Professor Joshua Schwartz, of the Department of
Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, who not
only introduced the academic world to me and guided me all the way from
junior student to full professor, but also taught my first course on the NT.
Other prominent teachers at Bar-Ilan University who encouraged and in-
spired me as a historian and interpreter of ancient texts are Professors Al
Baumgarten, James Kugel, Zeev Safrai, and the late Hanan Eshel. Profes-
sor Helmut Koester taught me some of the basics of NT scholarship when
I was a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. I have also
benefited from the friendship of Professors John Kloppenborg and Loren
Stuckenbruck.
Special thanks are due to Professor John Collins, the editor of this
series, for his wisdom and kindness. This book was actually John’s idea,
and his guidance and encouragement are what have made it possible.
Heather Gold of Yale University Press also helped me throughout the proj-
ect, and the rest of the team at Yale University Press made every effort to
publish the manuscript professionally.
I would also like to thank my friend Dr. Stephen Arnoff, who helped
improve my writing. Dudi Benyem and his team at the Wurzweiler Cen-
tral Library at Bar-Ilan University, as well as the interlibrary loan service,
made every effort to purchase or borrow the many books I needed for my
research. Tamar Magen-Elbaz, the vice chair of my department, made it