Literatura científica selecionada sobre o tema "Jews and Gentiles"

AbstractBut when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned. For before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. After they came, however, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, "If you, a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how is it that you force the Gentiles to become Jews?" (Galatians 2.11-14)

The ‘Jerusalem decrees’ of Acts 15.20, 29 and 21.25 can be interpreted both as ‘Noachide commandments’, implicitly keeping the separation between Jews and Gentiles, and as analogous to the decrees for resident aliens in Lev 17–18 and elsewhere, implicitly allowing Gentiles to associate with Jews under certain conditions. What is at stake is the status to be assigned to Gentiles by the community of Jewish believers in Jesus. These interpretations correspond to the attitudes towards Gentile believers at Antioch manifested, according to Gal 2.11–14, respectively by James and by Cephas.

This article examines various issues in R. Meir Simha Hacohen’s (rms) halakhic approach toward gentiles. His approach demonstrates innovation, and it attests mostly to moderation and an effort to reach a compromise with gentiles. We see that his halakhic and judicial approach does not advocate a complete detachment between Jews and gentiles; on the contrary, it encourages increased relations between them. On all the issues examined here, where the Halakhah could be interpreted in a strict manner or leniently, rms follows the approach that facilitates relations between Jews and gentiles. His position is consistent and forms a broad fundamental approach according to which, whenever it is possible to set the laws governing the relations between Jew and gentiles on an even footing, one should make an effort to do so. The article exposes several broad principles in rms’s attitude toward gentiles, for example, the rationale that distinguishes between religious matters and worldly affairs. The laws governing the latter apply to gentiles as well and are identical for gentiles and Jews. The article also shows that rms issued a series of rulings aimed at compromising with gentiles and bringing Jews and gentiles closer together. The article explains rms’s approach of meeting gentiles half way by examining the historical and sociological circumstances within which he acted, including the fact that in Eastern Europe his Jewish circle did not perceive itself as self-referential and conservative. This enabled rms to develop his moderate approach.

The following paper explores the formulation of universal commandments for non-Jews within the book of Jubilees and compares it with rabbinic traditions that also deal with Gentiles and law observance. The discussion concerning commandments incumbent upon all of humanity in Jubilees betrays a remarkable preoccupation with promoting the observance of particular laws (e. g., Sabbath and circumcision) for Jews alone—universal law becomes a means for highlighting Israel’s special covenantal status. The bitter opposition expressed in Jubilees against Gentiles is best understood as a polemical response to events redefining Jewish-Gentile relations during the second century B. C. E.