Jewish Law in Gentile Churches: Halakhah and the Beginning of Christian Public Ethics

by Markus Bockmuehl

Why did the early Christian church, with its many Gentile members, keep Old Testament commandments about sex and idolatry but disregard many others, like those about food or ritual purity? Did Christianity inherit its norms of moral reasoning from Judaism or invent them afresh?

In Jewish Law in Gentile Churches, Markus Bockmuehl approaches such questions by examining the halakhic (Jewish legal) rationale behind the ethics of Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians. Bockmuehl offers an alternative to the prevailing attitude that "law-free" Christianity arose in response to Jewish "legalism." Drawing heavily upon primary sources, he suggests that early Christian ethics were more solidly based in Jewish legal teaching than has generally been thought.

This important study has far-reaching implications not only for the study of the New Testament, but more broadly for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. First published by T & T Clark, Jewish Law in Gentile Churches is now available to a North American audience in this affordable paperback edition.

Genres: History, Theology, Biblical Studies

332 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2000

About the author

Markus Bockmuehl (PhD, University of Cambridge) is a Fellow of Keble College and professor of biblical and early Christian studies at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. He previously taught at the University of Cambridge and the University of St. Andrews. Bockmuehl is the author or editor of numerous books, including Seeing the Word, Scripture’s Doctrine and Theology’s Bible, Paradise in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Views, and Redemption and Resistance: The Messianic Hopes of Jews and Christians in Antiquity.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows the continuity between the OT and new as well as the developmental distinctives that arise from the centrality of Jesus and eschatological considerations. I found it very helpful in considering current Christian debates in the area of ethics.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a technical book

[Dr. Paul T. Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an academic read, so the language is professional writing is on very narrows topics. He raises some good points on how Gentiles fit into a Jewish Book.