medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I think one should add that the circumcision debate between Paul and the
Jerusalem Church was essentially about two issues: 1) Whether non-Jews who
joined the Church needed to convert to Judaism. 2) whether the literal
fulfillment of the commandments was still required after the death of
jesus.
In terms of the first point, conversion requires circumcision and
immersion in a ritualarium. In the primitive church (as w/ baptist sects
today), this was accepted as initiation into the church. So the debate
surrounded circumcision. Your rabbi friend could see the devate as a
critical stage in the departure of Christianity from Judaism. If he's
looking for sources, I recommend L. Schiffman, Who was a Jew?, New Jersey
(mid 1980's).
Jeffrey Woolf
Senior Lecturer
Department of Talmud
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan Israel
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