Language:
English
Year of publication:
2022
Titel der Quelle:
Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period
Angaben zur Quelle:
53,3 (2023) 405-436
Keywords:
Jesus Person and offices
;
History of doctrines
;
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Monotheism
;
Judaism Doctrines
;
Judaism Relations Early church, ca. 30-600
;
Christianity
;
Rabbinical literature History and criticism
Abstract:
This article furthers our understanding of rabbinic theology through an examination of its characteristic modes of expression. I demonstrate that although the rabbinic literature frequently polemicizes against perceived deviant theologies, it refrains from explicit expressions of God’s unity. This disinclination derives from the target and intent of rabbinic theological polemic. The rabbis’ opponents were not Christian binitarians who believed in multiple divine persons, but what I will refer to as Jewish subordinationists who believed in created divine agents through which God acts in the world. The rabbis were therefore less concerned with the ontological nature of God’s unity than they were with distancing all other beings from God’s sole sovereignty. My work provides additional textual support for the growing scholarly consensus that Jewish proponents of Logos theologies were among the rabbis’ earliest opponents, but it challenges the current convention that interprets these theologies in a primarily Christian binitarian context.
DOI:
10.1163/15700631-bja10046
URL:
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