Supersession

Abstract

It is probable that we will never know with certainty what Paul’s true attitude toward Judaism was. We know, however, that when Gentile believers needed a foundation for their rejection of the beliefs and traditions of their Jewish opponents, they found in Paul the theological and polemical support they needed. Whether this exegesis was based on a true and correct understanding of Paul’s intent (the traditionalists) or on its distortion (the revisionists) is an open debate. By the dawn of the second century, the antagonism between followers of Jesus of Jewish ancestry and believers in Jesus of Pagan ancestry was a few generations old, and intensifying. Within a couple of generations after Jesus’s short ministry, the Pauline and Gnostic missions to the Gentiles and the descendants of the Jewish founders created a tripolar reality that made a confrontation about identity, legitimacy, and authority inevitable. Christianity-as-we-know-it emerges from the melting pot of the religious “civil war” that ensued. The texts before us were authored during this period and reflect the factionalism, confusion, anxiety, and heightened emotions that characterized the early phases of this struggle.