Paul: Deviant or reformer of Judaism? A study of Jewish and Christian identity in Asia Minor

This dissertation addresses the issue of Paul's conflict with the Diaspora Jews. Paul's strategy of using the synagogue as his base of operation when he first arrived on a mission field does not seem to be in accord with his calling as an apostle to the Gentiles. Various solutions to the issue have been proposed by scholars, but few of them take into consideration an intriguing factor related to this issue. Paul mentioned that five times he received the "forty lashes minus one" synagogue discipline (2 Cor. 11.24). Paul's voluntary submission to this punishment revealed his great desire to stay within the Diaspora Jewish communities while fulfilling his mission.; The finding of this research is that Paul's missiology was intricately tied to his soteriology and ecclesiology. Paul's conviction was that Judaism was the channel through which God fulfilled his promise to Abraham regarding the blessing of the nations. As an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul was to bring the Gentile believers into the Jewish fold so that Jews and Gentiles could become one in the body of Christ. In the eyes of the Diaspora Jews, Paul was a deviant par excellence in advocating such a theology and practice. Paul's attempted reform to abolish the entrance requirement of the observance of the Law for Gentile believers posed a great threat to maintaining Jewish identity and the survival of Jewish communities in the Diaspora.; In order to understand the identity issues of those Jews in the Diaspora, this study first establishes the boundaries of Jewish identity. In the next step, Paul's theology and practice is compared with that of common Judaism to reveal the aspects of potential conflict. Then, the research examines how Paul made use of the figure of Abraham to argue for the inclusion of Gentiles in the people of God. Finally, cases drawn from the Jews' interactions with Gentiles in Asia Minor serve as a test from which the reasons for Paul's failed reform may be explored. The emphasis of this study falls upon primary rather than secondary sources. Both Jewish and Greco-Roman literature in the Second Temple period are used.