Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament Herausgeber / Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber / Associate Editors Friedrich Avemarie † (Marburg) Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) James A. Kelhoffer (Uppsala) Hans-Josef Klauck (Chicago, IL) Tobias Nicklas (Regensburg) 301 The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries of the Common Era edited by Clare K. Rothschild and Jens Schröter Mohr Siebeck Clare K. Rothschild, born 1964; 1986 B.A. University of California, Berkeley; 1992 M.T.S.Har- vard University; 2003 Ph.D. University of Chicago; currently Associate Professor of Theology at Lewis University, Romeoville, IL. Jens Schröter, born 1961, 1992 Dr. theol. Heidelberg University; 1996 Habilitation Hum- boldt-University Berlin; currently Professor of New Testament and Ancient Christian Apocry- pha at Humboldt-University Berlin. e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-152285-7 ISBN 978-3-16-152249-9 ISSN 0512-1604 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2013 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproduc- tions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset by Martin Fischer in Tübingen, printed by Gulde-Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. Acknowledgments It is often difficult, in a project of a few years duration, to trace its foundational idea. This volume of essays is traced roughly back to the summer of 2009. Thanks to a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Clare K. Rothschild (Chicago) spent a few months at Humboldt University in Berlin, researching and writing a monograph on Acts under the auspice of Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin). At that time, Jens Schröter (Berlin) had just accepted his invitation to join the fac- ulty at Humboldt University in Berlin. One afternoon over coffee, it occurred to Jens and Clare that, with both Breytenbach and Schröter on the New Testament seminar at the Faculty of Theology, Humboldt University had positioned itself as an excellent place to pursue questions concerning early Christian history. It also occurred to us at this time that this was nothing new. Adolf von Harnack, whose chair is now held by Christoph Markschies, had established this very reputation for Humboldt University and the city of Berlin more generally roughly a century before by his research on the topic and his publication of the monumentally significant Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. Thanks to generous funding from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Jens and Clare hosted a conference on the rise of Christianity in Summer 2010 to coincide with the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas meeting in Berlin that same year. The conference was entitled “The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries C.E.” and took place at Humboldt University over a three-day period from July 23–26, 2010. The aim of the conference was to explore the longstanding conundrum of the political rise and rapid growth of Christianity, focusing on the first, second and third centuries of the Common Era. The confer- ence brought together a highly select group of international scholars to address this question from a wide swath of intellectual perspectives – including theoret- ical, methodological, historical, rhetorical and socio-historical strategies. Topics begin chronologically with the mission of Paul (and its possible predecessors), continuing forward to encompass the canonical Jesus traditions, deutero-Pauline and non-canonical Jesus traditions (including canonical Acts) and other second century literary, inscriptional, and archaeological evidence. The outcome of the conference is this volume. The manuscript was prepared at Humboldt University in Berlin by Jens Schröter and his assistants in the New Testament seminar at the Faculty of The- ology. The editors wish to express their gratitude especially to Ines Luthe and Johann Konrad Schwarz who brought the essays into their final form and wrote the indexes. We also wish to thank Dr. Henning Ziebritzki at Mohr Siebeck for VI Acknowledgments his interest in this manuscript, Prof. Dr. Jörg Frey (Zurich) for its recommen- dation to the WUNT series, and all those at Mohr Siebeck who assisted in the production of the book. Of course, without the generous support of all participants, the conference would not have been successful and the book project would not have come to completion. We dedicate this book, therefore, to them and those like them – individuals (both professional and lay) who share our interest in the history of early Christianity and, in particular, its rapid rise and expansion in the first three centuries CE. January 2013 Clare K. Rothschild and Jens Schröter Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................ V Clare K. Rothschild The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries of the Common Era ............................................... 1 I. Cultural Milieu James Carleton Paget Hellenistic and Early Roman Period Jewish Missionary Efforts in the Diaspora ................................................... 11 William Horbury Jewish and Christian Origins in Roman Africa ........................ 51 II. First Century Developments: From Galilee to Asia Minor 1. Jesus and the Gospels Jürgen K. Zangenberg From the Galilean Jesus to the Galilean Silence: Earliest Christianity in the Galilee until the Fourth Century CE ........................... 75 Thomas Söding Die Saat des Evangeliums. Vor- und nachösterliche Mission im Markusevangelium ............................................. 109 Matthias Konradt Die Ausrichtung der Mission im Matthäusevangelium und die Entwicklung zur universalen Kirche. Überlegungen zum Standort des Matthäusevangeliums in der Entwicklung des Christentums ......... 143 VIII Table of Contents 2. Paul Wayne A. Meeks From Jerusalem to Illyricum, Rome to Spain: The World of Paul’s Missionary Imagination ........................................... 167 James D. G. Dunn The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries C. E.: Why and How did Embryonic Christianity Expand Beyond the Jewish People? .......................................................... 183 Michael Wolter Jesus bei Paulus ................................................... 205 3. Other Trajectories Jörg Frey Von Paulus zu Johannes: Die Diversität „christlicher“ Gemeindekreise und die „Trennungsprozesse“ zwischen der Synagoge und den Gemeinden der Jesusnachfolger in Ephesus im ersten Jahrhundert .................. 235 Clare K. Rothschild ἐτυμολογία, Dramatis Personae, and the Lukan Invention of an Early Christian Prosopography ................................ 279 Jan Dochhorn Ist die Apokalypse des Johannes ein Text des Christentums der Asia? Einige Überlegungen .............................................. 299 III. The Formation of Christian Identity according to “Apocryphal” Writings, “Gnosticism,” and Paganism Enno Edzard Popkes Antike christliche Apokryphen als Spiegel frühchristlicher Identitäts- bildungsprozesse: Beobachtungen am Beispiel kanonischer und außerkanonischer Haltungen zum Verzehr von „Götzenopferfleisch“ .... 325 Richard I. Pervo The Hospitality of Onesiphorus: Missionary Styles and Support in the Acts of Paul ................................................ 341 Table of Contents IX Janet E. Spittler Christianity at the Edges. Representations of the Ends of the Earth in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles ............................... 353 Trevor Thompson “Claiming Ephesus: Pauline Legacy in the Acts of John” ................. 379 Candida R. Moss Polycarphilia: The Martyrdom of Polycarp and the Origins and Spread of Martyrdom .................................................... 401 Ismo Dunderberg Early Christian Critics of Martyrdom ................................ 419 Karen L. King Theologies and Mission Practices among the so-called “Heretics” ........ 441 Jörg Ulrich Die Begegnung von Christen und Heiden im zweiten (und dritten) Jahrhundert ...................................................... 457 Jens Schröter „Harnack revisited“: Die Entstehung und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten. Anstelle eines Nachworts ............. 487 Index of Ancient Sources .......................................... 501 Index of Modern Authors .......................................... 532 Index of Subjects .................................................. 541