05_Biblica_1_A_Ferda_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:17 Pagina 573 05_B “SEALED” WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT (EPH 1,13-14) AND CIRCUMCISION 573 God’s people are not defined by the covenantal marker made with Abraham, but by the eschatological Spirit poured out on Jew and Gen- tile alike (cf. Gos. Thom. 53; Odes Sol. 11.2). That one finds this motif elsewhere in the New Testament and in Paul in particular shows that AE (either Paul himself, or an early interpreter of Paul) could do something similar in Eph 1,13-14. Second, it appeared to some that circumcision was a definitive step in Jewish proselytization, and AE considers Spirit-sealing as the key step in the “conversion-initiation” of his Gentile audience 55. This point assumes the argument above that the aorist participles (v. 13) are best understood as antecedent to the main verb “being sealed”. The sequence parallels a description in both Jewish and pagan sources of circumcision as a final rite of passage (all italics mine): When Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he believed firmly in God. So he was circumcised, and joined the house of Is- rael, remaining so to this day (Judith 14,10 NRSV). (Metilius) when he searched for mercy, and promised that he would judaize to the point of circumcision, they left him alone alive (Jose- phus, War 3.454 LCL). Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion adopt the prac- tice, and have this lesson first instilled to them: to despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at naught parents, children, and brethren (Tacitus, Histories 5.5 LCL). M. THIESSEN, Contesting Conversion: Genealogy, Circumcision, and Iden- 55 tity in Ancient Judaism and Christianity (New York 2011) has recently shown that there were discordant voices in the Second Temple period on whether cir- cumcision could make non-Jews Jews. Informed by Thiessen’s work, therefore, the following discussion of “proselytism” neither assumes that all Jews would have agreed on a strict process of Gentile assimilation, nor that “proselytes” would have been considered full-status Jews. For support of the view that cir- cumcision was seen (by some) as a key boundary marker between Jew and Gen- tile, see J.J. COLLINS, “A Symbol of Otherness: Circumcision and Salvation in the First Century”, “To See Ourselves as Others See Us”. Christians, Jews, “Oth- ers” in Late Antiquity (eds. J. NEUSNER – E.S. FRERICHS) (Atlanta, GA 1985) 163-186; S. COHEN, “Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew”, HTR 82 (1989) 28, n. 47; P. BARNETT, “The Jewish Mission in the Era of the New Tes- tament and the Apostle Paul”, The Gospel to the Nations (eds. P. BOLT – M. THOMPSON) (Sydney 2000) 264; M. BIRD, Crossing Over Sea and Land. Jewish Missionary Activity in the Second Temple Period (Peabody, MA 2010) 17-43. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati