03_Biblica_Foster_Layout 1 08/07/13 12:56 Pagina 381 381 IS Q A “JEWISH CHRISTIAN” DOCUMENT? from the Jewish Christians” 45. Therefore, for Skarsaune “Christian Jew- ish” represents ethnic Jews who are no longer Torah observant as a con- sequence of their faith in Jesus. Thus for him “Christian Jewish” would be placed to the right of “Jewish Christian” on the constructed axis. Fur- thermore, the term “Christian Jews” means precisely the opposite ac- cording to Tuckett’s more typical definition 46. From these differing understandings of the term “Christian Jewish” it is apparent that not only is there is no commonly agreed definition, but the various definitions that have been suggested are radically opposed 47. Because of this confusion it is perhaps best to drop labels such as “Jewish Christian” or “Christian Jews” entirely, and to offer more de- scriptive definitions of the categories on the continuum. Yet the abid- ing problem is that groups or individuals rarely fall into hermetically isolated conceptual categories. Instead, real communities and individ- uals often hold together what may be seen as theoretically incompat- ible positions, and groups often encompass individuals with a range of beliefs. This may mean that only a few broad categories should be defined, but variation from such theoretical descriptions is to be ex- pected. For this reason, a three point axis is proposed as an aid to clas- sification, but there needs to be a recognition that no two groups or individuals are likely to share exactly the same belief system. Jewish —— Jewish Christian —— Gentile Christian Here Jewish believers are seen to be those who were still fully in- tegrated into Jewish religious and social institutions although there may be tensions with fellow Jews who do not share the conviction that Jesus is the Messiah, or a prophetic figure, or a divinely com- missioned teacher. Such adherents to Jesus probably maintained a form of Torah observance that was indistinguishable from members of wider Judaism. Historically, such a position may have only been SKARSAUNE, “Jewish Believers in Jesus in Antiquity”, 9. 45 TUCKETT, Q and the History of Early Christianity, 435, n. 37. 46 This point is made with great clarity by Edwin Broadhead. He states 47 that “[i]t is also invalid to define Jewish Christianity by what it is not ― nei- ther Jewish nor Christian. Similarly, a definition should not be shaped by per- ceptions of orthodoxy or heresy, either from the Christian or Jewish side”. E.K. BROADHEAD, Jewish Ways of Following Jesus (Tübingen 2010) 28-58, here 58. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2013 - Tutti i diritti riservati