Hebrews, the Catholic Epistles, and the "Parting Of The Ways"

This essay surveys Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles in the context of scholarly discussion of the "parting of the ways" between Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles present significant challenges for historians interested in reconstructing the historical separation of Christianity from Judaism-a separation that was not merely a function of cultural values or social interaction, but most especially of taxonomic assertions about distinct group identities. Analysis of these disparate works illustrates the problems with making broad generalizations about some singular, historic "parting of the ways." Hebrews aggressively strips ethnic identity from the scriptural traditions and cultic concepts of the Judeans, appropriating them for a transethnic people of God whose identity is based on claimed possession of a divine spirit rather than ethnic descent. While broadly similar approaches to identity seem to be at work in 1-2 Peter and 1-3 John, the partings with which these works are chiefly concerned are not with Jews or Judaism but with either "the Nations" from which their members have come or other, rival Jesus groups. The Letter of Jude, while obviously related to 2 Peter, is more ambiguous where matters of ethnicity are concerned. The Letter of James, finally, gives no indication that its cultivation of Judean scriptural tradition represents an appropriation either by or for a people defined over against ethnic Israel.