When did Judaism and Christianity separate from each other? Daniel Boyarin has argued that the two religions were virtually indistinguishable until the time of the Emperor Constantine, at the beginning of the fourth century AD. But does this hold true for our earliest written Gospel, that of Mark? This depends on how “Jewish” is determined. If one argues that Mark has stepped out of the Jewish sphere, then not only Mark and Paul but also the Lubavitcher Rebbe must be termed non-Jewish. Ultimately, then, one could say either that Mark had departed from Judaism, or that he represented a radical form of the same. The decision eventually depends on the definition of Judaism – a subject about which there is no more unanimity today than there was in Mark’s time.
Joel Marcus (*1951) is professor of New Testament and Christian origins at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He studied theology in New York and did his Ph. D. work on the New Testament. His current research focuses on the parting of the ways between ancient Judaism and the Christianity of the first three centuries AD. Professor Marcus is member of the Catholic Biblical Association, the Society of Biblical Literature and Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.
Moderation: Dr. Andreas Bedenbender