[First posted in AWOL 21 October 2014, updated 21 November 2021]
Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting: from the first to the seventh century (JJMJS)
ISSN: 2374-7862 (print)
ISSN: 2374-7870 (online)
Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting: from the first to the seventh century (JJMJS)
ISSN: 2374-7862 (print)
ISSN: 2374-7870 (online)
ournal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting: From the First to the Seventh Century (JJMJS) is a peer-reviewed academic open access journal, published electronically in co-operation with Hebrew University (Jerusalem), University of Oslo (Oslo), and DePaul University (Chicago).
JJMJS is an independent and scholarly journal registered as a non-profit organization in Norway (Org. no. 918437312) and does not represent any particular theological school or religious organization.
The purpose of JJMJS is to advance scholarship on a crucial period in the early history of the Jewish and Christian traditions, from the first to the seventh century, when they developed into what is today known as two world religions, mutually shaping one another as they did so. JJMJS publishes high-quality research on any topic that directly addresses or has implications for the understanding of the inter-relationship and interaction between the Jesus movement and other forms of Judaism, as well as for the processes that led to the formation of Judaism and Christianity as two related but independent religions.
The primary fields of study included in the journal's purview are: Christian Origins, New Testament Studies, Early Jewish Studies (including Philo and Josephus), the Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Rabbinic Studies, Patristics, History of Ancient Christianity, Reception History, and Archaeology. Methodological diversity and innovation is encouraged.
JJMJS is governed by the editorial committee in accordance with an agreement between its three academic partner institutions. The Editor-in-Chief and the Co-editors are responsible for the academic standard and general direction of the journal.
JJMJS Issue 8 (2021)
Special Issue on Circumcision
In the spring of 2019, an international group of scholars came together at the University of Oslo to discuss male circumcision, under the heading “Ancient Attitudes in Light of Contemporary Questions.” The current issue of JJMJS is the result of this productive meeting. Its contributions discuss circumcision across a range of sources, from the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and other early Jewish and early Christian writings, to Greco-Roman art and imagery. The writings of Paul are the central focus in most of the articles, which is perhaps unsurprising given the importance of circumcision as a topic in several of his letters.
The “contemporary questions” in the title of the meeting relate in part to discussions surrounding male circumcision today. While these debates often center on arguments related to bodily integrity, religious freedom, and the rights of parents and children, understandings of the past and the historiography of circumcision also play a role in them. Increasing our understanding of historical attitudes and practices related to circumcision, particularly for the ideologically significant time period that is the focus of this journal, is therefore of value for informed discussion.
The second aspect of the “contemporary questions” relates more directly to the focus of this journal, which makes it such a fitting platform for the work that resulted from the meeting. The shift in scholarship that has led to understanding the Jesus movement consistently in relation to other forms of early Judaism has significant implication for how attitudes towards circumcision are studied. Previously, scholars predominantly reconstructed a specifically “Christian” understanding of circumcision and identified it as one of the breaking points between “Judaism” and “Christianity.” When sources such as Paul’s letters are read as part of the spectrum of attitudes towards circumcision that we find in early Jewish sources, particularly with an awareness of possible distinctions between eighth-day and proselyte circumcision, a different picture emerges. M Adryael Tong’s article shows the tensions in scholarship between looking for uniformity while also acknowledging diversity on the ground. She argues instead for keeping the fundamental fluidity of circumcision discourse in the Hebrew Bible and later sources consistently in view. Ryan Collman focuses on Paul’s negations of circumcision and foreskin in 1 Corinthians and Galatians. He challenges the conventional interpretation that these verses indicate Paul’s indifference to circumcision and shows how circumcision and foreskin are rather categories that are useful as points of comparison. Karin Neutel's contribution highlights the relevance of the term “foreskin” in Romans 4, which is often misunderstood as “uncircumcision,” rather than as a physical term that is a marker of religious and ethnic difference. In describing Abraham as being “in foreskin,” Paul therefore makes an entirely different argument about his faithfulness than Pauline scholarship overwhelmingly supposes. Mark Nanos argues that the phrase ἔργα νόμου in Paul denotes “rites of a custom,” specifically proselyte initiation. According to Nanos, the phrase does not indicate criticism of Torah, as has often been assumed, but is in fact based on Torah. IsaacSoon uses ancient visual culture to reconstruct possible attitudes towards circumcision among Paul’s gentile audiences, particularly in Galatians. This material suggests that circumcision was associated with sexual dysfunction and aesthetic deformity and that non-Jews would therefore have been highly unlikely to be willing to undergo circumcision. In the final contribution, Thomas R. Blanton IV discusses the French monograph on circumcision by Simon Claude Mimouni, which is often overlooked in English-language scholarship. He connects Mimouni’s work to the developments of “Paul within Judaism” and “Lived Ancient Religion” in recent scholarship. In doing so, he draws attention to the tension between “inherited” structures and the continual processing of diverse actors in relation to circumcision. By challenging existing scholarly views on circumcision and highlighting the fluid and constructed nature of circumcision discourse, this issue therefore hopes to make an important contribution to the re-evaluation of New Testament and other early Christian sources as part of early Jewish diversity, rather than as distinct from it.
Finally, I am grateful to all the participants in the Oslo meeting: Ward Blanton, Ryan Collman (with a special thanks for suggesting the title of my paper), Diana Edelman, Ada Engebrigtsen, Rebecca Harrocks, Sandra Jacobs, Marianne Bjelland Kartzow, Mark Nanos, Ellen Aasland Reinertsen, Anders Runesson, Nora Stene, Isaac Soon, Matthew Thiessen, M Adryael Tong, and Holger Zellentin, whose collegial input contributed to the content of this issue and to the editors of JJMJS for their support.
Karin Neutel
Guest Editor
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nanos_re-framing_pauls_opposition__2_.pdf Download File
soon_the_bestial_glans__2_.pdf Download File
blanton_circumcision_in_the_early_jesus_movement__2_.pdf
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JJMJS Issue 7 (2020)
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palmer_jjmjs_7.pdf Download File
abel_jjmjs_7.pdf Download File
krause_jjmjs_7.pdf Download File
aus_jjmjs_7.pdf Download File
cornell_jjmjs_7.pdf Download File
regev_jjmjs_7.pdf Download File
ledonne_jjmjs_7.pdf JJMJS Issue 6 (2019)If you want to download an individual article, please choose from the list below:Download File
hicks-keeton.pdf Download File
ehrensperger.pdf Download File
joseph.pdf Download File
zetterholm.pdf Download File
korsvoll.pdf Download File
evans-3.pdf Download File
klawans.pdf JJMJS Issue 5 (2018)
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runesson_-_introduction.pdf Download File
thiessen_-_conjuring_paul.pdf Download File
elliott_-_taking_the_measure.pdf Download File
reinhartz_-_20th_century_context.pdf Download File
tatum_-_did_paul_find_anything.pdf Download File
crossley_-_paul_within_judaism.pdf Download File
mitchell_-_paul_and_judaism_now.pdf Download File
novenson_-_whither_the_paul.pdf Download File
fredriksen_-_a_response.pdf
JJMJS Issue 4 (2017)
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marshall_-_from_small_words.pdf Download File
van_maaren_-_does_marks_jesus_abrogate_torah.pdf Download File
zeichmann_-_loanwords_or_code-switching.pdf Download File
ryan_-_when_we_were_hebrews.pdf Download File
rodriguez_-_all_that_yahweh_has_commanded.pdf Download File
ascough_-_methodological_reflections.pdf Download File
korner_-_ekklesia_as_a_jewish_synagogue_term.pdf JJMJS Issue 3 (2016)
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jjmjs-3_donaldson.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_regev.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_tuccinardi.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_troost-cramer.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_kok.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_gruen.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_forger.pdf Download File
jjmjs-3_misgav.pdf JJMJS Issue 2 (2015)
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nongbri_the_concept_of_religion.pdf Download File
ascough_paul_synagogues_and_associations.pdf Download File
korner_ekklēsia_as_a_jewish_synagogue_term.pdf Download File
campbell_‘a_remnant_of_them_will_be_saved’.pdf Download File
wayment_and_grey_jesus_followers_in_pompeii.pdf Download File
shepardson_between_polemic_and_propoganda.pdf Download File
decock_the_jewish_gospels.pdf JJMJS Issue 1 (2014)
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introducing_jjmjs.pdf Download File
elgvin_gabriel_inscription.pdf Download File
nanos_pauls_non-jews.pdf Download File
roth_shared_interpretive_traditions.pdf Download File
ruzer_the_epistle_of_james.pdf Download File
klawans_heresy_without_orthodoxy.pdf Download File
zetterholm_alternate_visions_of_judaism.pdf Download File
evans_jant_review.pdf
See AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies