Negotiating Identities

Relying on archaeological remains and ancient sources, this book describes important identity formation processes within early Judaism and Christianity and shows how negotiations involving issues of ethnicity, stereotyping, purity, commensality, and institution building contributed to the formation of group identities.

Introduction: Exploring the Intersection Between Judaism and Christianity in their Formative Phases
Karin Hedner Zetterholm, Anders Runesson, Cecilia Wassén, and Magnus Zetterholm

1. Setting the Stage: The Variety of Judaism and the Origin of Christianity
John J. Collins

Part I. Polemics and Sectarian Identities (2nd Century BCE - 1st Century CE)

2. Competition rather than Conflict: Identity Discourse in the Qumran Rule Scrolls
Jutta Jokiranta

3. Meals, Identity, and Purity in the Qumran Movement
Cecilia Wassén

4. Was Gentile Reclamation an Apocalyptic Apologetic? Ethnic Identities in the Book of Dreams as Precedent for Ethnic Reasoning in the Early Jesus Movement
Genevive Dibley

5. Slip-Slidin' Away: Rethinking the 'Parting of the Ways'
Adele Reinhartz

6. Where Do We Go from Here? Polemics and Sectarian Identities
Adela Yarbro Collins

Part II. Intra-Jewish Interaction and the Role of Non-Jews Within the Jesus Movement (2nd Century BCE - 1st Century CE)

7. Gentile Alterity an