num_pages: 240
description: A fresh look at Acts of the Apostles and its depiction of Jewish identity within the larger Roman era When considering Jewish identity in Acts of the Apostles scholars have often emphasized Jewish and Christian religious difference an emphasis that masks the intersections of civic ethnic and religious identifications in antiquity. Christopher Stroups innovative work explores the depiction of Jewish and Christian identity by analyzing ethnicity within a broader material and epigraphic context. Examining Acts through a new lens he shows that the text presents Jews and Jewish identity in multiple complex ways rather than as a simple foil for Christianity. Stroup convincingly argues that when the modern distinctions among ethnic religious and civic identities are suspended the innovative ethnic rhetoric of the author of Acts comes into focus. The author of Acts leverages the power of gods ancestry and physical space to legitimate Christian identity as a type of Jewish identity and to present Christian non-Jews as Jewish converts through the power of the Holy Spirit.
language: English
title: The Christians Who Became Jews: Acts of the Apostles and Ethnicity in the Roman City
publisher: Yale University Press