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This essay focuses on the topic of the emergence of Christianity and Judaism as related but distinct religious traditions, as an example of a process of religious and cultural change, which has had an enormous impact on Western and other societies around the world. At the heart of this question lies what appear to be contradictions between normative practices in antiquity and those we know of today, leading us to consider the historical and hermeneutical issue of continuity and change over time; its how, when and why. Rejecting the idea that theological differences between Judaism and Christianity necessitated a ‘parting of ways’ between them, it is argued that social, political and colonial decision-making was essential to this process, and that, furthermore, a historical focus on institutional realities in the ancient Mediterranean world, including in Jewish society, will challenge many long-held assumptions about the origins not only of Christianity but also of Judaism. The general historical reconstruction offered is then applied to a specific archaeological site, Capernaum, showing how traces of the larger pattern of development from the first to the fifth century CE may be seen in the histories of two buildings in this town.

This study concerns the composition of the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and is part of a scholarly discussion within New Testament studies known as the “Synoptic Problem.” In this study, the composition of the Gospels is considered in light of ancient compositional practice, a field of study within the Synoptic Problem that has grown in popularity in recent decades. It specifically looks at the way that Matthew and Mark and Luke would have moved through their sources or exemplars (source-utilization movement) when they composed, presuming that some sort of direction of dependence is the case. Each of the Simple Solutions is considered in this regard—the Augustinian Hypothesis, the Büsching Hypothesis, the Farrer Hypothesis, the Griesbach Hypothesis, the Lockton Hypothesis, and the Wilke Hypothesis, as well as the Two-Document Hypothesis. It may be presumed some sort of direction of dependence is the case between the Synoptic Gospels, whatever direction this might be, and the form these sources took would have likely been bookrolls (or scrolls). The thesis introduces a neglected factor in Synoptic Problem studies. Whereas historically each Gospel text has been presumed to be a single bookroll, in this study, a multiple-bookroll hypothesis is also tested. Instead of there being one bookroll per Gospel, the possibility that each Gospel was distributed over several bookrolls is also tested. Additionally, the study takes into consideration the role of memory and memory-access of traditions in the process of composition. Several other matters concerning ancient compositional practice is also treated throughout. When the various Hypotheses are examined in terms of how the Gospel-authors would have moved through their texts, in light of a multiple bookroll hypothesis, among other factors, the result seems to favour strongly Lukan Absolute Posteriority (i.e., the Augustinian and Farrer Hypotheses). Thesis Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) This study concerns the composition of the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and is part of a scholarly discussion within New Testament studies known as the Synoptic Problem. It considers the composition of the Gospels in light of ancient compositional practice. It specifically looks at the way that Matthew and Mark and Luke would have moved through their sources or exemplars during composition (source-utilization movement), according to a number of different hypotheses. Each Gospel may be presumed to have used sources when their authors composed, and the sources would have likely been bookrolls (or scrolls). A number of Hypotheses have been presented over the last two centuries concerning how the Gospels were composed and what direction of dependence that composition took. When these various Hypotheses are examined in terms of how the Gospel-authors would have moved through their texts, the result seems to favour two possibilities above others. Both of these possibilities have it that the author of Luke was the utilizing author of both Matthew and Mark.

The four canonical Gospels describe the synagogues of the Land of Israel as the primary locus of the public activities of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the prominence of synagogues in the extant accounts of Jesus’ life and career, academic research on early synagogues has not yet played a significant role in the study of the historical Jesus. This project incorporates the findings of recent research on ancient synagogues into the study of the historical Jesus. So doing helps to recover a piece of Jesus’ early Jewish context that has been frequently neglected or misunderstood in previous scholarship. This thesis has two related goals. The first is to contextualize Jesus’ activities in synagogues in light of current research on ancient synagogues. The second is to determine the role that the institution of the synagogue played in the aims of Jesus. I argue that the evidence indicates that the synagogue was intrinsic rather than incidental to Jesus’ mission, and that it was both the vehicle and the means by which he intended to realize his aim of the restoration of Israel. The historical investigation in this project helps to clarify our understanding of Jesus’ mission and also helps us to better understand the data involving synagogues in the Gospels. My examination of the evidence finds that the narratives involving synagogues in the Gospels accurately reflect an ancient synagogue setting, and can be better understood in light of current scholarship on synagogues. This speaks in favour of the historical plausibility of these narratives, and highlights the importance of the institutional setting of the synagogue for the interpretation of this data. Dissertation Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) The four canonical Gospels describe the synagogues of the Land of Israel as the primary locus of the public activities of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the prominence of synagogues in the accounts of Jesus’ life and career, academic research on early synagogues has not yet played a significant role in the study of the historical Jesus. This project has two related goals. The first is to contextualize Jesus’ activities in synagogues in light of current research on ancient synagogues. The second is to determine the role that the institution of the synagogue played in the aims of Jesus. I argue that the evidence indicates that the synagogue was intrinsic rather than incidental to Jesus’ mission, and that it was both the vehicle and the means by which he intended to realize his aim of the restoration of Israel.

The information about the first-century synagogue provided by Flavius Josephus must be handled with care when used in historical reconstructions. Josephus was a skilled rhetorician who was ideologically invested in the presentation of this institution. Due care must therefore be placed on understanding the context of his various mentions of synagogues within the overall rhetorical context of his works if we are interested in historical reconstruction of this Jewish institution. However, the tendentious nature of Josephus’ writings does not preclude historical study, not least because the assumptions and ideologies inherent in this tendenz are themselves historical. Especially in his later works (Antiquitates judaicae, Vita, and Contra Apionem), we find a deliberate presentation of the synagogue as a viable, supra-local rallying point for the Jews throughout the known world, as this institution represents an assembly in which the customs and Law of Judaism may be practiced and disseminated following the loss of the Temple and the Land. Even in the earliest work of Josephus, Bellum judaicum, we find a tendentious presentation of the synagogue as a ‘holy place’ whose precincts were breached due to the impiety of the Jewish insurgents and certain non-Jewish troublemakers. Due to the rhetorical nature of Josephus’ writings and the many hermeneutical issues that arise when we deal with space, the language of Edward Soja’s spatial theory is utilized, where heuristically profitable, in order to distinguish between the ‘spaces themselves’ (firstspace), the ideals held by the author regarding the institution (secondspace), and the combination of the two in the experience represented in the passages (thirdspace). It is precisely the rhetoric with which Josephus presents the synagogue that will lead us to a better understanding of the ideological importance that synagogues had in the lives of the communities and individuals inhabiting these spaces during the period in question. Dissertation Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The present study explores the relevance of ethnic boundary maintenance for the development of Diaspora synagogues in the Graeco-Roman world. By investigating the possible relationship between ethnicity and synagogue development, the synagogue will be analyzed as a communal and ‘religious’ institution that contributed to the maintenance of a specific ethnic identity within a Diaspora context that challenged its very survival and existence. The main goal of the present study is to provide a new perspective of development and maintenance for Diaspora synagogues that eschews the idea of a dichotomous relationship between these synagogues and the Jerusalem Temple. Instead, a socio-historical approach will be presented that focuses on Jewish communities as a distinctive ethnic group that existed alongside other similar groups in the Graeco-Roman world and sought to maintain their collective ethnic identity. The synagogue served as a key driving force within this process of maintenance. Master of Arts (MA)