Identity and "Impurity": Acceptance of "Others" during the Formation of Primitive Christianity

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K12963
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 01030:Religious studies-related
• Research Institution: Kobe College
• Principal Investigator: Ozawa Kaori 神戸女学院大学, 文学部, 准教授 (10755424)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: アイデンティティ / 穢れ / 異邦人 / 第二神殿時代ユダヤ教 / 原始キリスト教

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study first clarified the connection between the formation of the concept of "Gentile Impurity" in the Second Temple period and the establishment of Israel's identity after the exile. The study then moved on to a discussion of the possibility that the perception of the overlap between the natural order and God's law in Second Temple Judaism may have served as the basis for the acceptance of Gentiles in Christianity, which later diverged from Second Temple period Judaism. This study analyzed the internal basis for a reconception of "Gentile Impurity" in the formation of the identity of primitive Christianity. The formation of the concept of "others" itself, which was probably inextricably linked to the "acceptance of the others" is discussed further in the succeeding study "The Actuality of 'Others' in the Formation of Christianity: Gentiles as the Ground of Coexistence" (FY2022~2025).

Free Research Field

聖書学、聖書解釈学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究において、古代イスラエルのアイデンティティの確立と「異邦人の穢れ」概念の関連、自然法と律法概念との関連等の考察を通して、第二神殿時代ユダヤ教から分岐する形で生じた原始キリスト教の形成過程における異邦人受容の内的根拠について分析を行った。第二神殿時代ユダヤ教の中にあった排他的境界付けの図式を初期のキリスト教も取り入れたとの指摘について、その実態の詳細について明らかにするとともに、そこには、境界付けの枠組みの踏襲にとどまらない、他者受容に関連しての新しい意味付けや意味の転換が行われた可能性を指摘するに至った点に、本研究成果の学術的意義があると考える。