Source: “Border lines : The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity” By Daniel Boyarin, University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004
1. Judaism & Chris. Co-Invented.mp4
1. The Invention of Heresy.pdf
Justin's Dialogue with the Jews.wav
This topic explores how early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism, emerging from a shared "Judaeo-Christian" environment, developed distinct identities by creating the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy. The author uses Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho and early rabbinic texts like the Mishna to argue that both groups engaged in discursive work to define themselves against "the other," particularly through their understanding of "heresy" (or minut in Hebrew). Instead of a simple "parting of the ways," the text proposes a more complex process of mutual construction and boundary-making, suggesting that the need to distinguish themselves, especially in the face of challenges to their identities, led both traditions to create categories of insiders and outsiders based on belief and practice.
In the study of religion, orthodoxy refers to the "correct belief" as defined by a particular community, while heresy describes a belief that deviates from that established standard. We often think of these categories as fixed and timeless, but they are not. The concepts of "right" and "wrong" belief are historical inventions, created at specific moments for specific reasons. This document explores how early Christian and Jewish groups, particularly in the pivotal second century, began to forge these concepts as powerful tools to define who they were.
We will focus on the writings of Justin Martyr, a second-century Christian thinker whose work provides a powerful case study of this process. By examining how Justin and his rabbinic contemporaries began to draw sharp lines between believers and outsiders, we can understand how defining what was wrong belief became a crucial strategy for building a community's sense of self.
Before the second century, diversity of belief within Judaism was far more common and accepted. The Greek word that would later become our word "heresy"—hairesis—originally had a neutral meaning. It simply meant "a school of thought," "a party," or "a choice." It described a group you chose to belong to, not a damnable error.