Introduction

Summary

The heart of this book, as a glance at the Table of Contents will make clear, is the chapter on Paul. The reason for this is the obvious one that we have in these epistles good information about developments over a period spanning parts of three decades within early Christianity. Paul's letters always form one focus for investigation into life and thought of the early Church.

In order to prepare for this extended analysis of Paul's letters, the book opens with a general statement of the problems connected with the Christian take-over of the name ‘Israel’. Since this is the subject of considerable discussion a startingpoint has been taken on the interpretation of which there would be little dispute. This fixed point is found in Justin Martyr. The historical phenomena of the period to A.D. 160 are also discussed in order to discover what part these external factors might have had upon the relationship between Jew and Christian.

A more positive assessment follows of the development of the Christian awareness of the need to appropriate Jewish titles and privileges. The first stage in this development is Jesus. The Pauline material is considered at length and the post-Pauline developments are examined sketchily to show how these relax the fundamental tension which exists between Jesus’ and Paul's attitude to the problems posed by Israel's unbelief. An attempt is made to show how far each had progressed towards an identification of the Church with Israel. The concluding synthesis describes and accounts for two important facts: first, that the name ‘Israel’ is applied to the Church at all, and second, that it was only applied at a late date.