Preface

This project began during my doctoral work at the University of Queensland where I originally set out to write a chapter on Jewish missionary activity as a precursor to the advent of early Christian missionary efforts. I naively assumed that it would take me about four weeks to do so. In fact, it took me eight months to research the topic, and that was only scratching the surface of the extant evidence and scholarly debate. Several years after completing my doctoral studies I have finally acquired the opportunity to return to this scintillating topic and to pursue several loose threads from my earlier publications. This exercise has occasioned a joyous exploration of the various Jewish writings relevant to the designated period: the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, Greek and Latin authors, the New Testament, Church Fathers, Rabbinic writings, the Targums, and also archaeological evidence. The purpose of such a mammoth undertaking was to identify and analyze the extent of Jewish missionary activity among Gentiles in and around the apostolic era. In this volume I offer the results of my foray into this subject. In the course of my research I have benefited from the earlier work of several scholars, especially Martin Goodman, Scot McKnight, Louis Feldman, John Dickson, Eckhard Schnabel, and Terence Donaldson. I consider these authors to be the primary dialogue partners in my study of the ancient sources and texts, and I acknowledge my indebtedness to them.

Along the way, of course, there are several people that I need to thank. First, and once again. Dr. Rick Strelan, my Doktorvater, who has continued to provide me with sound advice and stern warnings when I was first writing on this subject. Second, Martin Cameron of the Highland Theological College was able to track down several important and obscure works for me, and his assistance was quite crucial for the completion of this project. Third, as always, my dear wife Naomi and our children, Alexis, Alyssa, and Markus, who inspire and encourage me in my scholarly endeavors. Fourth, Paul Barnett (former Anglican

Bishop of North Sydney) read a much earlier edition of this vork and offered some helpful comments. My thanks also go to Brandon Wason and Danny Zacharias who proofread the complete manuscript in meticulous fashion. Fifth, at the later stages of this project the advice of Jorg Frey was most helpful, rigorous, and made the book much better than it was to begin with. Sixth, I wish to express my gratitude to Anya Tilling who checked my German translations and I fully agree with her protest in an e-mail that, “I wish German academics would write straight forward sentences and not fancy twisted things as they do.” Seventh, my deepest appreciation goes to Eilidh Wilkinson who kindly (and perhaps naively) agreed to do most of the indexing. Eighth, I am also grateful to Scot McKnight and Joel Willitts both of North Park University. Scot was an examiner for my doctoral thesis, and I have developed a wonderful relationship with him ever since. Fie has become not only a good friend, but also a mentor whose counsel I value and esteem. Scot keeps me aware of the necessity of doing good scholarly work and the goal for why we do it in the first place. In many ways my volume here is an update, revision, and sometimes a challenge to his work on Jewish missionary activity written some fifteen years ago. I sincerely hope that it is a worthy sequel to his own contribution to the debate. I first came across Joel Willitts when he was a PhD candidate at Cambridge University. I initially wrote him a letter from Australia after hearing a cassette recording of a conference paper that he gave entitled, “Why I Decided Not to Be an Historical Jesus Scholar.” I was intrigued by his presentation precisely because I was doing research on the historical Jesus myself. Correspondence ensued through various letters and e-mails, and we finally met in person a few years later and have since shared a close relationship at both the personal and professional level. He has agreed to participate in several projects that I have roped him into, and Joel always has a wise word to offer as well, especially when I’m dreaming up yet another major project for us to tackle together. We have developed a scholarly partnership that I hope continues to blossom in the future. If I am Oscar Hammerstein then Joel is my Richard Rodgers. This volume is appropriately dedicated to these two scholars who have graced me with their friendship and encouragement.