Abstract
In this monograph, Smith examines how 1 Peter and other Second Temple Jewish writings construct their images of self-identity as a diaspora community. In the introduction, Smith demonstrates that Hellenistic Jewish notions of diaspora differ from conceptions of exile, emigration, and wandering found in the Hebrew Bible. Smith, however, wants to eschew delimiting diaspora within a static set of defining characteristics. Rather, she sets forth seven questions that guide her investigation of diaspora thought in Second Temple Jewish and Christian literature. Smith contends that diaspora is not simply a historical phenomenon but is also a literary trope that encompasses a whole range of ideas.
Her study is divided into two parts. Part 1, consisting of three chapters, attempts to view diaspora thinking through the lens of 1 Peter. Part 2 endeavors to describe diaspora conceptions in three selected writings/authors: the court tales of Daniel, the Letter of Aristeas, and Philo of Alexandria.
Chapter 1 focuses on how 1 Peter imagines Christian diaspora. In the opening of the letter, the epistle’s author alerts the audience to their common kinship by identifying them as a diaspora community scattered among a geographically defined region (Asia Minor) within the larger Roman world. Rather than conceiving diaspora as God’s punishment of a disobedient people, the author conveys that membership in the Christian diaspora is a voluntary association that connects them to a larger worldwide community even as they continue to live within their respective geographical locations. Simultaneously, the author’s employment of the terminology of election and foreignness highlights the audience’s differentiation from their local cultural contexts.
Chapter 2 attends to the cultic practices of the Christian diaspora. The author instructs readers how to navigate between the codes of the Christian community and the obligations of civil society. Christians must maintain allegiance both to human authority and to God’s sovereignty. The author prescribes a number of cultic practices that are characteristic of a flourishing Christian community: avoidance of idolatry, baptism, creedal confessions, preaching, prayer, hospitality, and sobriety. These practices serve to distinguish the Christian community from its broader non-Christian society.
Chapter 3 explores the Christian diaspora’s ethical practices in relation to governmental authorities and household structures. The author encourages the readers to be obedient and compliant towards ruling authorities so as to avoid punishment and martyrdom. Though the author neither dissolves the master–slave relationship nor overturns the patriarchal hierarchy of the marital relationship, he does establish new standards by which Christians can conduct themselves within these household arrangements. The author also constructs alternative Christian households in which Christians are depicted as God’s children and as siblings to one another, constructs with profound implications for how they relate to one another. Likewise, the author transforms the elder–youth relationship into a reciprocal relationship with mutual responsibility.
In part 2 of the book (chapters 4–6), Smith examines three literary works/authors that conceive diaspora both similarly to and differently from 1 Peter. These works are representative, rather than exhaustive, treatments of Second Temple diaspora conceptions.
Chapter 4 examines the court tales of Daniel, with a particular focus on the first two chapters. In Daniel, the Jews living in Babylon develop a double-consciousness in order to deal with the dual realities of diaspora life. Daniel depicts the Jews’ efforts to maintain their identity, practice, and beliefs in a foreign land. Daniel does not focus on the reason why the diaspora happened but on how diaspora Jews survive and thrive in a foreign land. The Jews develop a double-consciousness with regard to citizenship (knowledge gained both from Judea and in Babylon), cultic practices (Jewish vs Babylonian diet, prayer and fasting), and kinship (dual names).
Chapter 5 considers the Letter of Aristeas as a representative work of diaspora life in Egypt. The letter presents three themes essential to Jewish identity and practice: law, temple, and land. Though the law is “entirely the possession and symbol of Palestinian Judaism” (p. 120), it is also accessible for diaspora Jews and non-Jews. While the law is authoritative for Palestinian Jews, it also makes demands on diaspora Jews. Jews in Alexandria had to negotiate further between two laws: Jewish law and the laws of Ptolemaic Egypt. The temple was both a symbol of Jewish identity but also the object of non-Jewish admiration. Alexandrian Jews, while maintaining residency in Egypt, also remained citizens of Jerusalem.
Chapter 6 gives attention to diaspora thought in selected writings of Philo of Alexandria. For Philo, diaspora Jews have both a mother city, Jerusalem, and a fatherland, the land of their birth. Philo’s ideas were shaped by his own dual status as a devout Jew who participated in Alexandrian society, trained both in the Jewish law and in Hellenistic philosophy and rhetoric. Life outside of Palestine was not a sign of God’s judgment on the Jewish people; it was the set of circumstances in which diaspora Jews find themselves. Philo was concerned about two matters for Jews living in Alexandria: (i) the maintenance of their religious liberty and exemption from participation in the imperial cult; and (ii) the preservation of their civic rights.
This brief overview cannot do justice to the thick description of diaspora thought that Smith elaborates upon in these chapters. She writes with lucid prose, and her delineations of diaspora thought in these writings are largely convincing. Her juxtaposition of 1 Peter alongside other Second Temple writings helpfully highlights its distinctive understanding of diaspora life. First Peter thus presents one strategy for how a vulnerable, scattered population can function and survive within a larger dominant cultural context. This monograph certainly offers important contributions to the interpretation of 1 Peter and to the study of early Christian self-identity.