CHAPTER FOUR “COMMON JUDAISM”, “THE PARTING OF THE WAYS”, AND “THE JOHANNINE COMMUNITY” Adele Reinhartz 1. Introduction Every ield of study operates with a shorthand comprised of simple phrases that denote complex ideas. he shorthand of historians who habitually ponder the origins of Judaism and Christianity includes such phrases as “common Judaism” and “the parting of the ways”. Historians preoccupied with the Gospel of John and the circumstances of its composition add another phrase to their list: “the Johannine community”. hese three phrases have two things in common. First, they denote concepts whose meanings are determined not by their usage in the primary sources—in which they do not appear—but by their assigned roles in particular scholarly hypotheses. “Common Judaism” refers to the hypothesis that Jews—including the ordinary people and the par- ties alike—in the Second Temple period adhered to a set of practices and beliefs that they believed to be expressive of and required by the covenantal relationship between God and Israel. 1 “he parting of the ways” refers to the process by which Judaism and Christianity devel- oped identities as separate religious systems and communities. 2 “he Johannine community” refers to the hypothetical group within which and for which the Gospel of John took its present form. 3 1 On the common people (ammei ha’aretz), see A. Oppenheimer, he Am Ha- Aretz: A Study in the Social History of the Jewish People in the Hellenistic-Roman Period (Arbeiten zur Literatur und Geschichte des hellenistischen Judentums 8; Leiden: Brill, 1977). For “common Judaism”, see E.P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE–66 CE (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992). 2 See, for example, J.D.G. Dunn, Jews and Christians: he Parting of the Ways, A.D. 70 to 135: he Second Durham-Tübingen Research Symposium on Earliest Christianity and Judaism (Durham, September 1989) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999). 3 he term was brought into popular usage by J. Louis Martyn, History and he- ology in the Fourth Gospel (3rd ed., New Testament Library; Louisville: Westminster 69-88_Becking_f6.indd 69 69-88_Becking_f6.indd 69 5/24/2011 4:30:15 PM 5/24/2011 4:30:15 PM