JETS 56/4 (2013) 753–63 THE ETHNIC CONFLICT IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY: AN APPRAISAL OF BAUCKHAM’S PROPOSAL ON THE ANTIOCH CRISIS AND THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL CORNELIS BENNEMA * I. INTRODUCTION The topic of this study is the ethnic conflict in early Christianity. Early Chris- tianity developed from a messianic sect within the matrix of late Second Temple Judaism into a religion distinct from Judaism by the second century AD. 1 However, far from being smooth, this development was marked by conflicts within the emerging movement itself, of which the ethnic conflict was the most poignant. I will examine how the early church dealt with the crucial issue of admitting Gentiles into the people of God, with specific reference to the Antioch crisis (Galatians 2) and the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). 2 The study will address the following questions: Do the events in Gal 2:1–10 refer to those in Acts 11:27–30 or Acts 15? Did the Antioch crisis recorded in Gal 2:11–14 occur before or after the Jerusalem council in Acts 15? Did Paul and the Jerusalem church differ and grow apart or were they in entire agreement with each other? The majority view holds that Gal 2:1–10 relates to Acts 15 and that, therefore, the Antioch crisis occurred after the Jerusalem council. Moreover, despite the liber- al ruling on circumcision in favor of Paul’s position in Acts 15:19, the Jerusalem decree by James also favored Jewish conservatism, because to abstain “from what is strangled and from blood” in Acts 15:20 probably referred to the kosher laws, effectively regulating table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile Christians on * Cornelis Bennema is senior lecturer in New Testament at Wales Evangelical School of Theology, UK, and research fellow in the Research Institute for Theology and Religion at the University of South Africa. 1 For the various views on the parting of Christianity and Judaism, see Alan F. Segal, Rebecca’s Chil- dren: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986); Adam H. Becker and Annette Y. Reed, eds., The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (TSAJ 95; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003); James D. G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways: Between Christianity and Judaism and their Significance for the Character of Christianity (2d ed.; London: SCM, 2006); Giorgo Jossa, Jews or Christians? The Followers of Jesus in Search of Their Own Identity (WUNT I/202; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006); Marius Heemstra, The Fiscus Judaicus and the Parting of the Ways (WUNT II/277; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010). 2 For the possibility of using Acts for the historical reconstruction of early Christianity, see the dis- cussions in David E. Aune, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987) 77–157; the essays by Darryl W. Palmer, Loveday C. A. Alexander, and Brian S. Rosner in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting, vol. 1: The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting (ed. Bruce W. Winter; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993) 1–82; the various essays in Ben Witherington (ed.), History, Literature, and Society in the Book of Acts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Loveday Alexander, “Map- ping Early Christianity: Acts and the Shape of Early Church History,” Int 57 (2003) 163–73; Clare K. Rothschild, Luke–Acts and the Rhetoric of History (WUNT II/175; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004).