Friday, April 07, 2017

Gentiles and the Temple

READING ACTS: Core Beliefs of Second Temple Judaism: Gentiles and the Temple.
The prohibition of Gentiles in the main court of the temple during the first century is well known. Paul refers to a “dividing wall” of hostility between Jews and Gentiles in Ephesians 2:15, probably an allusion to the warning to Gentiles in the Temple courts that crossing into the Court of the Men would result in their death. Paul is accused of breaking this Law by sneaking a Gentile into the Temple courts (a false charge, but it nearly cost Paul his life).

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There is more on the Greek Temple Warning Inscription here, here, and here.

Past posts in Phil Long's series on the Second Temple Period are noted here and links.