Tau News
Tel Aviv University News, Spring 1997

Historic Chinese Treasure Trove
To Hell and Back at TAU
Creating Global Managers
A New Force in Nature
A Window into Jewish Medieval Life
Edomites Advance into Judah
Piecing Together the Past
Testament to Links

Testament to Links

A TAU international conference closes the gap between the study of Judaism and the study of Christianity
Moses leads the herd of the priest Jetro. Mosaic in the 6th century basilica of St. Vitale, Ravenna, showing the overlapping of Old Testament and Christian symbolism in early Christian art.
Conventional wisdom holds that the Old and New Testaments are two different works, separated by the centuries as well as by religious ideology. In fact, the New Testament is a direct follow-up on certain developments in Second Temple Judaism, stressed a recent conference on "The Beginnings of Christianity" held at TAU.

The Conference, held by the Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Centers for the Study of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv at TAU and at Haifa University, together with Yad Ben Zvi, brought together some 30 scholars from Israel and abroad to examine the links of ancient Judaism to early Christianity.

Organized by an international team headed by Prof. Aharon Oppenheimer of the School's Department of Jewish History, Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, the Conference was the first one to be wholly devoted to early Christianity at an Israeli institution of higher learning.

"Ironically, improved knowledge of early Christianity allows for a more well-rounded approach to studying early Judaism," said Dr. Michael Mach, one of the TAU organizers. Interdisciplinary study of the religions can only benefit our understanding of Jewish heritage, he added.

Issues debated at the Conference ranged in content from Christian messianology and its Jewish background, to Jewish women in ancient Christianity, to Jewish law in the early Church.

Greetings were delivered by Dean of the Faculty Prof. Marcelo Dascal and Head of the Center for the Study of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv at TAU, Prof. Nadav Na'aman.