Matei 23 şi „birkat ha-minim”. O posibilă legătură de cauzalitate

Abstract

„An apostate is a member of a religious community who publicly renounces the faith and delimits himself from his religious commu- nity. This is the drastic way to manifest revolt towards the commu- nity he belongs. Any deviant tendency of some within the community implies a delimitation towards them of all others. Heresy and apos- tasy, as concepts, had a special significance within Judaism both from a theoretical perspective, but also from the perspective of practicing faith. From a practical perspective, members of a Jewish community were urged to be aware of the acceptable limits of the permissive- ness of religious coordinates and what action should be taken when these limits are exceeded. Although the conflict between Christians and Jews arose with the crucifixion of the Savior Jesus Christ and, after the Resurrection, the persecution of early Christians (stoning of Archdeacon Stephen is a telling example), it became more pro- nounced after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. This conflict was fueled by the introduction into the daily synagogue wor- ship of the nineteenth blessing against apostates and heretics. This blessing / curse was called birkat ha-minim. Regarding chapter 23 of the Gospel according to Matthew, an evangelical text that reflects the conflict of the Matthean Community with the religious leaders of Judaism, it seems that birkat ha-minim was the starting point of the final separation from Judaism. No Christian could say birkat ha-minim or approve the end of the prayer with “Amen!”. We can- not know exactly whether by the time birkat ha-minim was uttered in the synagogue cult, the rupture between the two communities had already taken place definitively. But what we can know for sure is that after the daily introduction and recitation, three times a day, of birkat ha-minim in the synagogue, the Judeo-Christians finally broke away from the Jewish community. The text of chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew, in its current form, seems to be a response of the evange- list Matthew to Birkat ha-minim.”