Texts in Conversation
Paul in 1 Corinthians and Rabbinic tradition in tractate Pesachim follow the same logic, ruling that something permitted should not be allowed in front of those who consider it forbidden.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Corinthians 10:24
New Testament
22 Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we really stronger than he is? 23 “Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds others up. 24 Do not seek your own good, but the good of the other person. 25 Eat anything that is sold in the marketplace without questions of conscience, 26 for the earth and its abundance are the Lord’s.
Pesachim 51a
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
After mentioning halakhot relating to customs, the Gemara returns to discuss the matter itself. If matters are permitted but others were accustomed to treat them as a prohibition, you are not allowed to permit these actions in their presence. Rav Ḥisda said: We are dealing with Samaritans, not with Jews. The Gemara is surprised at this: And doesn’t this apply to everyone? Wasn’t it taught in a baraita to the contrary? Two brothers may bathe together, and there is no concern that doing so is immodest or will lead to sinful thoughts. However, the custom was that two brothers do not bathe together in the city of Kabul (see I Kings 9:13). And there was an incident involving Yehuda and Hillel, sons of Rabban Gamliel, who bathed together in Kabul, and the entire city denounced them and said: In all our days we have never seen that type of conduct. Hillel stole away and went out to the outer chamber and did not want to tell them: You are permitted to do so. He preferred to obey the city residents rather than rule it permitted for two brothers to bathe together.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... Paul’s argument follows the outline and order of the baraita. This does not mean that Paul was aware of this baraita or that the author/redactor of the baraita was aware of Paul’s epistle, especially considering the fact that this baraita is a development of a baraita that originally concerned vows. Nonetheless, the positions taken by the rabbis and Paul are very similar. They use similar methods to assert their authority over a population that includes the knowledgeable and those who do not possess knowledge. Both rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity were made up of elite groups of people with knowledge of the law, who at times were forced to interact with populations who had little knowledge of the law. The question became how to handle this interaction. How much should the sage respect stringent custom and how should this affect the assertion of authority over the rest of the population? ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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