Law-Observance Among Jewish Christians: Benefiting from Augustine’s View

Abstract: While some church fathers are guilty of antisemitism, many authors have recognized that Augustine’s stance towards Jews and Torah is nuanced. After examining Augustine’s view on the law and its development, this article shows that although Augustine disapproved of Jewish practice, his view was uniquely positive among his contemporaries because he understood a Jewish-gentile distinction regarding law-observance that gave room for Jewish practice among Yeshua-followers of the apostolic era. To resolve a tension in Augustine’s construal of Jewish practice in New Testament times an