--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Too often scholars have thought and even…" description: "\"“Too often scholars have thought and even suggested that what happened during and after Constantine was that the church sought to replace the pagan tem..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg" --- # Too often scholars have thought and even suggested that… ![“Too often scholars have thought and even suggested that what happened during and after Constantine was that the church sought to replace the pagan temples, priests, and sacrifices with their own. This is at best a half truth. If this had been primarily what was going on, we would have expected to…” quote by Ben Witherington III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg) > ““Too often scholars have thought and even suggested that what happened during and after Constantine was that the church sought to replace the pagan temples, priests, and sacrifices with their own. This is at best a half truth. If this had been primarily what was going on, we would have expected to find priestesses showing up in the mainstream church in and after the time of Constantine, since there were certainly priestesses in the pagan temples. But this we do not find in the historical record. This is because the church of that period was not merely trying to supplant pagan religion with Christian religion, though some of that was going on. More to the point, there was a rising tide of anti-Judaism, and one of its manifestations was this Old Testament hermeneutic. The Torah had been claimed as the church’s book, Jews were being ostracized and then later ghettoized, and a hermeneutic of ministry was being adopted which co-opted the Old Testament for church use when it came to priests, temples, and sacrifices, and indeed sacraments in general. Thus ironically enough while the structure of the ecclesial church was becoming more Old Testamental, the church hierarchy was not only becoming less tolerant of Jews, it was forgetting altogether the Jewish character of Jesus’ ministry and his modifications of the Passover that led to the Lord’s Supper celebration of the early church in the first place.”” [Ben Witherington III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-witherington-iii/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Explains that early Christianity’s shift wasn’t just replacing paganism but also involved rising anti‑Jewish sentiment, altering scriptural interpretation. **In simple terms:** Early church mixed pagan replacement with anti‑Jewish bias. Key Takeaway Recognize historical religious biases. Themes religion history interfaith relations Mood critical analytical Type historical theological When to use this quote - academic study - interfaith dialogue - church policy Key Concepts Theological adaptation cultural conflict Questions to Reflect On - How do modern faiths reflect these ancient biases? - What steps can foster true interfaith respect? A Different Perspective Complex motives make simple narratives insufficient. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Christian religion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/christian-religion/) [Christianity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/christianity/) [First place](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/first-place/) [Half truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/half-truth/) [Hermeneutics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hermeneutics/) [Old testament](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/old-testament/) [Priesthood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/priesthood/) [Religion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/religion/) ## Related quotes > [“One of the things that happened when the church moved from meetings in homes to having purpose-built buildings beginning before, but accelerated during, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-witherington-iii/one-of-the-things-that-happened-when-the-church-moved-from-meetings/) [Ben Witherington III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-witherington-iii/) > [The Hundred Years' War, like the crises of the Church in the same period, broke apart medieval unity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbara-tuchman/the-hundred-years-war-like-the-crises-of-the-church-in-the-same/) [Barbara Tuchman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbara-tuchman/) > [“The evidence of the early church suggests that the community of followers ate together regularly and often, and that in their eating they tried…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/norman-wirzba/the-evidence-of-the-early-church-suggests-that-the-community-of/) [Norman Wirzba](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/norman-wirzba/) > [I had always owned them to be the Word of God... the careful reading of the Acts afforded me a practical picture of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-nelson-darby/i-had-always-owned-them-to-be-the-word-of-god-the-careful-reading-of/) [John Nelson Darby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-nelson-darby/) > [The early Church had nothing but the Old Testament. 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If this had been primarily what was going on, we would have expected to find priestesses showing up in the mainstream church in and after the time of Constantine, since there were certainly priestesses in the pagan temples. But this we do not find in the historical record. This is because the church of that period was not merely trying to supplant pagan religion with Christian religion, though some of that was going on. More to the point, there was a rising tide of anti-Judaism, and one of its manifestations was this Old Testament hermeneutic. The Torah had been claimed as the church’s book, Jews were being ostracized and then later ghettoized, and a hermeneutic of ministry was being adopted which co-opted the Old Testament for church use when it came to priests, temples, and sacrifices, and indeed sacraments in general. Thus ironically enough while the structure of the ecclesial church was becoming more Old Testamental, the church hierarchy was not only becoming less tolerant of Jews, it was forgetting altogether the Jewish character of Jesus’ ministry and his modifications of the Passover that led to the Lord’s Supper celebration of the early church in the first place.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ben Witherington III" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-witherington-iii/too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even-suggested-that-what-happened/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Christian religion" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-witherington-iii/too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even-suggested-that-what-happened/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/ben-witherington-iii-33766_christian-religion_too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even_843903.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Too often scholars have thought and even suggested that what happened during and after Constantine was that…” — Ben Witherington III", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Ben Witherington III", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-witherington-iii/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Too often scholars have thought and...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-witherington-iii/too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even-suggested-that-what-happened/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-witherington-iii/too-often-scholars-have-thought-and-even-suggested-that-what-happened/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```