Abstract

New Testament scholars continue to identify the opponents of John of Patmos and his addressees at Smyrna and Philadelphia—despite John’s testimony that "they say they are Judeans and are not, but are lying" - as a Jewish "Synagogue of Satan" (2:9, 3:9), not gentile imposters. Since 2001, David Frankfurter has identified the Smyrnean and Philadelphian opponents as "Pauline or neo-Pauline" gentiles who threatened the Jewish identity of John’s congregations. This proposal anticipated recent Pauline scholarship wary of Christian theological anachronisms, but the resulting "Paul within Judaism" shares more with Frankfurter's "John within Judaism" than with his "Pauline" foil. Refining Frankfurter’s hypothesis to distinguish "neo-Pauline" inheritors from Paul promises a clearer view of John, his disciples, and his adversaries in relation to the contested reception of Paul’s instructions for his gentile disciples.