Do Christians Have to Keep the Torah? The Cases of Matthew and Luke-ActsI noted the monograph when it came out in late 2013 and noted a review here.
If in the past many supposed that any substantial attachment by Christians to the observance of Jewish customs essentially vanished after the first generation of Jewish followers of Jesus passed away, it is now conceivable that many Christians remained open and even committed to observing the Torah after 70 CE—the year when the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
See Also: Torah Praxis after 70 CE: Reading Matthew and Luke-Acts as Jewish Texts (Mohr Siebeck, 2013).
By Isaac W. Oliver
Assistant Professor in Religious Studies
Bradley University
May 2015
On a related note, my doctoral student Kathleen Burt finished a PhD thesis on "Ritual in the Damascus Document and the Gospel of Matthew" in 2014. It is available from the University of St. Andrews Library.
