6
Agreeing with this minority view also is Lahey, who provides persuasive evidence that such real
life situations did take place and could have served as the sitz im leben out of which these discussions
were later recorded.
13
It is interesting to notice that in Trypho Justin promised to record the events (80.3).
The brief prologue of ST also mentions that what follows is a report of an actual discussion that took
place at certain time (I.1).
Many of the criticisms of those answering "no" to this question arise from a belief that there was
very little contact between the communities by the fourth through the sixth centuries. Hence, the idea of
continuing voluntary "disputations" should be unexpected, to say the least. This was one of Harnack's
main contentions in his criticisms of the dialogues as representing actual situations.
A number of recent writers, however, have disputed the long accepted Harnack hypothesis.
Horbury has amassed a large amount of evidence about the extensive mutual contacts between Christian
and Jewish scholars regarding exegetical Bible discussion in the post-Constantinian age. After surveying
the exegetical methods employed by both Jews and Christians in the period from 325-451, Horbury
concludes:
Prima facie, Christian exegesis seems to reflect genuine debate, and hence genuine common
ground between Jews and Christians. In summary one can perhaps say that Harnack was right in
recognizing the internal importance of exegesis adversus Judaeos for Christian education, but
wrong in supposing that significant contact between Jews and Christians ceased.
14
Furthermore, Oskar Skarsaune recently has argued from both Christian and Jewish sources that
there continued to be extensive personal contacts between the communities well into the Byzantine
period. While this does not absolutely demand a "yes" to the second question we have posed, it does
provide a realistic context within which such debates could take place.
15
In conclusion, perhaps a qualified response of "yes" to the question should also include the fact
13
Lawrence Lahey, "Jewish Biblical Interpretation and Genuine Jewish-Christian Debate in The Dialogue of
Timothy and Aquila," Journal of Jewish Studies 51 (2000): 281-96.
14
Horbury, 201,202.
15
Oskar Skarsaune, In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity (Downers Gove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2002) esp. 259-274, 436-442.