The first part of this book attempts to situate Jesus in his historical and cultural context through comparisons with the prayers, parables, prophecies, and miracles attributed to various Jewish figures of Palestine who are Jesus' near contemporaries. It is concluded that Jesus' teachings and activities do not represent a radical break with the piety and restorative hopes of many of his contemporaries. This conclusion stands in tension with some of the recent Jesus research, especially emanating from the Jesus Seminar, which tends to view Jesus as a Stoic or Cynic philosopher with little interest in the restoration of Israel and the fulfilment of prophecy. The second part of the book explores the aims of Jesus and the factors that led to Jesus' death. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
This volume aims to compare the author of Matthew's Gospel with a selection of contemporary Christian authors and/or texts. Recent Matthean scholarship has highlighted the distinctiveness of this early Christian writer by emphasising his clear Jewish perspective in addition to his Christian affiliation. He can accurately be perceived as both Jewish and Christian because he holds that Christian commitment demands both observance of the Mosaic Law and faith in Jesus as the Messiah. But if Matthew is distinctively Jewish and Christian, how does he compare with other early Christian writers? Much of the New Testament literature was composed by Paul himself or by his later followers, and these Christians held the view that the Mosaic Law no longer had relevance in the light of the Christ event. Other New Testament texts that are not Pauline, e.g. the Gospel of John and the letter to the Hebrews, appear to agree with Paul on this point. Consequently, Matthew stands apart from other texts in the canon with the possible exception of the letter of James. The volume will therefore establish the distinctiveness of Matthew by comparing his theological perspective with his major sources, Mark and Q, and with the two remaining Gospels, the Pauline epistles, the letter to the Hebrews and the epistle of James. The comparison of Matthew with non-canonical texts, the Didache and the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, is important because much work has been done in these areas recently. Given Matthew's distinctive portrayal of Jesus, a comparison of Matthew and the historical Jesus is also demanded in the context of this volume.
This book offers several points of comparison between Jesus and his approximate contemporaries. It concludes that Jesus is not a Cynic of Stoic philosopher but a charismatic prophet who was recognized as Messiah through whom the Kingdom of God would appear. This publication has also been published in hardback (no longer available).
The author's aim is to help thinking lay persons and people preparing sermons to apply NT ethics within a modern culture, while still remaining faithful to the text - by taking into account the ancient culture. This is high quality scholarship at a very accessible level. Over the centuries Jesus's teaching on ethical matters has often become muted and distorted. This book sets the matter straight. Here are 30 areas of ethical debate: in each context Jesus offered insights which would have left his contemporaries agape. They range from singleness (rare: could Jesus be trusted?) to abortion (unwanted children were strangled, and the early church notably took a strong stance against this practice) to sexual immorality (the NT church had an unusually high number of people who had been sexually promiscuous) to boasting (Jesus taught his disciples to take lowly titles as he did for himself, but the church ignored him).
This volume offers critical assessments of Life of Jesus research in the last generation, with special emphasis on work that is quite recent. It will introduce graduate students to the field and will provide the veteran scholar with current bibliography and discussion of the issues. Topics treated include Jesus and Palestinian politics, Jesus tradition in Paul, Jesus in extracanonical Gospels, and Jesus' parables, miracles, death, and resurrection. The contributors are among the most widely recognized and respected Life of Jesus scholars. They include Marcus J. Borg, James H. Charlesworth, James D.G. Dunn, Sean Freyne, Richard Horsley, and Helmut Koester.
An inspiring book on the spirituality of following Christ. Continuing Peterson's major evaluation of contemporary Christian spirituality, THE JESUS WAY asks what it means to authentically follow Christ in the modern world. As with other books in the series, THE JESUS WAY is written for both academic and serious lay audiences. Challenging but rewarding, it combines first-rate scholarship with illustrations drawn from raw human experience. Also available in the Spiritual Theology series: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eat This Book, The Word Made Flesh and Practise Resurrection.
Most Jesus specialists agree that the Temple incident led directly to Jesus' arrest, but the precise relationship between Jesus and the Temple's administration remains unclear. Jesus and the Temple examines this relationship, exploring the reinterpretation of Torah observance and traditional Temple practices that are widely considered central components of the early Jesus movement. Challenging a growing tendency in contemporary scholarship to assume that the earliest Christians had an almost uniformly positive view of the Temple's sacrificial system, Simon J. Joseph addresses the ambiguous, inconsistent, and contradictory views on sacrifice and the Temple in the New Testament. This volume fills a significant gap in the literature on sacrifice in Jewish Christianity. It introduces a new hypothesis positing Jesus' enactment of a program of radically nonviolent eschatological restoration, an orientation that produced Jesus' conflicts with his contemporaries and inspired the first attributions of sacrificial language to his death.
Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back
