Matthew V. Novenson, ed., Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity is a collection of state-of-the-art essays by leading scholars on views of God, Christ, and other divine beings in ancient Jewish, Christian, and classical texts.
Israel’s Lord: YHWH as “Two Powers” in Second Temple Literature addresses the nature of Jewish monotheism in Second Temple literature, advancing an argument that much of the literature reflects the existence of two powers in heaven that are both rightly understood as YHWH. To this end, Wilhite and Winn review various figures such God’s Word, God’s Wisdom, the Angel of the Lord, the Son of Man, and others that bear features closely associate with the God of Israel. Using criteria related to these features they argue that most, though not all, of these figures are rightly identified as the figure who appeared in Israel’s scriptures and was called YHWH. Such a “two powers” paradigm is relevant for understanding early Christian commitments regarding Jesus. The debate about Jesus’ divinity depends in large part on what options were available for the earliest Christians when considering his titles and status. The authors contend that with such a “two powers” paradigm available to the earliest Christians, it should inform any reading of New Testament texts and their varying depictions of Jesus as “Lord.”
A study of the doctrine of Christ that is biblical and historical, evangelical and ecumenical, conceptually clear and contextually relevant. Lord Jesus Christ expounds the doctrine of Christ by focusing upon theological interpretation of Scripture regarding Jesus's identity. The book's structure traces a Christological arc from the eternal communion of the Triune God through creation, covenants, Incarnation, passion, and exaltation all the way to the consummation of redemptive history. This arc identifies Jesus as the divine Lord who assumed human flesh for our salvation. The book expounds and defends a classically Reformed Christology in relation to contemporary contexts and challenges, engaging both philosophical and global concerns. Each chapter begins with the theological interpretation of a key Scripture text before expounding key concepts of orthodox Protestant Christology. Lord Jesus Christ is a unique example of writing dogmatic theology by way of theological exegesis. The result is a volume that engages the numerous scholarly volumes on Christology that have appeared within the last couple of decades but provides a contemporary account of a traditional view. About the Series: New Studies in Dogmatics seeks to retrieve the riches of Christian doctrine for the sake of contemporary theological renewal. Following in the tradition of G. C. Berkouwer's Studies in Dogmatics, this series will provide thoughtful, concise, and readable treatments of major theological topics, expressing the biblical, creedal, and confessional shape of Christian doctrine for a contemporary evangelical audience. The editors and contributors share a common conviction that the way forward in constructive systematic theology lies in building upon the foundations laid in the church's historic understanding of the Word of God as professed in its creeds, councils, and confessions, and by its most trusted teachers.
Reckoning with the hermeneutical struggle to make sense of Paul as both a historical figure and a canonical muse. Matthew Novenson has become a leading advocate for the continuing relevance of historical-critical readings of Paul even as some New Testament scholars have turned to purely theological or political approaches. In this collection of a decade’s worth of essays, Novenson puts contextual understandings of Paul’s letters into conversation with their Christian reception history. After a new, programmatic introductory essay that frames the other eleven essays, Novenson explores topics including: the relation between theology and historical criticism the place of Jews and gentiles in Paul’s gospel Paul’s relation to Judaism the relevance of messianism to Paul’s Christology Paul’s eschatology in relation to ancient Jewish eschatologies the aptness of monotheism as a category for understanding antiquity the reception of Paul by diverse early Christian writers the peculiar place of Protestantism in the modern study of Paul the debate over the recent Paul-within-Judaism movement anti-Judaism in modern New Testament scholarship disputes over Romans and Galatians the meta-question of what it would mean to get Paul right or wrong Engaging with numerous schools of thought in Pauline studies—Augustinian, Lutheran, New Perspective, apocalyptic, Paul-within-Judaism, religious studies, and more—while also rising above partisan disputes between schools, Novenson illuminates the ancient Mediterranean context of Paul’s letters, their complicated afterlives in the history of interpretation, and the hermeneutical struggle to make sense of it all.
This study reframes and reorients the study of 2 Enoch, moving beyond debates about Christian or Jewish authorship and considering the work in the context of eclectic and erudite cultures in late antiquity, particularly Syria. The study compares the work with the Parables of Enoch and then with a variety of writings associated with late antique Syrian theology, demonstrating the distinctively eclectic character of 2 Enoch. It offers new paradigms for research into the pseudepigrapha.
Responding to the belief that typology was a later development of the early church, and not applicable to the earliest canonical Gospel, Jonathan Robinson stresses that typology has deep Jewish roots, and that typological modes of thought were a significant part of the Gospel's historical and cultural background. He brings this insight to bear on four of the most dramatic miracles in Mark's Gospel, discovering a surprisingly consistent typological approach. Essential to Robinson's argument is the discovery of distinctive words and phrases taken from the Septuagint, that serve as unique indictors of Mark's intent to refer back to miracles from the Jewish scriptures, pointing to influence from Jonah, David, Elisha and Moses. These references in turn provide insight into Mark's Christology, revealing that Mark presents Jesus as both the fulfilment of scriptural human types and as assuming the narrative form of Israel's God. Robinson argues that rather than imposing categories extracted from earlier Jewish literature like “divine identity” and “exalted human figures”, Mark should be allowed to speak on its own terms and with its own unique voice.
The origin and development of divine and resurrection Christologies are among the most important and controversial issues in the study of Christianity. One reason why there is a lack of consensus among scholars—even though they have access to the same historical material—is that different scholars analyze the material differently. Building upon his previous monographs The Origin of Divine Christology (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Routledge, 2020), Andrew Loke demonstrates the fallacies of reasoning in the analyses of the works of numerous scholars such as Bart Ehrman, Paula Fredriksen, David Litwa, Richard Carrier, Raphael Lataster, Daniel Kirk, Matthew Larsen, and Dale Allison. Loke defends his proposal that a sizeable group of earliest Christians perceived that Jesus claimed and showed himself to be truly divine and resurrected, and replies to objections to his previous works. He contributes to the discussion on ancient Jewish monotheism, exalted mediator figures, comparison with Greco-Roman literature, Jesus-mythicism, Markan Christology, the historical reliability of the New Testament, as well as the use of philosophical and theological categories and the use of psychological studies on parallel apparitions, cognitive dissonance, mass hysteria, pareidolia, and memory for the study of early Christology.
Did Jesus see himself as divine? Since the beginning of the quest for the historical Jesus, scholars have dismissed the idea that Jesus could have identified himself as God. Such high Christology is frequently depicted as an invention of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, centuries later. Yet recent research has shown that the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus already regarded him as divine. Brant Pitre tackles this paradox in his bold new monograph. Pitre challenges this widespread assumption and makes a robust case that Jesus did consider himself divine. Carefully explicating the Gospels in the context of Second Temple Judaism, Pitre shows how Jesus used riddles, questions, and scriptural allusions to reveal the apocalyptic secret of his divinity. Moreover, Pitre explains how Jesus acts as if he is divine in both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John. Carefully weighing the historical evidence, Pitre argues that the origins of early high Christology can be traced to the historical Jesus’s words and actions. Jesus and Divine Christology sheds light on long-neglected yet key evidence that the historical Jesus saw himself as divine. Scholars and students of the New Testament—and anyone curious about the Jewish context of early Christianity—will find Pitre’s argument a necessary and provocative corrective to a critically underexamined topic.
The letters of Ignatius of Antioch portray Jesus in terms that are both remarkably exalted and shockingly vulnerable. Jesus is identified as God and is the sole physician and teacher who truly reveals the Father. At the same time, Jesus was born of Mary, suffered, and died. Ignatius asserts both claims about Jesus with minimal attempts to reconcile how they can simultaneously be embodied in one person. This book explores the ways in which Ignatius outlines his understanding of Jesus and the effects that these views were to have on both his immediate audience as well as some of his later readers. Ignatius utilizes stories throughout his letters, describes Jesus with designations that are at once traditional and reinvigorated with fresh meaning, and employs a dizzying array of metaphors to depict how Jesus acts. In turn, Ignatius and his audience are to respond in ways befitting their status in Christ because Jesus forms a lens through which to look at the world anew. Such a dynamic Christology was not to cease development in the second century but continued to inspire readers in creative ways through late antiquity and beyond.
Martyrs create space and time through the actions they take, the fate they suffer, the stories they prompt, the cultural narratives against which they take place and the retelling of their tales in different places and contexts. The title "Desiring Martyrs" is meant in two senses. First, it refers to protagonists and antagonists of the martyrdom narratives who as literary characters seek martyrs and the way they inscribe certain kinds of cultural and social desire. Second, it describes the later celebration of martyrs via narrative, martyrdom acts, monuments, inscriptions, martyria, liturgical commemoration, pilgrimage, etc. Here there is a cultural desire to tell or remember a particular kind of story about the past that serves particular communal interests and goals. By applying the spatial turn to these ancient texts the volume seeks to advance a still nascent social geographical understanding of emergent Christian and Jewish martyrdom. It explores how martyr narratives engage pre-existing time-space configurations to result in new appropriations of earlier traditions.