The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way
Title | The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way PDF eBook |
Author | J. Andrew Cowan |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 232 |
Release | 2019-02-21 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0567684040 |
J. Andrew Cowan challenges the popular theory that Luke sought to boost the cultural status of the early Christian movement by emphasising its Jewish roots – associating the new church with an ancient and therefore respected heritage. Cowan instead argues that Luke draws upon the traditions of the Old Testament and its supporting texts as a reassurance to Christians, promising that Jesus' life, his works and the church that follow legitimately provide fulfilment of God's salvific plan. Cowan's argument compares Luke's writings to two near-contemporaries, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and T. Flavius Josephus, both of whom emphasized the ancient heritage of a people with cultural or political aims in view, exploring how the writings of Luke do not reflect the same cultural values or pursue the same ends. Challenging assumptions on Luke's supposed attempts to assuage political concerns, capitalize on antiquity, and present Christianity as an inner-Jewish sect, Cowan counters with arguments for Luke being critical of over-valuing tradition and defining the Jewish people as resistant to God and His messages. Cowan concludes with the argument that the apostle does not strive for legitimisation of the new church by previous cultural standards, but instead provides theological reassurance to Christians that God's plan has been fulfilled, with implications for broader debate.
The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way: An Examination of the Aims of the First Christian Historian in the Light of Ancient Politics, Ethnography, and Historiography
Title | The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way: An Examination of the Aims of the First Christian Historian in the Light of Ancient Politics, Ethnography, and Historiography PDF eBook |
Author | John Andrew Cowan |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2017 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way
Title | The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way PDF eBook |
Author | J. Andrew Cowan |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 232 |
Release | 2019-02-21 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0567684016 |
J. Andrew Cowan challenges the popular theory that Luke sought to boost the cultural status of the early Christian movement by emphasising its Jewish roots – associating the new church with an ancient and therefore respected heritage. Cowan instead argues that Luke draws upon the traditions of the Old Testament and its supporting texts as a reassurance to Christians, promising that Jesus' life, his works and the church that follow legitimately provide fulfilment of God's salvific plan. Cowan's argument compares Luke's writings to two near-contemporaries, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and T. Flavius Josephus, both of whom emphasized the ancient heritage of a people with cultural or political aims in view, exploring how the writings of Luke do not reflect the same cultural values or pursue the same ends. Challenging assumptions on Luke's supposed attempts to assuage political concerns, capitalize on antiquity, and present Christianity as an inner-Jewish sect, Cowan counters with arguments for Luke being critical of over-valuing tradition and defining the Jewish people as resistant to God and His messages. Cowan concludes with the argument that the apostle does not strive for legitimisation of the new church by previous cultural standards, but instead provides theological reassurance to Christians that God's plan has been fulfilled, with implications for broader debate.
A Social History of Christian Origins
Title | A Social History of Christian Origins PDF eBook |
Author | Simon J. Joseph |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 249 |
Release | 2022-12-30 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1000822125 |
A Social History of Christian Origins explores how the theme of the Jewish rejection of Jesus – embedded in Paul’s letters and the New Testament Gospels – represents the ethnic, social, cultural, and theological conflicts that facilitated the construction of Christian identity. Readers of this book will gain a thorough understanding of how a central theme of early Christianity – the Jewish rejection of Jesus – facilitated the emergence of Christian anti-Judaism as well as the complex and multi-faceted representations of Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament. This study systematically analyses the theme of social rejection in the Jesus tradition by surveying its historical and chronological development. Employing the social-psychological study of social rejection, social identity theory, and social memory theory, Joseph sheds new light on the inter-relationships between myth, history, and memory in the study of Christian origins and the contemporary (re)construction of the historical Jesus. A Social History of Christian Origins is primarily intended for academic specialists and students in ancient history, biblical studies, New Testament studies, Religious Studies, Classics, as well as the general reader interested in the beginnings of Christianity.
Reading the Way, Paul, and The Jews in Acts within Judaism
Title | Reading the Way, Paul, and The Jews in Acts within Judaism PDF eBook |
Author | Jason F. Moraff |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 209 |
Release | 2024-01-25 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0567712478 |
Jason F. Moraff challenges the contention that Acts' sharp rhetoric and portrayal of the Jews reflects anti-Judaism and supersessionism. He argues that, rather than constructing Christian identity in contrast to Judaism, Acts binds the Way, Paul, and the Jews together into a shared identity as Israel, and that together they embark on a journey of repentance with common Jewishness providing the foundation. Acts leverages Jewish kinship, language, cult, and custom to portray the Way, Paul, and the Jews as one family debating the direction of their ancestral tradition. Using a historically situated narrative approach, Moraff frames Acts' portrayal of the Way and Paul in relation to the Jewish people as participating in internecine conflict regarding the Jewish tradition-in-crisis, after the destruction of the temple. By exploring ancient ethnicity, Jewish identity and Lukan characterization, images of the Jews, the Way, and Paul, violence in Acts and the theme of blindness in Luke's gospel, the Pauline writings and Acts, Moraff stresses that Acts speaks from among my own nation, meaning the Jews, and makes it possible to understand Acts' critical characterization of the Jews within Second Temple Judaism.
Shaping the Past to Define the Present
Title | Shaping the Past to Define the Present PDF eBook |
Author | Gregory E. Sterling |
Publisher | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |
Pages | 244 |
Release | 2023-03-28 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1467465887 |
Uncovering ancient texts and rethinking early Christian identity with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles Shaping the Past to Define the Present comprises both new and revised essays by esteemed New Testament scholar Gregory E. Sterling on Jewish and early Christian historiography. A sequel to his seminal work, Historiography and Self-Definition, this volume expands on Sterling’s reading of Luke-Acts in the context of contemporary Jewish and Greek historiography. These systematically arranged essays comprise his new and revised contributions to the field of biblical studies, exploring: the genre of apologetic historiography exemplified by Josephus and Eusebius the context of Josephus’s work within a larger tradition of Eastern historiography the initial composition and circulation of Luke and Acts the relationship of Luke-Acts to the Septuagint the interpretation of the Diaspora in Luke-Acts the structure of salvation history as it is manifested in Luke-Acts Socratic influences on Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’s death the early Jerusalem Christian community as depicted in Acts compared with other Hellenized Eastern traditions such as Egyptian priests and Indian sages the establishment of Christianity’s “socially respectability” as a guiding purpose in Luke-Acts Engaging with current critical frameworks, Sterling offers readers a comprehensive analysis of early Christian self-definition through Judeo-Christian historiography.
A Bird's-Eye View of Luke and Acts
Title | A Bird's-Eye View of Luke and Acts PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Bird |
Publisher | InterVarsity Press |
Pages | 232 |
Release | 2023-11-21 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1514008106 |
This accessible and compelling introduction draws us into the wide-ranging narrative of Luke-Acts to discover how Luke frames the life of Jesus and of the first disciples. These two books, when read together, tell a cohesive narrative about Jesus, the Church, and the mission of God–with implications for the whole our lives today.