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      • July 2017

        Angel Veneration and Christology

        A Study in Early Judaism and in the Christology of the Apocalypse of John

        by Loren T. Stuckenbruck

        The public worship of the risen Christ as depicted in John’s Apocalypse directly contradicts the guiding angel’s emphasis that only God should be worshiped (Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9). In Angel Veneration and Christology, Loren Stuckenbruck explores this contradiction in light of angel veneration in Early Judaism. Stuckenbruck surveys a wide variety of Jewish traditions related to angelic worship and discovers proscriptions against sacrificing to angels; prohibitions against making images of angels; rejections of the "two powers"; second-century Christian apologetic accusations specifically directed against Jews; and, most importantly, the refusal tradition, widespread in Jewish and Jewish-Christian writings, wherein angelic messengers refuse the veneration of the seer and exhort the worship of God alone. While evidence for the practice of angel veneration among Jews of antiquity (Qumran, pseudepigraphal literature, and inscriptions from Asia Minor) does not furnish the immediate background for the worship of Christ, Stuckenbruck demonstrates that the very fact that safeguards to a monotheistic framework were issued at all throws light on the Christian practice of worshiping Jesus. The way the Apocalypse adapts the refusal tradition illuminates Revelation’s declarations about and depictions of Jesus. Though the refusal tradition itself only safeguards the worship of God, Stuckenbruck traces how the tradition has been split so that the angelophanic elements were absorbed into the christophany. As Stuckenbruck shows, an angelomorphic Christology, shared by the author of Revelation and its readers, functions to preserve the author’s monotheistic emphasis as well as to emphasize Christ’s superiority over the angels—setting the stage for the worship of the Lamb in a monotheistic framework that does not contradict the angelic directive to worship God alone.

      • July 2017

        The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism

        Papers from the St Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus

        by Carey C. Newman, James R. Davila, Gladys S. Lewis

        Second Temple Judaism exerted a profound and shaping influence upon early Christianity.  The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism documents this influence by exploring the ways in which the Christian praxis of Christ-devotion in the first two centuries of the Common Era can be understood as a manifestation of Jewish monotheism. The volume approaches this phenomenon along four distinctive lines of inquiry: (1) reexamining (and problematizing) the theological force of monotheism during the Second Temple period; (2) retracing the historical steps of Christianity’s adaptation, mutation, and/or redefinition of Jewish monotheism; (3) exploring and debating the influence of non-Jewish traditions on this process; and (4) mapping how Christianity’s unique appropriation of Jewish monotheism helps explain the intriguing relationships among emerging Christian, Jewish, and gnostic communities. Eighteen chapters, each from an expert in the study of early Judaism and Christianity, comprise the volume. The chapters collectively demonstrate how the creation of new mythic narratives, the revelatory power of mystical experiences, and the sociology of community formation capitalized on Jewish mediator traditions to initiate the praxis of Christ-devotion.

      • July 2017

        Messianic Exegesis

        Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity

        by Donald H. Juel

        While the relationship between Second Temple Jewish exegesis and early Christian exegesis as demonstrated in the New Testament is universally recognized, the reasons for their similarities and differences are often elusive. Donald H. Juel in  Messianic Exegesis seeks to unknot this tangled web of interpretation. Juel’s thesis is simple: Christianity’s origins are rooted in the earliest Christian interpretations of Israel’s Scriptures. The difficulty resides in showing how these distinctive interpretations arose. Juel argues that the events of Jesus’ life form the fulcrum for the Christian re-reading of Jewish Scripture. In particular, Juel shows how Christian belief in a crucified and risen Messiah guided both the selection and appropriation of Old Testament texts—texts like 2 Samuel 7, Daniel 7, and Psalms 2 and 110. With the confession "Jesus is the Messiah" as the central claim of Christianity, Juel is able to show the fluidity of contemporary Jewish exegesis while also making the anomalous uses of Scripture within the early Christian community understandable. Christians proclaimed Jesus as Messiah throughout their exegesis and thereby defined their emerging community through the way they read Scripture.

      • October 2022

        Jerusalem

        Faces of a City

        by Lukas Landmann

      • Religion & beliefs
        July 2015

        People Under Power

        Early Jewish and Christian Responses to the Roman Empire

        by Edited by Michael Labahn and Outi Lehtipuu

        This volume presents a batch of incisive new essays on the relationship between Roman imperial power and ideology and Christian and Jewish life and thought within the empire. Employing diverse methodologies that include historical criticism, rhetorical criticism, postcolonial criticism, and social historical studies, the contributors offer fresh perspectives on a question that is crucial for our understanding not only of the late Roman Empire, but also of the growth and change of Christianity and Judaism in the imperial period.

      • Biblical studies & exegesis
        September 2019

        El amigo del novio ("The Friend of the Bridegroom")

        Juan el Bautista: historia y teología ("John the Baptist: History")

        by Roberto Martínez Rivera

        A pesar de la frecuencia con la que muchas personas escuchan mencionar a Juan Bautista en las liturgias y otras celebraciones, su figura permanece siendo un tanto desconocida o resulta enigmática. Sin embargo, su importancia en el Nuevo Testamento es incuestionable. Jesús le dedica el mayor halago que persona alguna haya recibido: "Les aseguro que, entre los nacidos de mujer, no ha aparecido uno mayor que Juan el Bautista…" (Mt 11,11); y el historiador Flavio Josefo emplea más espacio en el Bautista que en el propio Jesús. Pero, ¿quién fue verdaderamente Juan? ¿Fueron él y Jesús primos, como popularmente se dice, o solo parientes, como expresamente indica el evangelio de Lucas (1,36)? ¿Por qué se dejó bautizar Jesús por Juan con "un bautismo para el perdón de los pecados" (Mc 1,4) si él no tenía pecado? El presente estudio aborda estas y muchas otras interrogantes de carácter histórico pero también teológico sobre Juan Bautista, todavía hoy venerado en numerosos templos y liturgias alrededor del mundo como "el amigo del novio" (Jn 3,29).   Despite the frequency with which many people listen to the mention of John the Baptist in liturgies and other celebrations, his figure remains largely unknown or proves enigmatic. Nevertheless, his importance in the New Testament is unquestionable. Jesus dedicates to him the highest praise anyone has ever been given: “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist…” (Matthew 11:11); and the historian Flavius Josephus dedicates more space in the Baptist than in Jesus himself. But who really was John? Were he and Jesus cousins, as it is popularly said, or just relatives, as the Gospel of Luke 1:36) clearly states? Why did Jesus allow himself to be baptised by John with “a baptism for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4) if he was free from sin?

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