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The Elijah option: Contributions of Jehuite propaganda to early Christianity
“Go, inquire of Baal-zebub” A prophet clad in hair and leather appears in Israel to usher in divine judgment and, perhaps, divine salvation. He announces the end of Beelzebub’s reign and the restoration of the kingdom of God. For this work he is persecuted by Israel’s rulers, and while hidden in the wilderness for forty […]
Let them both grow together: Resignation as apocalyptic strategy at Qumran and Capernaum
From first to last, and not merely in epilogue, Christianity is eschatology, is hope, forward looking and forward moving, and therefore also revolutionizing and transforming in the present. The eschatological is not one element of Christianity, but it is the medium of the Christian faith as such, the key in which everything in it is […]
Shipwrecked in the deepest darkness: The Lukan rescue of Paul’s imperiled legacy
The objective of the previous two posts was to determine the historical forces that compelled an anonymous Christian (i.e. Mark) to construct the first narrative account of Jesus as the Son of God. Two factors proved central to this reconstruction of Mark’s rhetorical aims: 1) Israel’s failed rebellion against Rome spanning AD 66-74, and 2) […]
The Gospel of Flavius Vespasianus: Mark’s counter-imperial purposes
Last time I argued that the Markan account of the Gerasene Demoniac betrays knowledge of the Jewish uprising in the region of the Decapolis during the early years of Israel’s war with Rome. The resemblance between Legion’s ruin in the sea with Josephus’ reporting of the Roman massacre of rebels on the banks of the […]
Christ’s triumph at Gadara: Markan reflection on Israel’s rebellion
Josephus’ account of the war in the north In AD 67 the Roman general Vespasian arrived on the shores of Ptolemais with his son Titus. They had been sent by the emperor to quell a Jewish rebellion in and around Judea. Upon landing, Vespasian and his legions proceeded inland to regain control of Galilee and […]
The crisis and catharsis of Christian ethics: Non-retaliation as eschatological key to the narrow gate
Theologian Walter Wink popularized the idea that Jesus taught his followers to non-violently resist oppressive authorities by taking socially-unexpected action in the face of injustice. This was typically accomplished by creatively exposing an evildoer to costly public shame. Wink is known particularly for his exposition upon three Dominical commands from the Sermon on the Mount […]
A time to be rich and a time to be poor: Eschatological reversal in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus can be effortlessly incorporated into interpretative programs of progressive social action. This fable of a bourgeois oppressor receiving his just desserts for neglecting the poor—coming straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ—provides dependable ammunition for socialistic causes. Had the rich man only listened to the Law and […]
A marginal evangelist: Mark and the mythological origins of the Gospels
By the beginning of the 2nd century two anonymous Gospels had established themselves throughout the Empire as early authoritative biographies of Jesus: The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark. The task set before the 3rd and 4th generation leaders of the church was thus to determine the origin of these texts—the source of […]
Sons of God at war: Apollonian Christ and Pythian Caesar in Revelation 12
One function of divine sonship in the ancient world was to legitimize the rule of kings, sons of God, by associating them with deities and heroes of old. Such rulers were not merely the most powerful, the most wise, and the most crafty by nature’s lot but were invested with such traits by their heavenly […]
Θεοί at war: The deity of Christ and the fate of the empire
Most interpreters confine the development of divine Christology in the writings of the New Testament within the parameters set by the monotheistic Judaism of the second temple period. In this way the central hero of the work, “our great god and savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13), is recognized as none other than the one and only […]