Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration


Book Description

Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration examines the eschatology of Jesus by evaluating his appropriation of sacred traditions related to Israel's restoration. It addresses the way in which Jesus' future expectations impinged upon his understanding of key features of Jewish society. Scholars have long debated the degree to which Jesus' eschatology can be said to have been realized. This 2002 book considers Jesus' expectations regarding key constitutional features of the eschaton: the shape of the people of God, purity, Land and Temple. Bryan shows that Jesus' anticipation of coming national judgement led him to use Israel's sacred traditions in ways that differed significantly from their use by his contemporaries. This did not lead Jesus to the conviction that Israel's restoration had been delayed. Instead he employed Israel's traditions to support a different understanding of restoration and a belief that the time of restoration had arrived.







Jesus and the Restoration of Israel


Book Description

This book, edited by Carey C. Newman, offers a multifaceted and critical assessment of N. T. Wright's work, Jesus and the Victory of God. Wright responds to the essayists, and Marcus Borg offers his critical appraisal.




Jesus as the Eschatological Davidic Shepherd


Book Description

Young S. Chae analyzes the puzzling association of the Son of David with Jesus' healing ministry in the First Gospel. This, along with the Gospel's rich shepherd/sheep images and the theme of the restoration of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, finds a significant clue in the picture of Jesus as the eschatological Davidic Shepherd according to the pattern of the Davidic Shepherd tradition in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism. As Matthew communicates the identity and mission of Jesus, he is conversant with this tradition, particularly Ezekiel 34 and 37 as well as Micah 2-5 and Zechariah 9-14. The story of the First Gospel is the story of the return of YHWH as the eschatological Shepherd for the lost sheep of Israel and also that of the one Davidic Shepherd-Appointee as the eschatological Teacher-Prince in the midst of his one eschatological flock.




Jesus' Death and the Gathering of True Israel


Book Description

Taking seriously the Gospel as a unified narrative and the Gospel's late first-century Jewish setting, John Dennis investigates the Fourth Gospel's appropriation of Jewish restoration theology. Employing John 11.47-52 as the starting point, the author argues that one of the primary functions of restoration theology in John is to interpret Jesus' death in the light of Jewish restoration expectations. A new angle on Jesus' death in the Fourth Gospel emerges from this study: Jesus' death effects the restoration of Israel, the restoration that was engendered by the Prophets and expected by many Jews of the Second Temple period. In the course of the study it is also argued that John was primarily concerned with Israel's restoration and not with a mission to the Gentiles. In this light, a fresh interpretation of the children of God (11.52) is offered.




The Prophet Jesus and the Renewal of Israel


Book Description

Debate over whether or not Jesus can be best interpreted within an "apocalyptic scenario" has continued to dominate historical Jesus studies since Schweitzer and Bultmann. In The Prophet Jesus and the Renewal of Israel Richard Horsley shows that the apocalyptic scenario -- with its supposed expectation of "the end of the world," the fiery "last judgment," and "the parousia of the Son of Man" -- is a modern scholarly construct that obscures the particulars of texts, society, and history. Drawing on his wide-ranging earlier scholarship, Horsley refocuses and reformulates investigation of the historical Jesus in a thoroughly relational-contextual approach. He recognizes that the sources for the historical Jesus are not separate sayings, but rather the sustained Gospel narratives of Jesus' mission. Horsley's new approach finds Jesus the popular prophet engaged in a movement of renewal, resistance, and judgment against Roman imperialism, Jerusalem rulers, and the Pharisees.




Besorah


Book Description

The gospel of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth has healed countless lives over the centuries, but the gospel itself has been wounded through neglect of one of its main components. The books of Luke and Acts reveal that the death and resurrection of Jesus are linked inextricably to the destruction and promised restoration of Jerusalem, the city that personifies the Jewish people as a whole. To highlight this expanded understanding of the gospel, Mark Kinzer and Russ Resnik unpack the Hebrew term for gospel, besorah, as a prophetic message of salvation for Israel and all nations. In Luke’s besorah, the death and resurrection of the Messiah are a sign of the coming judgment and restoration of Jerusalem and the Jewish people—a restoration that brings with it the renewal of all creation. This prophetic dimension of the besorah is a key to healing the fractured gospel and restoring its power amidst the strife and tumult of the twenty-first century.




The Judgment of Jerusalem


Book Description







A Call to Return


Book Description

A Call to ReturnRestoring the Roots of Our Relationship with Jesus explores the depths of the Scriptures to excavate, refine, and lift up its words of power, revealing deep truths that will radically change the lives of believers. By tapping into this rich vein of biblical insight, Dan Alan Rodriguez offers Christians the insights to enable them to set out upon paths of discipleship that follow Jesus closely and that lead to profound experiences of His presence and power. Drawing upon the authors study of first-century Judaism and Christianity and resting upon a diverse array of sources steeped in the foundational texts of these traditions, the twelve chapters of A Call to Return address a series of interlocking topics: a prophetic call to return; the revival of lawlessness; the revival, purpose, and preexistence of Gods commandments; the churchs commandments and their connections to faith, grace, and good works; the association of works of the law to Jewish tradition and ceremony; holiness; the fear of the Lord; each believer as a temple of the holy; and the meaning of loving the Lord Jesus. If you have a sense that Jesuss message and ministry are calling you to embark upon a walk with Him that might take you away from all in Christianity that requires no accountability or responsibility before God, then A Call to ReturnRestoring the Roots of Our Relationship with Jesus is the right book for you to read. It will give you the keys for understanding and responding to the Lords call to return to Him and to follow where He leads.