Eschatological Prophet Research Articles

Pour un usage critique des sources non musulmanes sur les débuts de l’Islam : compte rendu de Stephen Shoemaker, A Prophet Has Appeared: The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes. A Sourcebook

Abstract This contribution presents some critical discussions on Stephen Shoemaker’s last Sourcebook as well as two of the author’s publications from 2012 and 2018. His thesis defends the possibility of Muḥammad being an “eschatological Prophet” of an ecumenical messianic movement whose supporters attempted to rewrite his confessional message and communal identity to adapt their religious ideology to the reality of their leader’s death. We first recall that Muḥammad appears in the older Syriac sources as a political leader, never as a Prophet, and that the eschatological moment is more probably the late First century than the time of the conquest. Concerning the vocabulary issue, we show that his revolutionary idea of calling the Ṭayyōyē “Nomads” – while “Saracens” inconsistently remains – might be irrelevant, while the systematic translation of mhaggrōyē as muhājirūn, though popular among researchers, is still not firmly grounded. In fact, they seem to have had their specific Christological credo, according to the most ancient sources that designate them as such. As his revisionist theory is almost entirely based on a single Greek short excerpt within the very long Byzantine apologetic Doctrina Jacobi, we remark how he never analyzes this single and isolated source with the hypercritical methodology arabicist accept to apply to Arab-Muslim sources. Finally, this skeptical approach needs to be applied – diachronically – for every middle eastern sources, the Muslim as well as the Christian ones, and thus could show many circulations from the first to the second.

Entre las identidades de Jesús: un profeta llamado Juan

The present article aims to approach the figure of John the Baptist followingMatthew’s presentation of his person and his message, to try to discoverhow this eschatological prophet can appear among the identities with which thepeople refer to Jesus and whether there really is something of John in the personof Jesus of Nazareth. Starting from the question about who the Son of Man is (Mt16:13-14) we will try to outline those traits that help us to identify common elementsin both characters for which they were recognized in the society of their time.

A Historical-Critical and Morpho-Synthatic Interpretation of Luke 4:18-19

This paper examines the meaning of Luke 4:18-19 using the historical-critical method to establish the meaning of the text under study. The objective here is to investigate the origins of the pericope to understand “the world behind the text” as well as its applicability in contemporary Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in Ghana. This paper contends that finding out the accurate meaning of biblical text is relevant for Christian life and ministry. It discovers that Jesus makes it known that he is the focus of the foretold word of Isaiah. This confirms that he is the carrier of the Spirit, the gospel’s proclaimer, the eschatological prophet and the one who comes to set the oppressed free. He was bestowed with all the Spirit’s gifts and graces, not by measure, as it was on Old Testament kings, priests and prophets but by divine unction. The paper concludes that Jesus’ claim of having been mandated by God to accomplish the task of preaching salvation to humanity. His identification with the promised Messiah in the Isaianic prophecies indicates that he was commissioned and empowered to carry out a holistic ministry which involves not only preaching salvation but also meeting the social needs of people he encountered. The study recommends that proper interpretation of Scripture using the right tools should be adopted in order to ascertain the right meaning of biblical text such as Luke 4:18-19 for application. The study contributes to research knowledge on the holistic approach to ministry pointing out clearly that the ministry is not only for the spiritual growth of a person but also a person’s social wellbeing.

Jesus on Justice and Mercy in Constitutional Perspective

This essay places accounts of the mission of Jesus, including his politics, within a wider frame. It does so by offering a constitutional approach. This situates Jesus’ teaching of the kingdom of God in a Mediterranean context of ancient constitutional reflection, as also of certain Palestinian constitutional ideas and forms. An account of three main aspects of Jesus’ mission is offered within this wider, constitutional frame: first, power and authority; second, law and custom; and third, ethos and praxis. Jesus’ identity as an eschatological prophet of national renewal, whose aims are at least implicitly constitutional, comes to the fore.

The Prophet Like Moses (Deut. 18:15–18) and the Woman at the Well (John 4:7–30) in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman of Sychar recorded in John 4:7–30 foregrounds the concept of the Messiah as an eschatological Mosaic prophet (Deut. 18:15–18). Little attention, however, has been directed to the significance of the water imagery in the Gospel’s narrative unit to Jesus’ claim to be the Mosaic Messiah. Through a comparative study with the Dead Sea Scrolls, this paper claims that the Gospel’s dual witness to Jesus as the provider of the eternal well of living water and as the ‘prophet like Moses’ (Deut. 18:15–18) is not incidental but essential to reinforcing the coherence of the narrative section in John 4:7–30. This observation is supported by intriguing parallels observed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which preserve evidence for the intertextual association between the prophet like Moses of Deut. 18:15–18 and the eschatological figure traceable in Joel 2:23 (cf. Hos. 10:12), in which water imagery comes to the fore. This understanding, in turn, illuminates subtle ambiguities in the interchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (John 4:7–30), including her apparently unanswered request for living water (v. 15) and her recognition of Jesus as ‘a prophet’ (v. 19).

The Miracles of an Eschatological Prophet

While it has not been a central aspect of his work on the historical Jesus, E.P. Sanders has contributed to the understanding of Jesus’ miracles. In Jesus and Judaism, Sanders argued that Jesus was an eschatological prophet and maintains that he certainly healed people in ways that his contemporaries regarded as miraculous, but that his miracles were not signs of the end, and cannot be used to determine what type of figure he was. The fuller treatment of miracles in the later The Historical Figure of Jesus emphasizes the exorcisms and dismisses the nature miracles as having made minimal impact, leading Sanders to conclude that Jesus’ miracles were not as spectacular as the Gospels suggest, and that they probably led his contemporaries to view Jesus as a holy man like Honi the Circle-Drawer, although Jesus himself probably understood his miracles as signs of the imminent arrival of the new age, and his disciples may have come to see them as a defeat of evil powers and as a legitimation of Jesus’ claims. After summarizing Sanders’s arguments this article goes on to suggest how some of their foundations may be secured while also suggesting that the case for associating Jesus’ miracles with his role as an eschatological prophet may be stronger than Sanders allowed. It then concludes by indicating how Sanders’s account of the role of Jesus’ miracles might be further rounded out first by exploring their possible symbolism (as Sanders does with the Temple incident) and second through various social-scientific approaches.

The death of a prophet: the end of Muhammad's life and the beginnings of Islam

Introduction Chapter 1. A Prophet Has Appeared, Coming with the Saracens: Muhammad's Leadership during the Conquest of Palestine According to Seventh- and Eighth-Century Sources Chapter 2. The End of Muhammad's Life in Early Islamic Memory: The Witness of the Sira Tradition Chapter 3. The Beginnings of Islam and the End of Days: Muhammad as Eschatological Prophet Chapter 4. From Believers to Muslims, from Jerusalem to the Hijaz: Confessional Identity and Sacred Geography in Early Islam Conclusion: Jesus and Muhammad, the Apostle and the Apostles Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

Presence Deferred: The Name of Jesus and Self-Referential Eschatological Prophecy in Acts 3

AbstractIn Acts 3, Peter calls God "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers" (3:13), a surprisingly rare OT appellation occurring thrice in Exodus 3. Acts 3's story of the healed cripple rewrites LXX Exodus 3, reversing various markers of God's presence prominent therein, the most significant of which is God's resistance to being named. Initially calling himself òων (3:14), God ultimately acquiesces to a periphrastic self-designation: the unnamed god of named others (3:15-16). In "Edmond Jabès and the Question of the Book," Jacques Derrida explains why God's presence resists naming: to call something something else involves a conceptualization of being that effaces Being itself. Following this logic, Acts 3's repeated references to "the name of Jesus" (3:6, 16) signify the ascended Christ's absence (1:6-11), whose implications Peter's sermon explores. Although Peter speaks of the eschatological consummation that the "holy prophets" announced (3:20-21), when recalling such a prophecy he quotes from Deuteronomy 18, "the Lord will raise up a prophet like me" (3:22-23), going on to assert that "all prophets" speak of the time when God will do this (3:24). Prophets' prophesy about a time when God will raise up a prophet who, according to 3:24, will prophesy about a time when God will raise up a prophet. This circular prophecy of an eschatological prophet gestures at the infinite deferral of Christ's eschatological presence, or παρoυσíα. In dialogue with Hans Conzelmann, I consider the implications of this and a related episode (Luke 17:22-37) for Lukan eschatology.

Melquisedec y la Cristología del Evangelio de Juan

This article takes as its point of departure the account given by J. Ashton, who defends the re-contextualization of John’s Gospel on Jewish soil with an eye to a better understanding of its message. After evaluating Ashton’s presentation, the text aims to advance and support the earlier position by adding new information to Asthon’s account, to which end he presents the figure of Melquizedek and other personages which fulfill the role of emissaries in Qumran literature. Later on the article expounds the points of contact between the gospel and 11 Q Melq, concentrating on the figures of Melquizedek and the eschatological prophet. It discusses and showcases the contacts discovered, defending the view that with regard to this literary background there exists an adquate horizon for understanding the christological categories present in John’s Gospel.

The portrait of a prophet - why is Wright not right about Jesus?

N T Wright’s extensive research on the subject of the historical Jesus has led him to the conclusion that the office of eschatological prophet passionately bent on delivering an urgent eschatological message is best suited to describe the portrait of Jesus as it emanates from the sources at hand. Wright furthermore abstracts from the sources the program of this prophet which involves extending a message of welcome and warning. Many a scholar would agree with these conclusions. When revealing how he arrived at the conclusions he refers to the “notorious” complexity of the problem of the literary relationship between the gospels. Can any scholar disagree? What does, however, seem to invite contention, are his statements that the gospels tell us far more about Jesus than scholarship has ever done, and that the two-source hypothesis which has been misleading scholars over the past two hundred years is not of any great importance in the study of Jesus. Wright believes that we are not in a position to answer the synoptic question and then bases a reconstruction of Jesus on this answer. What, then, are his sources and how does he apply them to arrive at these conclusions? This article presents the portrait Wright painted of the historical Jesus and investigates how it was arrived at.

Critical Remembrance and Eschatological Hope in Edward Schillebeeckx's Theology of Suffering for Others

Biblical prototypes of suffering for others – the eschatological prophet and messianic high priest – are correlated in the present article with Edward Schillebeeckx's examination of two vital concepts to provide the basis for a critical praxis: anamnesis, or the critical remembrance of history, and eschatological hope. The dialectical opposites of anamnesis and hope, which Schillebeeckx deems crucial for solidarity with suffering and its alleviation, are embodied by the prototypical scriptural figures. Indeed, critical remembrance and hope are intrinsic to the images of Jesus as the ‘suffering righteous one’ and the eschatological messianic high priest in Schillebeeckx's theology of suffering for others. Both the images and the critical concepts prove essential in his historical reconstruction of the eschatological communities, religious figures, and symbols in Hebrews and 1 Peter, among other New Testament documents. Schillebeeckx's discernment of hope as an eschatological concept is predicated on the transformation of the history of suffering into a constructive and critical force. He understands Jesus’ preaching about the coming kingdom of God as a message of hope that emerges from Jesus’ consciousness of the contrast between the history of suffering and his experience of God as Abba. Schillebeeckx's exegesis of biblical passages – taken from the Beatitudes, narratives of Jesus’ forgiveness of sins, and stories of his table fellowship – lays the foundation for the development of hope as the antidote to suffering and as a presentiment of eschatological salvation. He proposes that the transformation of failure and suffering into a critical and constructive force is Jesus’ eschatological legacy to the world and a model for the suffering servants of any age. Moreover, Schillebeeckx's dialectical understanding of remembered history and hope attests to his deep engagement with the Frankfurt School of social critical theory. In his later work (published during the 1970s and 1980s), such critical ideas serve to cultivate an eschatological sensibility and an ethical praxis, made possible by grace mediated through voluntary suffering.

Jesus and Prophetic Actions

AbstractHistorical Jesus studies today have focused on Jesus' role as prophet, but few have sought to define "what kind of prophet" Jesus might be. Since that same scholarship has usefully shaped its attention around the "actions" of Jesus, pursuing the "kind of prophet" Jesus is in light of actions narrows the evidence sufficiently. Accordingly, when one examines the so-called "prophetic actions" of Jesus, a coherent picture of Jesus as the eschatological prophet like Moses emerges. This study examines the prophetic actions of Jesus in light of the prophetic actions of the preclassical and classical prophets, as well as similar types of actions on the part of the Jewish popular movement prophets and Moses. While Jesus' actions show some similarities with the actions of the preclassical and classical prophets, his actions are more like the popular prophetic movements of the first century, especially as they evoke themes of Moses and Joshua, and his actions also show striking parallels with Moses' actions.

Dividing Lines in Jesus Research Today

The Jesus of history undertook a prophetic ministry to Israel that involved working miracles. These miracles supported his eschatological message about the kingdom of God. The most adequate way to picture Jesus, therefore, is as the miracle-working, eschatological prophet who cloaked himself in the mantle of Elijah.

Jesus: Eschatological prophet and/or wisdom teacher?

The words and works of Jesus the Galilean can be interpreted against the background of different possible roles. These include prophet, teacher, magician and healer. This essay addresses the question whether he was an eschatological prophet or a wisdom teacher, or perhaps a combination of both. The implications of placing Jesus in these roles are worked out in the essay, which is the second of a series of two essays on Jesus the Galilean. Attention is also paid to the nature of the sources which make it possible to fit Jesus into different roles.

The Origin of Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus: Two Recent Perspectives

I A widely-noted lecture delivered at the University of Tubingen on June 27, 1972, the German exegete Rudolf Pesch proposed a new account of the origin of faith in the resurrection of Jesus. Questioning the historical reliability of New Testament references to the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb and to appearances of the risen Christ, Pesch argued that the foundation of Christian belief in Jesus' resurrection lay in the historical Jesus, not in events after the crucifixion. In Pesch's judgment, the disciples had already recognized Jesus during his lifetime as eschatological prophet and prophetic Messiah. Having been prepared by Jesus for the coming of his own violent death, they were able to draw on current conceptions of the fate of eschatological figures to express the permanent personal salvific significance of the crucified Jesus by confession and proclamation of his resurrection. Theological examination of the resurrection should correspondingly be oriented on Jesus' public life and death, where it will find the appropriate historical foundation for Christian faith in the risen Lord. An earlier article in the pages of this journal presented in more detail Pesch's analysis of the origin of faith in the resurrection, summarized the extensive critical response to his proposal, and commented briefly on systematic aspects of the discussion. In the decade which has elapsed since publication of that note, numerous exegetes and systematic theologians have studied the resurrection at length, often as part of the general contemporary reconsideration of central topics of Christology, and Pesch's reconstruction has been subjected to further critical appraisal. During the same period Pesch has substantially modified his

The Praxis of the Kingdom of God: Ethics in Schillebeeckx'JesusandChrist

AbstractEdward Schillebeeckx' two-volume christological study,JesusandChrist, offers a rich theological foundation for ethics. Three aspects of this foundation emerge. (1) Ethics is grounded in faith in Jesus the eschatological prophet, where faith means living as he did: “going about doing good” while trusting in God to grant final salvation. Central to this “praxis of the Kingdom” is suffering, a “contrast experience with critical-cum-practical force.” (2) Ethics expresses grace mediated historically in Jesus Christ. The New Testament gives the most reliable access to this mediation and presents ethical models as its expression. Grace and religion are related to ethics, especially through suffering, in a unity-in-tension. Analysis of this relationship helps to clarify Schillebeeckx' position on a specifically Christian ethic. (3) Ethical activity is sacramental, complementary to sacramental liturgy.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews Get access The Mosaic Eschatological Prophet. By HOWARD M. TEEPLE. Philadelphia: Society of Biblical Literature, 1957. xiii + 122 pages. $1.50. JOHN PATERSON JOHN PATERSON Drew Theological Seminary Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume XXVI, Issue 2, April 1958, Pages 142–143, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/XXVI.2.142 Published: 01 April 1958