Relatives Of Jesus Research Articles

The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel by David B. Capes

Reviewed by: The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel by David B. Capes Joshua Coutts david b. capes, The Divine Christ: Paul, the Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018). Pp. xvii + 206. Paper $24.99. David Capes considers the relation of Jesus and God in Paul's theology through the lens of God's name, and with particular attention to Paul's use of OT texts in which the name Yhwh (rendered kyrios in Greek translation) occurs. This was the subject of Capes's doctoral work, published as Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul's Christology (WUNT 2/47; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992) and was revisited as the topic of his 2016 Hayward Lectures at Acadia University. These lectures form the base for this volume, in which C. [End Page 331] aims to situate his earlier work in the context of more recent scholarship and advance the conversation on Pauline christology. In the first two chapters, C. orients his readers to the terminology of his subject matter, the divine name, and to the broader field of Pauline christology. He contends that kyrios ("Lord") was a widely used rendering of Yhwh among Greek-speaking Jews of the first century, and that, consequently, Paul's application of the title to Jesus is as christologically significant as it is Jewish. This constitutes a major challenge to the central thesis of Wilhelm Bousset and his followers that Paul's kyrios christology is explicable only in a pagan religious environment, removed from the constraints of monotheism. The next three chapters constitute the heart of the argument, featuring a focused study of kyrios language in the undisputed Pauline epistles. In chap. 3, C. demonstrates that Paul uses kyrios of Jesus predominantly in ethical, eschatological, or liturgical contexts. In all three, the way Jesus relates to his church is reminiscent of the relationship of Yhwh to Israel in the OT. Chapters 4 and 5 offer an analysis of the thirteen OT citations featuring the divine name, that is, "Yhwh texts." By close analysis of these citations in their context, C. demonstrates that the implied referent of kyrios is God in roughly half of the citations (chap. 4), and Jesus in the rest (chap. 5). This has significant implications for Paul's christology, which C. explores in his final chapter. In short, Paul demonstrably considered Jesus to be "constitutive of God's unique identity" (p. 151). C. explains this striking phenomenon by pointing to a number of "forces and factors," which include the Jewish category of divine agency and the expectation of the return of Yhwh; Paul's religious experience(s), which generated fresh exegesis of OT texts; and the words, deeds, and exegesis of Jesus himself, as remembered by his earliest followers. In this explanation, C. draws on the work of fellow proponents of "early high christology," including Alan Segal, Richard Bauckham, N. T. Wright, and Larry Hurtado. Those familiar with C.'s 1992 monograph will note that the current publication maintains essentially the same content and thesis, albeit reorganized and updated. For instance, his treatment of Yhwh texts no longer includes 2 Tim 2:19, likely because of its disputed authorship. Moreover, at several points C. engages with more recent scholarship (I count thirty-two bibliographic entries that postdate 1992). There is perhaps some ambiguity regarding the intended audience of the book. On the one hand, the detailed treatment of Paul's "Yhwh texts" in the context of scholarship communicates best to specialists. Yet, on the other hand, the introductory discussion of the relationship between Yhwh/kyrios and its rendering in English Bibles as Lord/Lord seems aimed at a broader audience. On the whole, C.'s engagement with scholarship is light, and his references representative rather than exhaustive. This allows him to keep the larger picture before his readers but means that the argument is unlikely to be regarded as an advance in the scholarship on Paul's christology. In sum, the book is both a re-presentation of C.'s seminal 1992 monograph and a clear introduction to a crucial aspect of Pauline christology. As N...

Dialogue and the Imagination: Reflections by an Indian Christian Artist

AbstractAs an Indian Christian artist, I have reflected on Jesus’s dialogue with the Woman at the Well . Here we see the relation of Jesus to cultures beyond the Jewish one. The Biblical text has many layers of meaning. In Indian aesthetics, we learn of the ‘Dhvani’ or ‘implied meaning’ of a text. This implied meaning is discovered by the imagination, and is the basis for a re-interpretation of the text in our modern context of religious diversity, and ecological challenges. Attempts to relate Biblical narratives to images found in other religious traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, have sometimes been questioned as being syncretistic. However, a story like that of the woman at the well, has echoes in a similar story to be found in the Buddhist tradition, and in the universal theme of water, and its importance for life.

Book Review: Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church

Book Review: Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church

Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church. By Richard Bauckham. Pp. ix + 459. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, £19.95. 0 567 09573 8

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Book Review: Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church

Book Review: Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church

Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church

Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church

The Relatives of Jesus

The Relatives of Jesus

The Relatives of Jesus in Mark

The Relatives of Jesus in Mark

The Relatives of Jesus in Mark

The Relatives of Jesus in Mark

Mark and the Relatives of Jesus

Mark and the Relatives of Jesus

In Response To Dr. Faruqi

Let me say at outset that I share concern which I detect behind statements in Dr. Faruqi's paper. One senses here a crying out for truth and integrity in religious faith, for instruments of scholarship that will enable discerning men of faith to attain such integrity, and hope that all religions, but particularly those of Semitic strand, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, might be brought into a closer bond on basis of such scholarly inquiry. At times it seems that all Dr. Faruqi means to plead for is an overarching fund of tested historical facts about history of each of several religions which will stand over against every biased, dogmatic tradition that would color, distort or ignore these facts in order to concur with its vested interests. This was precisely aim of religionsgeschichtliche Schule of Christian historians in which early Chicago School participated, or emulated, and to which they made significant contributions. Many of facts which Dr. Faruqi mentions in his two illustrations toward end of his paper are explicitly noted in these writings, e.g., genesis and development of that against which revolution (of Jesus) came, as well as genesis and development of stream of ideas of which revolution came as an apex, as a consummation and crystallization; the sifting of two streams, distinguishing between nationalistic particularistic und universal stream; the relation of Jesus' personal outlook and faith to Jewish antecedents, particularly that of Hebrew prophets. The citing and tracing of these origins and developments, antecedents and relationships was burden of some of those early handbooks such as J. M. P. Smith's The Prophet and His Problem, The Prophets and Their Times, and S. J. Case's several works, especially his A New Biography, Social Origins of Christianity and The Evolution of Early Christianity, to mention some early studies of this school. Cf. also Cadbury, H. J., Jesus and Prophets. Journal of Religion, Nov., 1925.

The Life of Jesus during the Last Quarter-Century

This article gives a survey of the important questions which scholars have faced during the last twenty-five years, as they have attempted to reconstruct the life of Jesus. The conceptions of Jesus bequeathed by the nineteenth century are briefly indicated, and the apologetic interests which dominate most biographies of Jesus are shown. The critical historical approach is carefully described, and such problems as Jesus' eschatological views, the relation of Jesus to the Jewish and the gentile culture of his day, and the more critical valuation of our sources for learning about Jesus, are discussed.

Studies in Christian Philosophy, being the Boyle Lectures, 1920

THIS book may be commended to the notice of such as wish to know what can be said by a theologian possessing the broad outlook of the philosopher, and equipped with a knowledge of recent philosophical literature, as to the intellectual claims of Christian theism; it represents a good type of the kind of justification of theistic belief with which a Christian would desire thoughtful inquirers to be acquainted. It does not profess to break new ground, and, save for reflections on minor points, it does not offer critical or constructive contributions such as have not in essence been made before; but it is characterised by ability in a degree sufficient to engender curiosity as to its possible sequels, at which its author hints. If, in a later volume, the author intends to deal with the Christological problem on lines suggested by his remark (p. 54) that Christian theology has often treated the relation of Jesus to the Father “as a puzzle in ontology rather than a moral fact,” his future readers will be interested to see how he will avoid the ontological issue, and how, in emphasising the moral aspect of the relation in question, he will evade difficulties in connection with theodicy. Another obiter dictum (p. 164) concerning the reconcilability of the tritheistic and the modalistic or Unitarian interpretations of the doctrine of the Trinity arouses a similar curiosity; and if the author's hope of effecting such a reconciliation be based on his objection (p. 226) to the distinction between adjectival and substantival existence as a misleading one, it may be worth while to point out to him beforehand that the objection which he has urged does not apply to the real distinction, without which logic would become impossible, but only to a perverse misrepresentation or obliteration of it. Studies in Christian Philosophy, being the Boyle Lectures, 1920. By the Rev. Prof W. R. Matthews. Pp. xiv + 231. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.). 12s. net.

The Jewish Synagogue and the Relation of Jesus to It

The Jewish Synagogue and the Relation of Jesus to It