No abstract

List of illustrations page vii Preface xiii part i historical and religious background Introduction 3 Jews among Greeks and Romans 15 Religion of Second-Temple Judaism 32 Varieties of Second-Temple Judaism 45 Jewish hopes for the future 60 Hellenistic religion, philosophy, and world-view 72 An overview of early Christian history 90 The making of the New Testament 105 part ii jesus and the gospels Introduction to the Gospels 121 10 The Synoptic problem 140 11 The Gospel of Mark 155 12 The Gospel of Matthew 174 13 The Gospel of Luke 195 14 The Gospel of John 214 15 The apocryphal Jesus 236 16 The quest for the historical Jesus 243 part iii acts 17 The book of Acts 263 part iv pauline christianity 18 Paul, his letters, and his churches 289 19 Gentiles and the Law (1): Galatians 303 20 Gentiles and the Law (2): Romans 315 21 Problems of church life: 1 Corinthians 328 v vi Contents Problems of church life: 2 Corinthians 339 23 The imminent parousia: 1 and 2 Thessalonians 345 Prison Epistles (1): Philippians and Philemon 25 Prison Epistles (2): Colossians and Ephesians 362 part v judaic christianity Judaic Christianity 379 The letter of James 389 28 The Didache 396 part vi gnostic christianity Gnostic Christianity 407 The Gospel of Thomas 415 part vii proto-orthodox christianity 31 Proto-Orthodox Christianity 423 Conflict within the church (1): 1 Clement 431 33 Conflict within the church (2): the Pastoral Epistles 436 Conflict within the church (3): Jude and 2 Peter 446 35 Conflict within the church (4): the Johannine Epistles 453 Conflict within the church (5): the letters of Ignatius 463 Relation of Christianity to Judaism (1): Hebrews 469 38 Relation of Christianity to Judaism (2): the Epistle of Barnabas 480 Conflict with the Roman world (1): 1 Peter 484 Conflict with the Roman world (2): Revelation 497 appendixes appendix Lucian on sacrifices 519 appendix The Essenes 520 appendix Jewish messianic hopes 524 appendix Divine men and their births

The expression 'Son of Man', used in the Gospels almost exclusively by Jesus, has been the object of intensive study since the Protestant Reformation, yet scholars have come to no agreement on its origin or meaning. Research in this area has been described as 'a veritable mine field' and 'a can of worms'. Because of the scope and complexity of the literature, no comprehensive survey of the subject has been written in the twentieth century. Delbert Burkett's book fills this need. It provides a comprehensive historical overview of the debate from the patristic period to 1996, and gives an evaluation of that research and a summation of the present state of the question. Burkett concludes that despite nineteen centuries of 'Son of Man' study there is no consensus concerning the meaning or origin of the expression; the debate is therefore a prime example of the limits of New Testament scholarship.

The expression ⋯ νἱ⋯σ το⋯ ⋯νθρώπον, found primarily in the Gospels on the lips of Jesus, has been the object of a centuries-long investigation that has sought to determine its meaning and origin. Patristic and medieval authors understood the phrase as a title of Jesus meaning ‘the Son of the human’, with ‘the human’ referring to either Mary or Adam. With the renewal of learning in the Renaissance and Reformation, interpreters began to examine the phrase in light of its Semitic background, tracing it to Hebrewben adamor Aramaicbar enasha. A host of new interpretations arose. While most scholars continued to view the expression as some sort of title, others saw it as a nontitular idiom. Three possible idiomatic senses of the expression were investigated: the circumlocutional sense (‘this man’ = ‘I’), the generic sense (‘man’ in general), and the indefinite sense (‘a man’, someone). These nontitular interpretations, part of the debate since 1557, have become more prominent in the last 25 years and form an important feature of the current discussion.

No abstract