Scribes, Visionaries, and the Politics of Second Temple Judea

Corley, Jeremy

doi:10.1163/157006309x443729

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Studying the impact of God's written word in postexilic Judah, we should have some idea of the nature of an ancient nonliterate society such as Judah was. Much study has been done concerning such oral cultures, including those in the ancient Near East (Ong 1982;Havelock 1986;Niditch 1996;Van der Toorn 2007;Horsley 2007). We mention some of its characteristics.…”

Section: Written Words In An Oral Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewal and reconstruction: Holy Writ in Ezra-Nehemiah – A missional reading

Wielenga¹

2013

In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi

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In this article we investigate the missional potential of the two-volume book of Ezra-Nehemiah. We contend that the written word of God is a transforming power in society through the mediation of the church. This implies that spiritual renewal precedes social reconstruction. We examine this book historically, canonically and exegetically to lay a foundation for a missiological reflection on the results of this excursion in the field of biblical studies. We close with the formulation of some missional conclusions that serve as guidelines for the development of a relevant theology of mission.In hierdie artikel ondersoek ons die missionêre moontlikhede van die tweedelige boek Esra-Nehemia. Ons stel dat die geskrewe woord van God ’n hervormende krag in die samelewing is deur die bemiddeling van die kerk. Dit impliseer dat geestelike vernuwing sosiale rekonstruksie voorafgaan. Ons doen historiese, kanoniese en eksegetiese ondersoek na die boek om ’n grondslag te lê vir ’n missiologiese beskouing van die resultate van hierdie ekskursie in die Bybelwetenskapveld. Ons sluit af met die formulering van missionêre gevolgtrekkings om te dien as wegwysers vir die ontwikkeling van ’n toepaslike sendingsteologie.

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Section: Written Words In An Oral Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewal and reconstruction: Holy Writ in Ezra-Nehemiah – A missional reading

Wielenga¹

2013

In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi

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“…Aslan lists books by George Nickelsburg and John Collins, but not the major works in which they (and others) placed the critical study of Judean apocalyptic texts on a solid scholarly footing. Moreover, he is evidently not aware of recent analysis of Judean ''apocalyptic'' texts as visionary attempts by dissident scribal circles to explain and resist Hellenistic imperial domination and violence (Horsley, 2007;Portier-Young, 2011)-hence not the mania widespread among the Jews that Aslan imagines.…”

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Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Horsley¹

2014

Critical Research on Religion

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Reza Aslan claims that Zealot draws on twenty years of ''rigorous academic research.'' He has indeed read a good deal of significant scholarly literature, some of which he engages in the discursive endnotes. The lack of critical analysis of sources and the periodic historical confusions in his narrative, however, suggest that Zealot is not a historical investigation. The biography at the end of the book explains that his formative training was in fiction and that his academic position is in the teaching of creative writing. His presentation of Jesus' ''life and times'' (a modern genre) appears to flow out of just this literary experience. In some chapters he appears to write his ''life'' of Jesus directly from episodes in the Gospels, somewhat like the nineteenth century lives of Jesus reviewed by Albert Schweitzer a hundred years ago. Every so often, his brief sketches of life in Galilee are reminiscent of the romantic ''Galilean idyll'' of Ernest Renan's Vie de Jesu (1863). In some cases he compares the different gospel accounts of a given incident; more often he collates them, while regularly assuming a ''narrative license'' to embellish, and often to exaggerate. Periodically he takes (for example) a statement by the distinctively Matthean Jesus or a later memory of the disciples in John as a statement of Jesus. A revival of older New Testament scholarshipWhile Zealot is not a book that would have been written by someone trained in New Testament studies today, it shares what were the standard assumptions and conceptual apparatus until forty or fifty years ago, and it collapses back into those old assumptions and concepts some of the serious attempts to challenge them made around thirty years ago.Immediately noticeable is the idealism that dominated New Testament studies as well as the ''humanities'' in western culture generally: people's actions and history generally are driven by ideas. Aslan just adds a strong emotional component: it was widespread zeal/ apocalyptic mania/Jewish nationalism that drove Jesus and nearly all Jews of his time to revolt against the Romans.Aslan also works within the standard older Christian theological scheme of the origins of ''Christianity'' as a more spiritual religion from the more parochial religion of ''Judaism.'' In this scheme the catalyst was Jesus as an itinerant individual teacher. Only after his crucifixion and resurrection was a community started by his disciples, from which a movement spread that became largely ''Gentile'' and split away from ''Judaism.'' In an earlier, more Christologically focused, version of the scheme, Jesus was the fulfillment of ''the Jewish

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Scribes, Visionaries, and the Politics of Second Temple Judea

Cited by 2 publications

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Renewal and reconstruction: Holy Writ in Ezra-Nehemiah – A missional reading

Renewal and reconstruction: Holy Writ in Ezra-Nehemiah – A missional reading

Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

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