Contagious Holiness

by Blomberg, Craig L.

• ISBN13: 9780830826209
• ISBN10: 0830826203
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-30
• Publisher: Ivp Academic

Summary

Honored in 2006 as a "Year's Best Book for Preachers" byPreachingmagazine.One of humanity's most basic and common practices--eating meals--was transformed by Jesus into an occasion of divine encounter. In sharing food and drink with his companions, he invited them to share in the grace of God. He revealed his redemptive mission while eating with sinners, repentant and unrepentant alike.Jesus' "table fellowship" with sinners in the Gospels has been widely agreed to be historically reliable. However, this consensus has recently been challenged, for example, by the claim that the meals in which Jesus participated took the form of Greco-Roman symposia--or that the "sinners" involved were the most flagrantly wicked within Israel's society, not merely the ritually impure or those who did not satisfy strict Pharisaic standards of holiness.In this excellent and thorough study, Craig L. Blomberg engages with the debate and opens up the significance of the topic. He surveys meals in the Old Testament and the intertestamental period, examines all the Gospel texts relevant to Jesus' eating with sinners, and concludes with contemporary applications.

Author Biography

Craig L. Blomberg is Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, Colorado

Table of Contents

Series preface	9	(2)
Author's preface	11	(6)
Abbreviations	17	(2)
1 The current debate
'Sinners who need no repentance' and Did Jesus really eat with the wicked?	19	(13)
2 Forming friendships but evading enemies
Meals in the Old Testament	32	(31)
The Pentateuch	33	(7)
The historical books	40	(9)
The wisdom literature	49	(7)
The prophets	56	(7)
Conclusion	63	(2)
3 Contagious impurity
Intertestamental developments	65	(28)
Old Testament Apocrypha	66	(5)
The pseudepigrapha	71	(7)
Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls	78	(8)
Greco-Roman symposia	86	(7)
Conclusions	93	(4)
4 Jesus the consununate party animal?
Jesus' eating with sinners in the Gospels I: Material not distinctive to Luke	97	(29)
Levi's party: Mark 2:13-17 and parallels	98	(5)
Feasting in the wilderness: Mark 6:30-44 and parallels	103	(6)
A repeat miracle: Mark 8:1-10 and parallel	109	(3)
How not to win friends and influence people: Matthew 8:11-12 and parallel	112	(4)
A glutton and a drunkard: Matthew 11:19 and parallel	116	(4)
Tax collectors and prostitutes: Matthew 21:31-32	120	(2)
The joy of new wine: John 2:1-11	122	(2)
A meal of reinstatement: John 21:1-14	124	(2)
Summary and conclusion	126	(4)
5 Pervasive purity
Jesus' eating with sinners in the Gospels II: Material distinctive to Luke	130	(30)
Introduction	130	(1)
A 'sinner in the city': Luke 7:36-50	131	(6)
Hospitality versus holiness: Luke 10:38-42	137	(2)
A meal turned sour: Luke 11:37-54	139	(5)
A cagey host and a rude guest: Luke 14:1-24	144	(5)
A scandalous summary: Luke 15:1-32	149	(2)
Zacchaeus short-changed? Luke 19:1-10	151	(6)
Cleopas and company: Luke 24:13-35	157	(3)
Summary and conclusion	160	(4)
6 The potential of contemporary Christian meals
Conclusions and applications	164	(17)
Summary	164	(4)
Applications	168	(13)
Bibliography	181	(22)
Index of modern authors	203	(5)
Index of Scripture references	208	(5)
Index of ancient sources	213