Jewish Law in Gentile Churches : Halakhah and the Beginning of Christian Public Ethics

by Bockmuehl, Markus

• ISBN13: 9780801027581
• ISBN10: 0801027586
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Baker Academic

Summary

shows how early Christianity was indebted to, not free from, Jewish moral teaching.

Author Biography

Markus Bockmuehl (PhD, University of Cambridge) is a fellow of Keble College and professor of biblical and early Christian studies at the University of Oxford. His books include Jewish Law in Gentile Churches, Philippians in Black's New Testament Commentary series, and Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Abbreviations	xvii
PART ONE: Christianity in the Land of Israel	1	(84)
1. Halakhah and Ethics in the Jesus Tradition	3	(14)
The Precedence of Written Torah	4	(2)
'The Weightier Things of the Torah'	6	(2)
Act and Motive	8	(2)
Purity and Integrity	10	(2)
Antinomian Eschatology?	12	(2)
Conclusion	14	(3)
2. Matthew's Divorce Texts in the Light of Pre-Rabbinic Jewish Law	17	(6)
3. 'Let the Dead Bury their Dead': Jesus and the Law Revisited	23	(26)
The Prevailing Consensus	23	(3)
Assessment of the Case for the Prevailing Consensus	26	(8)
Possible Ways Forward	34	(2)
Nazirite Halakhah	36	(10)
Conclusion	46	(3)
4. James, Israel and Antioch	49	(36)
First-Century Antioch	51	(10)
Antioch from the Perspective of the Land of Israel	61	(9)
Four Theses on James the Just and Antioch	70	(12)
Conclusion	82	(3)
PART TWO: Jewish and Christian Ethics for Gentiles	85	(90)
5. Natural Law in Second Temple Judaism	87	(26)
The Old Testament	88	(9)
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha	97	(6)
The Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Rabbinic Literature	103	(4)
Philo and Josephus	107	(3)
Conclusions	110	(3)
6. Natural Law in the New Testament?	113	(32)
'Nature' and other Conundrums	113	(4)
Jesus and the Gospels	117	(9)
The Acts of the Apostles	126	(1)
Paul	127	(13)
Conclusion	140	(5)
7. The Noachide Commandments and New Testament Ethics	145	(30)
Methodological Concerns	146	(2)
Form and Substance in New Testament Ethics	148	(2)
The Noachide Commandments	150	(12)
Noachide Law and the New Testament	162	(10)
Conclusion	172	(3)
PART THREE: The Development of Public Ethics	175	(66)
8. The Beginning of Christian Public Ethics: From Luke to Aristides and Diognetus	177	(52)
Three Beginnings	177	(9)
New Testament Antecedents	186	(8)
Public Ethics in the Second Century	194	(7)
The Earliest Apologists	201	(1)
Aristides of Athens	202	(13)
The Epistle to Diognetus	215	(7)
Conclusion	222	(7)
9. Jewish and Christian Public Ethics in the Early Roman Empire	229	(12)
The Problem of Halakhah in Jewish and Christian Ethics	230	(3)
Jewish Public Ethics	233	(3)
Characteristics of the Christian Approach	236	(2)
Conclusion	238	(3)
Bibliography	241	(40)
List of First Publications	281	(2)
Index of Ancient Sources	283	(20)
Index of Modern Authors	303	(6)
Index of Subjects	309