scholarly journals The Unique Sacrifice of Christ According to Hebrews 9: A Study in Theological Creativity

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Christian A. Eberhart ◽  
Donald Schweitzer
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
High Priest ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
The Temple

The letter to the Hebrews develops a distinct christological and soteriological concept of Jesus as both high priest and unique sacrifice once and for all. In doing so, Hebrews remains largely faithful to cult traditions of Second Temple Judaism. Especially the concept of Jesus as sacrifice is, however, theologically creative and innovative. The present essay explores these dynamic developments and discusses how they led early Christianity to ultimately abandon the temple cult.

Literacy, New Testament

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Keith
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Early Christian

Although various New Testament texts reflect the importance of literacy and illiteracy in early Christianity (for example, Mark 13:14; John 7:15; Acts 4:13; 8:30; 1 Corinthians 16:21), these issues have taken on greater significance in New Testament studies since the 1980s. This period witnessed an explosion of interdisciplinary research on ancient literacy and illiteracy in cognate disciplines such as classics, cultural anthropology, literary criticism, and media criticism. Cumulatively, these interdisciplinary studies have established a new and sustained scholarly majority opinion that most ancient persons were illiterate. As a result, New Testament scholars now see literacy and illiteracy as important factors for interpreting New Testament and early Christian texts in their socio-historical contexts, especially for understanding the diffusion of social power in the text-centered cultures of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Such a perspective has breathed fresh life into old debates, such as the education of Jesus and his followers or the identity of Jewish scribes, and has introduced, or participated in, new perspectives, such as “performance criticism” and the “material turn” in studies of early Christian book culture. Most of these studies accept that the majority of the population in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity was illiterate and proceed to understand the social consequences of the use of books and literate skills in a predominantly oral environment. Along these lines, further studies have increasingly come to indicate the overall inadequacy of the terms “literate” and “illiterate” for understanding the complex manifestations of literate skills in practice. Complicating factors include the facts that reading and writing skills were acquired and used separately, reading and writing skills existed in varying levels and varying languages even for an individual, and that literacy (the ability to access written tradition for oneself) should not be confused with textuality (the awareness and appreciation of written tradition). These factors and others have impacted New Testament scholars’ understanding of the authorship, reception, and circulation of texts in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.

Socialscapes and Abstractions: An Appraisal of Richard A. Horsley’s Theorizing of Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Rollens
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Social World ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analytical Utility

Richard A. Horsley’s work on Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity has been widely influential. In particular, his theorizing of the social world in which early Jews and Christians were embedded has significantly advanced biblical studies. This article engages with several of the most prominent analytical categories in his work (peasant, retainer, resistance, and renewal) with a view toward investigating their conceptual origins and probing their analytical utility.

Sociologies of the Book in the Study of Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-70
Author(s):  
Chris Keith
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Original Text ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
Christian Literature

Chapter 2 situates the methodological approach of the study within three trends in the study of the ancient book cultures of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity: the material turn in New Testament textual criticism, approaches to Jewish and Christian literature as open textual processes, and the formation of the New Testament canon. As with other studies in the material turn of New Testament textual ncriticism, this study foregrounds the manuscript as a material object and moves toward its reception history instead of focusing upon a putative “original” text. This chapter also engages the work of Eva Mroczek, David Larsen, and others, agreeing with their emphasis upon texts as open tradition but arguing for a greater role for the text as artifact. Finally, this chapter articulates how the book as a whole will contribute to the discourse on the New Testament canon by showing how construction of authority intertwined with the usage of physical manuscripts of the Gospels.

Beyond the Veil of the Temple: The High Priestly Origins of the Apocalypses

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Barker
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
High Priest ◽  
The Veil ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Holy Place

The veil of the temple was woven from blue, purple, crimson and white thread, and embroidered with cherubim (2 Chron 3.14); the veil in the tabernacle had been similar, (Exod 26.31; 36.35). It was a valuable piece of fabric, and both Antiochus and Titus took a veil when they looted the temple (1 Mace 1.21–2; BJ 7.162). In the second temple it was some two hundred square metres of fabric; when it contracted uncleanness and had to be washed, three hundred priests were needed for the job (m. Shek 8.4–5). Josephus says it was a Babylonian tapestry (BJ 5.212), a curtain embroidered with a panorama of the heavens (BJ 5.213). The veil separated the holy place from the most holy (Exod 26.33), screening from view the ark and the cherubim or, in the temple, the ark and the chariot throne. We are told that only the high priest entered the holy of holies, once a year on the Day of Atonement.

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