Peaceable Hope

J Neville David

Description

In the New Testament texts, there is significant tension between Jesus's nonviolent mission and message and the apparent violence attributed to God and God's agents at the anticipated end. David Neville challenges the ready association between New Testament eschatology and retributive vengeance on christological and canonical grounds. He explores the narrative sections of the New Testament--the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation--with a view to developing a peaceable, as opposed to retributive, understanding of New Testament eschatology. Neville shows that for every narrative text in the New Testament that anticipates a vehement eschatology, another promotes a largely peaceable eschatology. This work furthers the growing discussion of violence and the doctrine of the atonement.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 15 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441240156
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2013 by David J. Neville
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4015-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
New Testament Scripture is translated by the author.
Old Testament Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
For Sonia, who shares my hope no less than my life
Contents
Cover i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Studies in Peace and Scripture Series Preface ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Part 1 The Gospels according to Matthew and Mark 15
1. Nonretaliation or Vengeance? Protesting Matthew’s Violent Eschatology 17
A Matthean Muddle?
Eschatological Vengeance in Matthew’s Parables
The Parousia of the Son of Humanity
The Construction of Violence in Matthew’s Gospel
Protesting Matthew’s Violent Eschatology
2. Peaceful Power: Pleading Mark’s Ethical Eschatology 45
Mark’s Moral Vision
Mark’s Enigmatic Eschatology
Mark 8:38–9:1 in Context
Mark 13:26 in Context
Mark 14:62 in Context
Pleading Mark’s Ethical Eschatology
Part 2 The Lukan Literature 89
3. The Evangelist of Peace 91
Luke’s Peace-Framing Texts
Jesus’s Journey to God
Jerusalem’s Judgment
Conclusion
4. “As in the Days of Noah and Lot”: Retributive Eschatology in Luke’s Gospel 119
Luke’s Eschatological Schema
Conzelmann and Carroll on Luke’s Eschatology
Expect the Unexpected (Luke 12:35–48)
Life Interrupted (Luke 17:20–37)
The Day of Deliverance (Luke 21:5–36)
Reviewing Luke’s Retributive Eschatology
5. “In the Same Way”: Restoration Eschatology in Acts 145
Ascension and Promised Return (Acts 1:1–11)
Joel’s Prophecy Fulfilled (Acts 2:14–21)
Eschatological Refreshment and Restoration (Acts 3:19–21)
Eschatological Judgment (Acts 10:42; 17:30–31)
The Restoration of Israel (Acts 1:6; 28:20)
Restoration Eschatology in Acts
Luke–Acts: Eschatological Shalom or Vengeance?
Part 3 Johannine Trajectories 175
6. Nonviolent Apocalypse: The Peace Witness of the Fourth Gospel 177
The Fourth Gospel as Reconfigured Apocalypse
Dualism: Imagery, Worldview, and Morality
Incarnation as Stage One of Eschatological Fulfillment
Incarnation, Creation, and Peace
The Peace Theme in the Fourth Gospel
The Son of Humanity and Judgment
Ethical Effects
The Peace Witness of the Fourth Gospel
7. Apocalypse of the Lamb: Reading Revelation in Peace Perspective 217
Crossan’s Animus against the Revelation to John
Interpreting John’s Violent Imagery
The Christology of Revelation
True Vision in Revelation 4–5
The Rider of Revelation 19:11–21
Christology, Eschatological Vengeance, and Moral Vision
Reading Revelation in Peace Perspective
Concluding Reflections 247
Notes 253
Bibliography 257
Subject Index 277
Scripture Index 283
Back Cover 286
Studies in Peace and Scripture Series Preface
V isions of peace abound in the Bible, whose pages are also filled with the language of violence. In this respect, the Bible is thoroughly at home in the modern world, whether as a literary classic or as a unique sacred text. This is, perhaps, a part of the Bible’s realism: bridging the distance between its world and our own is a history filled with visions of peace accompanying the reality of violence and war. That alone would justify study of peace and war in the Bible. However, for those communities in which the Bible is sacred Scripture, the matter is more urgent. For them, it is crucial to understand what the Bible says about peace and about war. These issues have often divided Christians from one another, and the way Christians have understood them has had terrible consequences for Jews and, indeed, for the world. A series of scholarly investigations cannot hope to resolve these issues, but it can hope, as this one does, to aid our understanding of them.
Over the past century a substantial body of literature has grown up around the topic of the Bible and war. Studies in great abundance have been devoted to historical questions about ancient Israel’s conception and conduct of war and about the position of the early church on participation in the Roman Empire and its military. It is not surprising that many of these studies have been motivated by theological and ethical concerns, which may themselves be attributed to the Bible’s own seemingly disjunctive preoccupation with peace and, at the same time, with war. If not within the Bible itself, then at least from Aqiba and Tertullian, the question has been raised whether and if so, then on what basis those who worship God may legitimately participate in war. With the Reformation, the churches divided on this question. The division was unequal, with the majority of Christendom agreeing that, however regrettable war may be, Christians have biblical warrant for participating in it. A minority countered that, however necessary war may appear, Christians have a biblical mandate to avoid it. Modern historical studies have served to bolster one side of this division or the other.
Meanwhile, it has become clear that a narrow focus on participation in war is not the only way, and likely not the best way, to approach the Bible on the topic of peace. War and peace are not simply two sides of the same coin; each is broader than its contrast with the other. Since the twentieth century and refinement of weapons of mass destruction, the violence of war has been an increasingly urgent concern. Peace, however, is not just the absence of war, but the well-being of all people. In spite of this agreement, the number of studies devoted to the Bible and peace is still quite small, especially in English. Consequently, answers to the most basic questions remain to be settled. Among these questions is that of what the Bible means in speaking of shalom or eirēnē , the Hebrew and the Greek terms usually translated into English as “peace.” By the same token, what the Bible has to say about peace is not limited to its use of these two terms. Questions remain about the relation of peace, in the Bible, to considerations of justice, integrity, and in the broadest sense salvation. And of course there still remains the question of the relation between peace and war. In fact, what the Bible says about peace is often framed in the language of war. The Bible very often uses martial imagery to portray God’s own action, whether it be in creation, in judgment against or in defense of Israel, or in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ actions aimed at achieving peace.
This close association of peace and war, to which we have already drawn attention, presents serious problems for the contemporary appropriation of the Bible. Are human freedom, justice, and liberation and the liberation of creation furthered or hindered by the martial, frequently royal, and pervasively masculine terms in which the Bible speaks of peace? These questions cannot be answered by the rigorous and critical exegesis of the biblical texts alone; they demand serious moral and theological reflection as well. But that reflection will be substantially aided by exegetical studies of the kind included in this series, even as these studies will be illumined by including just that kind of reflection within them.
In the present volume, David Neville investigates passages in the New Testament Gospels, Acts, and Revelation that portray a violent eschaton . His concern is that throughout the centuries, Christians have been drawn to the violent eschatology of the first and last books of the New Testament without appreciation for the tension between the moral vision presented in the accounts of Jesus’ life and vengeful end-time judgment. Rather, Neville proposes a “ shalom -oriented canonical trajectory” and offers several “treasure texts” to aid in reading the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation. His work contributes to and expands the purposes of the series.
Studies in Peace and Scripture is sponsored by the Institute of Mennonite Studies, the research agency of the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. The seminary and the tradition it represents have a particular interest in peace and, even more so, an abiding interest in the Bible. We hope that this ecumenical series will contribute to a deeper understanding of both.
Laura L. Brenneman, New Testament Editor
Ben C. Ollenburger, Old Testament Editor
Preface and Acknowledgments
T he theological and moral conundrum explored in this book has been with me for some time, but I began to work on it in earnest in a paper presented at the 2005 International Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Singapore. In 2006 I was granted sabbatical leave for the second half of the year, during which time I prepared for publication two journal articles on moral vision and eschatology in the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark. It was then that I also carefully read Willard Swartley’s landmark work on New Testament theology and ethics, Covenant of Peace . [1] I remain grateful to Stephen Pickard, then director of St. Mark’s National Theological Centre in Canberra, and the Council of St. Mark’s for making possible that period of study leave. At that