Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-567-46642-6
Verlag: Bloomsbury 3PL

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 377 g

In Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma Riemer Roukema sets out to investigate and assess the various views of Jesus in early Christianity, basing his approach on a distinction between historical and theological statements about Jesus. Historical statements about Jesus can be arrived at through a careful and critical study of the earliest records, but Roukema recognizes that scholars differ widely here, their views ranging from the extremely sceptical to the very optimistic. Theological statements about Jesus are to do with His relationship to God and what has been and is believed about Jesus not only then but today; and it is often the case that these statements reflect more the convictions of their authors.

After surveying the approaches of scholars such as Rudolf Bultmann, John P.Meier, James D.G.Dunn and Elaine Pagels with detailed examples of their approaches to set the scene, Roukema begins his own study. He first investigates in detail the views of Jesus which occur in the New Testament and other early Christian writings, often Gnostic. In the New Testament pride of place is given to the authentic letters of Paul, then the Gospels, always beginning with Mark, and then Acts. Among the Gnostic writings the Gospel of Thomas has the most prominent place, followed by a variety of other works and extracts from Gnostic writers quoted by church fathers. Roukema then turns his attention to the Old Testament and early Jewish background to the belief in Jesus as the son of God, the Word, and even as the LORD, Yahweh. He investigates the views of Jesus relating to God the Father which were developed in catholic Christianity up to and including the Council of Nicaea. The final chapter evaluates the diversity of views of Jesus in the early centuries.

However, for all his emphasis on diversity, Roukema’s main concern is to bring out the continuity of the development of views of Jesus. Roukema's conclusions are that the Gnostic traditions mostly derive from the earlier traditions preserved in the New Testament writings and do not give a more accurate view of the historical Jesus. He shows that the view of Jesus as the divine Lord and Son of God is inspired by an early Jewish pattern that was exploited by the very first Christians. In spite of some later dogmatic precisions, there is more continuity between the New Testament picture of Jesus and the Nicene creed than between the historical Jesus and the Jesus of early Gnosticism. Even the essence of the Trinitarian dogma originated very early, since it appears to have Jewish roots. In a sense this makes his book conservative in a liberal kind of way (because it underplays the importance of the Gnostic material), and will make it particularly appealing to those involved in Catholic and conservative courses.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Roukema, Riemer

Weitere Mitwirkende

Deventer-Metz, Saskia

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Neues Testament: Exegese, Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Historisch-Kritische Jesusforschung
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Hagiographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Jesus as a source of inspiration
Jesus considered historically and theologically
Who is Jesus? Reactions by Peter, Matthew, and Thomas
Plan of this book

2. Jesus’ origin and identity
Paul’s epistles
The Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of John
Evaluation of the New Testament data
The Gospel of Thomas
Cerinthus and the Ophites
The Gospel of Judas
Theodotus
The Tripartite Tractate
Comparison between the New Testament and other writings

3. Jesus’ teachings
The Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of John
Evaluation of the New Testament data
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Judas
The Gospel of Mary
The Tripartite Tractate
Other teachings of Jesus after his death and resurrection
Comparison between the New Testament and other writings

4. Jesus’ death, resurrection, and exaltation
Paul’s epistles
The Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of John
Evaluation of the New Testament data
The Gospel of Thomas
Cerinthus and the Ophites
The Gospel of Judas
Theodotus
The Tripartite Tractate
A tradition about Simon of Cyrene
Comparison between the New Testament and other writings

5. Preliminary conclusions and new questions
Preliminary conclusions
New questions

6. Jewish Christianity
Patristic testimonies about Jewish Christians
The Pseudo-Clementine writings
An ancient Christian tradition?
Conclusion

7. Did Jesus have secret teachings?
Jesus’ unwritten teachings in the ‘catholic’ Church
Private teachings in the synoptic Gospels
Private teachings in the Gospel of John
Still secret teachings?
Conclusion

8. Does Jesus as LORD and Son of God fit in with early Judaism?
The Old Testament
Philo of Alexandria
Other early Jewish writings
Conclusion

9. Jesus and the Trinitarian dogma
God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in Gnostic writings
Some Church Fathers of the second century
Adoptianism
Modalism T
ertullian of Carthage
Origen of Alexandria
Arius
The council of Nicea
Conclusion

10. Conclusions and evaluation

Bibliography
Indices: Bible, some other early Christian writings, names and themes

Über Autor(innen)

‘The author is very well acqainted with gnostic literature, and manages to present a complex matter in a comprehensible way and at the same time to make his point: orthodox Christianity has a solid historical basis, and the gnostic variant is secondary.’ - Gie Vleugels, Evangelical Theological Faculty, Louvain, Belgium

‘This book covers both the New Testament and early Church history. The author appears to be an expert in both disciplines. This implies that the reader can trust to be expertly introduced into ancient gnostic texts like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, Theodotus, Cerinthus, the Ophites and the Tripartite Tractate. Furthermore, he learns about Jewish Christian ideas from the beginning of Christianity such as those of the Ebionites, the Nazaraeans and the slightly later views of groups from Syria according to the Pseudo-clementine writings. … I am convinced that this is a solid book for someone who wants to form a well founded opinion about Jesus.’ - Huub van de Sandt, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands

‘Roukema offers a wide-ranging survey of early Christian texts, focusing on how they treat Jesus. His discussion is informed, up to date in engagement with other scholars, and offers sensible judgements on all the issues he addresses. Roukema makes clear his own sympathy with traditional Christian faith, but his handling of other positions is fair and accurate. The scope of evidence considered and the qualify of his analysis combine to make this a valuable study.’ – Larry W. Hurtado, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK ‘This is an ambitious attempt to compare the New Testament presentations of Jesus' identity, teaching, death, resurrection and exaltation, with the equivalent Gnostic presentations which have received so much attention in recent years, both scholarly and novelistic. It shows well how different was the former from the latter and goes on to examine the question whether Jesus gave secret teaching, and the development of Christianity's high christology within the context of early Judaism and in the debates of patristic Christianity. The impressive treatment sticks closely to the texts examined and makes clear why mainstream Christianity's evaluation of Jesus both moved on from the early Jewish Christian version and rejected the Gnostic alternatives. As a concise overview it will be a boon to many students and to those who do not have sufficient time to immerse themselves in the wide range of literature examined.’ – James D.G. Dunn, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, UK.

James D. G. Dunn,