5. Cf., e.g., Isa 25:6-8 or Ezek 43:1-7. Exod 29:45 could also be mentioned here, if the text is read eschatologically on the canonical level.
6. For these instances, see Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1965 [orig. pub. 1909]), 343-45.
7. See Marius Reiser, “Hat Paulus Heiden bekehrt?,” BZ 39 (1995): 76-91.
8. For the question of these so–called adoptionist formulae, cf. Peter Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments 1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), 185–88; Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer, Der messianische Anspruch Jesu und die Anfänge der Christologie. Vier Studien, WUNT 138 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 13; Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ (New York: Paulist Press, 1976), 233–34; Karl-Heinz Menke, Jesus ist Gott der Sohn. Denkformen und Brennpunkte der Christologie (Regensburg: Pustet, 2008), 166–68.
9. The translation of this passage is uncertain. The Septuagint has rendered the Hebrew
10. For the basis of this translation, cf. Gerhard Lohfink and Ludwig Weimer, Maria—nicht ohne Israel. Eine neue Sicht der Lehre von der Unbefleckten Empfängnis (Freiburg: Herder, 2008), 350–51, 433. [Translator’s note: The gender inflection in Greek and German of “logos/word” (masculine) creates difficulties for English translation, since in English most inanimate things and abstractions are “it.”]
11. Theissen, Religion of the Earliest Churches, 42.
12. Ibid., 41–47.
13. These are the titles of chapters 8–14 in part 3 of Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998).
14. For the whole question of the “Hellenization of Christianity,” see the essay by Alois Grillmeier, “‘Christus licet uobis inuitis deus.’ Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion über die Hellenisierung der christlichen Botschaft,” 81–111, in idem, Fragmente zur Christologie. Studien zum altkirchlichen Christusbild, ed. Theresia Hainthaler (Freiburg: Herder, 1997); also Karl-Heinz Menke, Jesus ist Gott der Sohn, 8, 89–90, 168–72, and elsewhere.
Chapter 21
1. For what follows, see esp. Alfred Zänker, Der lange Weg nach Utopia. Vom Vormarsch des politisch Vernünftigen (Asendorf: Mut-Verlag, 2003).
2. Ibid., 143–44, summarizing material from Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston (Berkeley, CA: Banyan Tree Books, 1975).
3. Ibid., 51. Cf. Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis: Or, Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians (1627).
4. Ibid., 53.
5. For a long time exegesis tried to keep the process of growth totally separate from the parable and therefore spoke of a “contrast parable.” It was all about the tiny beginning and the astonishing size at the end. But the fear of discovering anything like growth in the “growth parables” rests on the fact that before World War I the reign of God was repeatedly equated with civilizing, intellectual, and moral entities.
Table of Contents
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1 The So-Called Historical Jesus
Chapter 2 The Proclamation of the Reign of God
Chapter 3 The Reign of God and the People of God
Chapter 4 The Gathering of Israel
Chapter 5 The Call to Discipleship
Chapter 6 The Many Faces of Being Called
Chapter 7 Jesus’ Parables
Chapter 8 Jesus and the World of Signs
Chapter 9 Jesus’ Miracles
Chapter 10 Warning about Judgment
Chapter 11 Jesus and the Old Testament
Chapter 12 Jesus and the Torah
Chapter 13 The Life of Jesus: Living Unconditionally
Chapter 14 The Fascination of the Reign of God
Chapter 15 Decision in Jerusalem
Chapter 16 Dying for Israel
Chapter 17 His Last Day
Chapter 18 The Easter Events
Chapter 19 Jesus’ Sovereign Claim
Chapter 20 The Church’s Response
Chapter 21 The Reign of God: Utopia?
Notes