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

Bockmuehl, Markus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801027586 ISBN 13: 9780801027581

Publisher: Baker Academic, 2003

Synopsis

Why did the early Christian church, with its many Gentile members, keep Old Testament commandments about sex and idolatry but disregard many others, like those about food or ritual purity? Did Christianity inherit its norms of moral reasoning from Judaism or invent them afresh?

In Jewish Law in Gentile Churches, Markus Bockmuehl approaches such questions by examining the halakhic (Jewish legal) rationale behind the ethics of Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians. Bockmuehl offers an alternative to the prevailing attitude that "law-free" Christianity arose in response to Jewish "legalism." Drawing heavily upon primary sources, he suggests that early Christian ethics were more solidly based in Jewish legal teaching than has generally been thought.

This important study has far-reaching implications not only for the study of the New Testament, but more broadly for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. First published by T & T Clark, Jewish Law in Gentile Churches is now available to a North American audience in this affordable paperback edition.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Markus Bockmuehl (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is a fellow of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge and a lecturer in New Testament studies. He is the author of Philippians in Blackís New Testament Commentary series, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Jesus, and translator and editor of Stembergerís Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash.

About the Author:

Markus Bockmuehl (PhD, University of Cambridge) is the Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of Keble College. His books include Jewish Law in Gentile Churches, Philippians in Black's New Testament Commentary series, and Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study.

About this edition

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0801027586
• ISBN 13: 9780801027581
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332