The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences (New Testament Studies) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802844448 ISBN 13: 9780802844446

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997

Synopsis

This volume challenges the current consensus in New Testament scholarship that each of the Gospels was written for a specific church or group of churches. These essays argue, from a wide range of evidence, that the Gospels were intended for general circulation throughout all the early churches and, hence, were written for all Christians.

Loveday Alexander, Stephen C. Barton, Richard Bauckham, Richard Burridge, Michael B. Thompson, and Francis Watson examine such topics as the extent of communication between early Christian churches, book production and circulation in the Graeco-Roman world, the Gospel genre and its audience, the relationships between the Gospels, the faulty enterprise of reconstructing Gospel communities, and the hermeneutical and theological pitfalls of reading the Gospels as community texts. By putting in question a large body of assumptions that are almost universally accepted in contemporary scholarship, this book could fundamentally change both the method and the findings of Gospel interpretation.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Bauckham is professor emeritus at the University of St. Andrews and senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He is a fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His many publications include God Crucified; The Jewish World Around the New Testament; “Son of Man,” vol. 1, Early Jewish Literature; “Son of Man,” vol. 2: Gospels and Jesus; and Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, which won the Michael Ramsey Prize.

From the Back Cover

This volume challenges the current consensus in New Testament scholarship that each of the Gospels was written for a specific church or group of churches. These essays argue, from a wide range of evidence, that the Gospels were intended for general circulation throughout all the early churches and, hence, were written for all Christians.

Loveday Alexander, Stephen C. Barton, Richard Bauckham, Richard Burridge, Michael B. Thompson, and Francis Watson examine such topics as the extent of communication between early Christian churches, book production and circulation in the Graeco-Roman world, the Gospel genre and its audience, the relationships between the Gospels, the faulty enterprise of reconstructing Gospel communities, and the hermeneutical and theological pitfalls of reading the Gospels as community texts. By putting in question a large body of assumptions that are almost universally accepted in contemporary scholarship, this book could fundamentally change both the method and the findings of Gospel interpretation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802844448
• ISBN 13: 9780802844446
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 226
• Editor: Bauckham Richard