Jesus and Paul in the Context of Judaism and Early Christianity - Paperback

by Donald A. Hagner (Author)

In the late nineteenth century, Jewish scholars began to be interested in Jesus and eventually Paul as important figures in the history of the Jewish people. Rightly understood, they argued, Jesus and Paul belonged more to Judaism than to Christianity, as even radical-critical Christian scholars were concluding. The earliest believers in Jesus were exclusively Jews, forming something like a new sect within Judaism. The emergence of the Christianity of the New Testament soon became a focus of attention for Jewish scholars, and with this a host of questions arose, such as about the influence of Hellenism, the parting of the ways, the widespread Christian misperception of Judaism, the tragedy of anti-Semitism, and the identity of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. The present essays address these and other issues, maintaining throughout the tension of continuity and discontinuity, and stressing the underappreciated radical newness of the New Testament.

Author Biography

Donald A. Hagner is George Eldon Ladd Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he taught for more than thirty years. He was the visiting Griset Chair in Bible and Christian Tradition at Chapman University (2014-15). He is the author of The New Testament (2012), the Word Biblical Commentary on Matthew (1993-95), and The Jewish Reclamation of Jesus (1984).