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Richard Horsley provides a sure guide for first time readers of Mark's Gospel and, at the very same time, induces those more familiar with Mark to take a fresh look at this Gospel. From tracing the plot and sub-plot in Mark to exploring how the Gospel was first heard (as oral performance), Horsely tackles old questions from new angles. Horsely consistently and judiciously uses sociological categories and method to help readers see how Mark's Jesus challenged the dominant order of his day.
This volume brings together groundbreaking essays that laid the foundations of several of Horsley’s later works. The initial aims of these essays were, first, to ferret out evidence from our sources, primarily from the histories of Josephus, evidence for the lives of ordinary people living in Judean and Galilean villages. A second purpose was to explore as precisely as possible the fundamental conflictual division between the Roman, Herodian, and high priestly rulers in Palestine and the Judean and Galilean villagers they ruled. A third purpose was to explore more particularly how the popular and scribal opposition to the rulers was manifested in a remarkable diversity of movements and their leaders. And the fourth purpose, entailed in the first two, was to wriggle out from under some of the controlling constructs of New Testament/biblical studies that had been hiding the considerable complexity of the historical context. This was necessary even to begin to discern more precisely the fundamental political—economic—religious conflict between the rulers and the villagers manifested in a diversity of social movements attested in the sources.
Who were the Galileans? What was their background? Were they descendants of ancient northern Israelites? When had they come under Jerusalem rule? What precipitated resistance movements in the area?
Over the centuries, Paul has been understood as the prototypical convert from Judaism to Christianity. At the time of Pauls conversion, however, Christianity did not yet exist. Moreover, Paul says nothing to indicate that he was abandoning Judaism or Israel. He, in fact, understood his mission as the fulfillment of the promises to Israel and of Israels own destiny. In brief, Pauls gospel and mission were set over against the Roman Empire, not Judaism.
Economic justice is the core of the biblical tradition. In this innovative volume, Horsley takes the reader deep in examining how Jesus’ economic project was shaped in opposition to the Roman imperial order and how Paul’s development of communities around the Mediterranean was part of creating an alternative society among those subject to Rome. This analysis sets in the foreground the fundamental issues of food security, access to resources, and liberation. These movements emerged in opposition to Roman violence, political oppression, and economic extraction. This ultimately leads the author to consider how these issues are more relevant than ever in confronting the most recent form of empire in global capitalism. While we are not living in a Roman imperial world, we must strategize to confront the ways in which the new empire uses violence, oppression, and extraction to the detriment of the vast majority in the world, but especially those who are most vulnerable.
"If I had to pick one introduction to the sociology of the New Testament, it would be this one". -- Theology Today
In Jesus and the Politics of Roman Palestine, Richard A. Horsley offers one of the most comprehensive critical analyses of Jesus of Nazareth's mission and how he became a significant historical figure. Horsley brings a fuller historical knowledge of the context and implications of recent research to bear on the investigation of the historical Jesus. Breaking with the standard focus on isolated individual sayings of Jesus, Horsley argues that the sources for Jesus in historical interaction are the Gospels and the speeches of Jesus that they include, read critically in their historical context. This work challenges the standard assumptions that the historical Jesus has been presented primarily...
*Applies new methods to the study of the historical Jesus * Includes illuminating maps
Horsley brings his skills to bear on the questions concerning religious rhetoric and empire-building. How do the teachings of Jesus affect our understanding of the uses of power? How can we understand the invocation of God in modern political rhetoric? These questions and more are explored.
The Bible tells the stories of many empires, and many are still considered some of the largest of the ancient and classical world: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. In this provocative book, nine experts bring a critical analysis of these world empires in the background of the Old and New Testaments. As they explain, the Bible developedagainstthe context of these empires, providing concrete meaning to the countercultural claims of Jews and Christians that their God was the true King, the real Emperor. Each chapter describes how to read the Bible as a reaction to empire and points to how to respond to the biblical message to resist imperial powers in every age.