Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

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 môn with harmozousa, “the one who orders all things.” Aquila’s later Greek translation substituted tithēnoumenē, “nursling, darling child.” Both refer amon to Wisdom, as have all interpreters up to modern times. But the word can also apply to God, in which case the text speaks of God as the artist, the master builder of the world.

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