Redemption and Resistance: The Messianic Hopes of Jews and Christians in Antiquity

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Redemption and Resistance brings together an eminent cast of contributors to provide a state-of-the-art discussion of Messianism as a topic of political and religious commitment and controversy. By surveying this motif over nearly a thousand years with the help of a focused historical and political searchlight, this volume is sure to break fresh ground. It will serve as an attractive contribution to the history of ancient Judaism and Christianity, of the complex and often problematic relationship between them, and of the conflicting loyalties their hopes for redemption created vis--vis a public order that was at first pagan and later Christian. Although each chapter is designed to stand on its own as an introduction to the topic at hand, the overall argument unfolds a coherent history. The first two parts, on pre-Christian Jewish and primitive Christian Messianism, set the stage by identifying two entities that in Part III are then addressed in the development of their explicit relationship in a Graeco-Roman world marked by violent persecution of Jewish and Christian hopes and loyalties. The story is then explored beyond the Constantinian turn and its abortive reversal under Julian, to the Christian Empire up to the rise of Islam.

Reviews

I hope this very readable and inspiring book will find its place as a standard work in every library and on the desk of all who are interested in the problems and history of Jewish Christian relations.' ~ Martin Hengel, Emeritus Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism, University of Tbingen, Germany -- Martin Hengel
'In twenty-one succinct chapters a crew of internationally renowned scholars attempt an up-to-date survey of the history of Messianism from the Persian period too Christian and Jewish Late Antiquity. The volume's journey starts and ends in Jerusalem; on the way it traverses many different political, cultural and religious contexts in which Messianic ideas and concepts were articulated. In this way the extraordinary complexity and diversity if the various "Messianisms" is revealed.' Winrich Lhr, University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Author Bio

Markus Bockmuehl teaches biblical and early Christian studies in the University of Oxford, UK, where he is Dean Irelands Professor and a Fellow of Keble College. His approach stresses the symbioses of history with theology, of Christianity alongside Judaism, and of exegesis in and as reception especially of the first three Christian centuries. Among his authored books are Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study (2006), Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory (2012), and Ancient Apocryphal Gospels (2017). Recent publications also include Creation ex Nihilo (2018, ed. with Gary A. Anderson), Austin Farrer (2020, ed. with Stephen Platten), and the English translation of Wolfram Kinzigs Christian Persecution in Antiquity (2021). James Carleton Paget is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK.