A Parting within the Way: Jesus and James on Israel and Purity

Scholarship on the book of Acts frequently proceeds under the 'no final con flict' slogan when it comes to employing a diversity of methods. In this essay, however, some of the fundamental assumptions and approaches to Acts in recent scholarship are examined and challenged, raising questions related to the proliferation of method in New Testament and early Christian studies, the underlying methodological assumptions of particular interpre tive approaches, and the sublimation of theology and ideology in scholar ship. The past 15 years of Acts scholarship provides the context for this broad survey and interaction. The essential contours of the discussion are focused around matters related to genre, the nature of Acts as 'text', the book's connections to its broader socio-cultural and historical worlds, and, finally, to matters related to post-critical interactions with Acts. No easy solutions are offered in this essay; rather, the broad discussion of method in current Acts scholarship pushes for a return to greater methodological awareness and reflection in the discipline.

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James the Just in History and Tradition: Perspectives of Past and Present Scholarship (Part I)

Myllykoski¹

2006

Currents in Biblical Research

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James the Just, the brother of Jesus, is known from the New Testament as the chief apostle of the Torah-obedient Christians. Up to the last quarter of the twentieth century, Jewish Christianity was regarded as an unimportant branch of the early Christian movement. Correspondingly, there was remarkably little interest in James. However, in the past two decades, while early Christianity has been studied as a form of Judaism, the literature on James has grown considerably. Now some scholars tend to assume that James was a loyal follower of his brother right from the beginning, and that his leadership in the church was stronger than traditionally has been assumed. Fresh studies on Acts 15 and Galatians 2 have opened new questions about the Christian Judaism of James and social formation of the community which he led. Part II of this article, to be published in a later issue of Currents, will treat the rest of the James tradition—James's ritual purity, martyrdom and succession, and his role in the Gnostic writings and later Christian evidence. It will conclude with reflections concerning James and earliest Jewish-Christian theology.

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A Parting within the Way: Jesus and James on Israel and Purity

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Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel

Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel

Madness in the Method? the Acts of the Apostles in Current Study

James the Just in History and Tradition: Perspectives of Past and Present Scholarship (Part I)

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