Marginal Christianity

This parable Jesus tells against the religious leaders who have just questioned his authority (11:27ff.) and will immediately after this try to delegitimize him and his movement again (12:13-18). When they realize this they want to arrest him. Only the goodwill of the people toward him keeps him free (v.12). Jesus sets this up in the form of a well-known parable about Israel. In Isa.5:1-7 we read about God’s planting Israel as a vineyard. God did everything that could be done in preparing and provisioning the vineyard for the successful production of grapes. However, the vines only yielded wild grapes, good for nothing. God decided to judge it for this failure, their failure to produce the justice God expected and prepared them for. The prophets have been sent and re-sent and rejected again and again with increasing ferocity by the leaders. Finally, one final prophet comes, this one, however, is more than a prophet. He is the owner’s “beloved son,” the heir apparent. Surel...

June 11, 2015 by Michael F. Bird 1 Comment At the moment the state of Pauline scholarship could be divided into four basic camps: (1) Traditional Protestant . Paul was preacher of grace that stands in contrasts to the legalism/nomism of second temple Judaism. In some versions, this is accompanied with an implied or even explicit supersessionist view of the church as replacing Israel. (2) The New Perspective on Paul . The problem with Judaism was not legalism, but ethnocentrism. Paul was arguing that Jews need to accept that God has acted in Christ to bring Jews and Gentiles into the new saving event ahead of an eschatological consummation. (3) The Apocalyptic/Barthian Paul . Paul proclaimed God’s invasive and cosmic act of salvation to rectify and renew the whole creation rendering the old order with its religion as obsolete. (4) The Radical Perspective on Paul . Paul was Jewish and Torah-observant. He tried to bring Gentile communities into closer fellow...