Judging Q and saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studies

Author
Llewellyn Howes

Synopsis

Judging Q and saving Jesus is characterised by careful textual analysis, showing a piercing critical eye in its impressive engagement with the secondary literature and sharp, insightful critique. This book takes the stance that the hypothetical document Q can be reconstructed with sufficient precision and enables biblical scholars to study its genre and thematic and ideological profile confidently. The genre issue is central to the book’s overall structure, and the alternative proposals are discussed at length and with sophistication.

The author’s inference is that Q’s macrogenre is sapiential with occasional insertions of apocalyptic microstructures and motifs. This finding embodies progress in Historical Jesus studies. An opposing trend has been to label Jesus an apocalypticist so that the great ‘either-or’ of contemporary Jesus scholarship has been ‘either eschatological or not’, an alternative that dates back to Albert Schweitzer. The author finds that generally, and even when used apocalyptically, the term Son of Man tends to support arguments best understood as sapiential in outlook. This is consistent with the sapiential genre of the document as a whole. This finding is supported by the close and careful exegesis of Q 6:37−38 (on not judging). He reconstructs the original wording of this saying ‘on not judging’ and explores the idea of ‘weighing’ in judgment (psychostasia), ultimately determining that the saying is entirely sapiential.

Chapters

  • Introduction
    Llewellyn Howes
  • Chapter 1
    A focused overview of the quest for Jesus
    Llewellyn Howes
  • Chapter 2
    Q as document
    Llewellyn Howes
  • Chapter 3
    Eschatological judgment and the Son of Man
    Llewellyn Howes
  • Chapter 4
    ‘Do not judge!’ (μὴ κρίνετε) in Q 6:37–38
    Llewellyn Howes
  • Chapter 5
    The Sayings Gospel Q and the historical Jesus
    Llewellyn Howes

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Cover for Judging Q and saving Jesus: Q’s contribution to the wisdom-apocalypticism debate in historical Jesus studies

Details about the available publication format: KINDLE EDITION

KINDLE EDITION
ISBN-13 (15)
978-0-620-68737-9
Publication date (01)
2015

Details about the available publication format: PURCHASE COPY

PURCHASE COPY
ISBN-13 (15)
978-0-620-68737-9
Publication date (01)
2015
Physical Dimensions
245mm x 271mm

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF
ISBN-13 (15)
978-0-620-68737-9
Publication date (01)
2015