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Luke and the Jewish Other takes up the debated question of the orientation of Luke toward the Jewish people. Building on recent studies in the social history of early Jewish-Christian relations, it offers an analysis of Luke's portrayal of Jewish and Christian identities that challenges the common assumption that the construction of religious identity in antiquity necessarily depended upon antagonistic relations with others. Taking account of the deep and often divisive difference that belief in Jesus made in Luke's community, the author argues that Luke hoped to bring about both a rapprochement with and the conversion of contemporary Jews. Through this account of identity and alterity in the Gospel of Luke, the book cuts across boundaries of biblical studies, history, theology, and social theory, proposing a way forward for the study of Luke's relation to Judaism and of the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians in the early Common Era.
List of contents
1 Introduction
2 The Israelite Identity of Jesus in the Lukan Introductions
3 Identity and Conflict: Jesus and the Opponents
4 Identity and Conflict: Jesus and the Disciples
5 Identity and Communion: Jesus, Israel, and the Church
6 Identities in Process: Insiders and Outsiders on the Way
7 Jesus, the Jews, and the Identity Crisis of Jerusalem
8 Conclusion
About the author
David Andrew Smith (PhD Duke University) is Rector at Bread of Life Anglican Church in Ithaca, New York.
Summary
Luke and the Jewish Other takes up the debated question of the orientation of Luke towards the Jewish people.
