Description
John’s Jesus claims to have been present to Abraham (John 8.56, 58), and Paul asserts that Jesus accompanied Israel through the wilderness (1 Cor 10.4). Since the earliest years of their movement, Jesus’ followers consistently turned to the Jewish Scriptures to find them confirming that the Messiah’s death and resurrection happened ‘according to the Scriptures’ (1 Cor 15.3-4). But what might it possibly mean to locate the gospel of Jesus in the Scriptures of Israel? This paper offers students the opportunity to turn a familiar question on its head, by exploring the widespread early Christian conviction that the New Testament gospel speaks in the ‘Old Testament’. Students will study New Testament and other early Christian writers who claim to find ‘the gospel’ in Jewish Scripture – among them the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle Paul, Ignatius of Antioch, the Epistle of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Hippolytus of Rome. In tracing nascent readings of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture, students will have an opportunity to consider these reading strategies in relation to issues such as the earliest Christian-Jewish dialogues, emerging Christian strategies for apologetics and identity formation, and debates within Christ-following communities about the importance of Law observance for Jesus’ followers.
Aims
To enable students to acquire knowledge of early Christian readings of the Bible, and to analyse and evaluate how these Jewish texts and traditions functioned as normative Scripture for early Christian readers.
Objectives
Students who successfully complete this paper will have demonstrated:
-
knowledge of the contents and contexts of select early Christian writings from the first, second, and third centuries;
-
the capacity to produce a close reading of an early Christian text’s engagement with Jewish Scripture; and
-
critical reflection on the reception of Jewish Scriptures in early Christian literature.
Assessment
All candidates will be assessed by both:
-
An essay, which should not exceed 2,500 words, inclusive of notes and appendices but excluding bibliography, submitted no later than noon on Monday of Week 9 of Hilary Term in the final year of the Honour School. Students will decide the subject of the essay individually, in consultation with their subject tutor.
-
A two-hour written examination in Trinity Term of the final year of the Honour School.
Topics and Suggested Schedule
Week 1: Introduction and Key Terms
Week 2: The Pauline Letters
Week 3: The Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Thomas
Week 4: Luke-Acts
Week 5: The Gospel of John
Week 6: Hebrews and 1 Clement
Week 7: Ignatius of Antioch and the Epistle of Barnabas
Week 8: Marcion and Justin Martyr
