John The Baptizer

Download or read book John the Baptizer and Prophet written by Robert L. Webb and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2006-10-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, a revised version of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Sheffield in 1990, places John the Baptist within his first-century Jewish context by exploring his public roles and activities as a baptizer and a prophet as they would have been understood within the sociohistorical context of Second Temple Judaism. After surveying the relevant traditions concerning John the Baptist (in particular, Josephus, canonical Gospels, and extracanonical sources), the volume turns to the use of ablutions and immersions in the Hebrew Bible, in Second Temple Jewish literature, and especially in the Qumran literature. In light of this context, several functions of John's baptism are proposed both in continuity with his context and in distinction from it. Then, Webb explores John's role as a prophet in two respects. First, after surveying the expectation of eschatological figures of judgment and restoration in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Jewish literature, John's own proclamation of a coming one is understood as describing Yahweh's coming to judge and restore, but through an unspecified human agent. Second, in light of the varieties of prophetic figures in the Second Temple period, John is best understood as a popular prophet who uses the symbolic event of the people's baptism in the Jordan River and their return home to symbolize not only their entrance into the true remnant Israel but also their entrance into the Promised Land. When this symbolic activity is placed alongside John's prophetic critique of Herod Antipas and of Herod's marriage, the social and political implications of this critique become evident. The symbolic activity and strong critique led to the Baptist's death under Herod Antipas.

Download or read book John the Baptist written by Alexander J. Burke and published by Franciscan Media. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in nearly 50 years, a casual yet informative method to learn about John the Baptist… "Why did each of the four evangelists make John the gateway to the Gospel, the first preacher of Good News? What were the reasons for the early Church's intense interest in a desert hermit whose public ministry lasted two years or less? Why in early Christian tradition was John the Baptist accorded an exalted religious stature, almost equal to that of Mary? The irony is that most modern scholarship on John has missed the true sources of his religious significance…in his links to Christ and to the very earliest beginnings of the Christian religion."—from the Introduction Alexander Burke pieces together the mystery of this well-known disciple of Jesus one chapter at a time, covering John's preaching, arrest and execution, his role in Eastern and Western Christian Tradition, and the many paradoxes surrounding him. An excellent resource for group or individual study, John the Baptist offers questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. Discover a fresh perspective of John the Baptist. Let him rise to the top of the beadroll of Christian heroes where Jesus believed he belonged. Step back and see the beautiful mosaic of mysteries that made up this fascinating saint's life.

Download or read book The Mandaean Book of John written by Charles G. Häberl and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-11-18 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the degree of popular fascination with Gnostic religions, it is surprising how few pay attention to the one such religion that has survived from antiquity until the present day: Mandaism. Mandaeans, who esteem John the Baptist as the most famous adherent to their religion, have in our time found themselves driven from their historic homelands by war and oppression. Today, they are a community in crisis, but they provide us with unparalleled access to a library of ancient Gnostic scriptures, as part of the living tradition that has sustained them across the centuries. Gnostic texts such as these have caught popular interest in recent times, as traditional assumptions about the original forms and cultural contexts of related religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have been called into question. However, we can learn only so much from texts in isolation from their own contexts. Mandaean literature uniquely allows us not only to increase our knowledge about Gnosticism, and by extension all these other religions, but also to observe the relationship between Gnostic texts, rituals, beliefs, and living practices, both historically and in the present day.

Download or read book The Gospel According to Matthew written by and published by Canongate U.S.. This book was released on 1999 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.

Download or read book John the Baptist in History and Theology written by Joel Marcus and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2018-11-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis that challenges the conventional Christian hierarchy of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth While the Christian tradition has subordinated John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth, John himself would likely have disagreed with that ranking. In this eye-opening new book, John the Baptist in History and Theology, Joel Marcus makes a powerful case that John saw himself, not Jesus, as the proclaimer and initiator of the kingdom of God and his own ministry as the center of God's saving action in history. Although the Fourth Gospel has the Baptist saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease," Marcus contends that this and other biblical and extrabiblical evidence reveal a continuing competition between the two men that early Christians sought to muffle. Like Jesus, John was an apocalyptic prophet who looked forward to the imminent end of the world and the establishment of God's rule on earth. Originally a member of the Dead Sea Sect, an apocalyptic community within Judaism, John broke with the group over his growing conviction that he himself was Elijah, the end-time prophet who would inaugurate God's kingdom on earth. Through his ministry of baptism, he ushered all who came to him—Jews and non-Jews alike—into this dawning new age. Jesus began his career as a follower of the Baptist, but, like other successor figures in religious history, he parted ways from his predecessor as he became convinced of his own centrality in God's purposes. Meanwhile John's mass following and apocalyptic message became political threats to Herod Antipas, who had John executed to abort any revolutionary movement. Based on close critical-historical readings of early texts—including the accounts of John in the Gospels and in Josephus's Antiquities—as well as parallels from later religious movements, John the Baptist in History and Theology situates the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism and compares him to other apocalyptic thinkers from ancient and modern times. It concludes with thoughtful reflections on how its revisionist interpretations might be incorporated into the Christian faith.

Download or read book John the Baptist written by Carl R. Kazmierski and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John the Baptist is one of the most fascinating and misunderstood characters in the Bible. A prophet of two worlds, he calls out to the Israel of his own generation and to Christian believers of today to heed the most radical demands of conversion and newness of life. Kazmierski reflects on the rich and colorful portrait of John found in the New Testament, and invites readers to respond to John's message and to hear the "voice crying in the wilderness".

Download or read book Antiquities of the Jews written by Flavius Josephus and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 1937 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: