Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins
Overview
What is the historical basis for today’s atonement theology? Where did it come from, and how has it evolved throughout time? In Atonement, a sterling collection of renowned biblical scholars investigates the early manifestations of this core concept in numerous ancient Jewish and Christian sources. Rather than imposing a particular view of atonement upon these texts, these specialists let the texts speak for themselves, so that the reader can truly understand atonement as it was variously conceived in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, and early Christian literature. The resulting diverse ideas mirror the manifold perspectives on atonement today.
Contributors to this volume—Christian A. Eberhart, Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Martha Himmelfarb, T. J. Lang, Carol A. Newsom, Deborah W. Rooke, Catrin Williams, David P. Wright, and N. T. Wright—attend to the linguistic elements at work in these ancient writings without limiting their scope to explicit mentions of atonement. Instead, they explore atonement as a broader phenomenon that negotiates a constellation of features—sin, sacrifice, and salvation—to capture a more accurate and holistic picture. Atonement will serve as an indispensable resource for all future dialogue on these topics within Jewish and Christian circles.
- Provides a diverse representation of perspectives on atonement
- Examines the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, and early Christian literature
- Investigates the early manifestations of atonement in numerous ancient Jewish and Christian sources
Section 1: Critical Issues and the Development of Atonement Legislation in the Hebrew Bible
- Atonement: Amid Alexandria, Alamo, and Avatar - Christian A. Eberhart
- Sin, Sacrifice, but No Salvation: When the Circle Cannot Be Completed - Deborah W. Rooke
- Atonement beyond Israel: The Holiness School’s Amendment to Priestly Legislation on the Sin Sacrifice (ḥaṭṭā’t) - David P. Wright
Section 2: Anthropology, Cosmology, and Mediators in Early Jewish and Christian Atonement Theologies
- When the Problem Is Not What You Have Done but Who You Are: The Changing Focus of Atonement in Second Temple Prayer and Poetry - Carol A. Newsom
- Ben Sira 50: The High Priest Is an Incorporative Divine Messiah and At-One-Ment Takes Place through Worship in the Microcosm - Crispin Fletcher-Louis
- Get the Story Right and the Models Will Fit: Victory through Substitution in “Atonement Theology” - N. T. Wright
- “Seeing,” Salvation, and the Use of Scripture in the Gospel of John - Catrin Williams
- Sealed for Redemption: The Economics of Atonement in Ephesians - T. J. Lang
- What Goes on in the Heavenly Temple?: Celestial Praise and Sacrifice in Ancient Judaism and Christianity - Martha Himmelfarb
Top Highlights
“sin is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual false worship” (Page 118)
“Jesus chose Passover to do what had to be done. He did not choose the Day of Atonement.” (Page 122)
“were looking for the renewal, not the abandonment, of heaven and earth” (Page 114)
“not another regular sacrifice, but a fresh, rescuing, divine action.” (Page 122)
“a story of how the creation-project was reaching its goal” (Page 116)
- Title: Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins
- Authors: Max Botner, Justin Harrison Duff, Simon Dürr
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 241
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Atonement › History of doctrines--Congresses; Atonement › Biblical teaching--Congresses; Atonement (Judaism) › Congresses; Sin › Christianity--Congresses; Sin › Judaism--Congresses; Sacrifice › Christianity--Congresses; Sacrifice › Judaism--Congresses; Salvation › Christianity--Congresses; Salvation › Judaism--Congresses
- ISBNs: 9780802876683, 0802876684
- Resource ID: LLS:ATNMNTJWSHCHRGNS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T21:56:26Z
Max Botner is assistant professor of New Testament at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Justin Harrison Duff is a postdoctoral research fellow at St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Simon Dürr is a research associate in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland