DESCRIPTION
A historical survey of atonement theology through ancient Jewish and Christian sources
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 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 H. 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.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Max Botner, Justin Duff, and Simon Dürr
Part One: Critical Issues and the Development of Atonement Legislation in the Hebrew Bible
1. Atonement
Christian A. Eberhart
2. Sin, Sacrifice, but No Salvation
Deborah W. Rooke
3. Atonement beyond Israel
David P. Wright
Part Two: Anthropology, Cosmology, and Mediators in Early Jewish and Christian Atonement Theologies
4. When the Problem Is Not What You Have Done but Who You Are
Carol A. Newsom
5. The High Priest in Ben Sira 50
Crispin Fletcher-Louis
6. Get the Story Right and the Models Will Fit
N. T. Wright
7. “Seeing,” Salvation, and the Use of Scripture in the Gospel of John
Catrin H. Williams
8. Sealed for Redemption
T. J. Lang
9. What Goes on in the Heavenly Temple?
Martha Himmelfarb
REVIEWS
“Taking a broad approach to the topic, this fine collection of essays by international experts combines close textual analysis with fascinating overviews of the diverse Jewish and early Christian discourses concerning repair of the ruptured relationship between humanity and God. Readers will find insights aplenty, and some real gems.”
— John M. G. Barclay
Durham University
“For a variety of reasons, understanding the atonement will be a project that will never finish. Every generation of scholars must put its shoulder to the oar. In this volume the reader will encounter the intellectual guidance of some of the foremost experts in the field.”
— Gary A. Anderson
University of Notre Dame
“It is rare to find a source which combines such varying voices and expertises in the way this volume does. Drawing on fresh and original scholarship in both Hebrew Bible and New Testament, Judaism, and early Christianity, Atonement should become required reading for anyone interested in this contested concept which remains central to the religious self-understanding of both Christians and Jews.”
— Loveday Alexander
University of Sheffield
CHOICE
“This volume tackles the complex cluster of conceptions regarding atonement as they unfolded (or remained entangled or in tension with each other) in the literature that came to comprise the Hebrew and Christian scriptural canons and in some related literature. . . . The collection makes a signal contribution in its encapsulation and extension of previous investigations and in its coordination of segments of the ancient evidence that are not always directly juxtaposed and brought into conversation with each other.”
Brian Yong Lee in Review of Biblical Literature
“A rich smorgasbord of scholarship on the relationship between sin, sacrifice, and salvation in Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity that I can recommend to readers of all levels, but particularly graduate students.”
The Journal of Theological Studies
“A valuable resource for exegetes working in this field.”
Religious Studies Review
“Seminary libraries should acquire this book of helpful essays on such a central theological theme.”