Christ the Ideal King
Cultural Context, Rhetorical Strategy, and the Power of Divine Monarchy in Ephesians
by Julien Smith
A central rhetorical strategy of Ephesians involves the portrayal of Christ as an ideal king who reunites a fractured cosmos and humanity through his reign. In this comprehensive study, Julien Smith shows how this literary characterization unifies the letter’s major themes: reconciling humanity with God, uniting Jew and gentile, establishing ecclesiastical harmony, and defeating hostile powers arrayed against the church. The author grounds his analysis in a thorough account of the kingly ideal’s powerful contemporary cultural resonance, which was rooted in the widespread yearning within both Greco-Roman and Jewish thought for a golden age inaugurated by a divinely ordained monarch. For Ephesians’ author and audience, only Christ the ideal king has power to form identity and transform behavior.
Julien Smith, Born 1971; 2003 MAT, Fuller Theological Seminary; 2010 PhD, Baylor University; since 2010 Assistant Professor of Humanities and Theology at Christ College, Valparaiso University (USA).
- By (author) Julien Smith
Other Titles in this Series
Studies in New Testament Lexicography
Advancing toward a Full Diachronic Approach with the Greek Language
Volume 303
Das paulinische Eikon-Konzept
Semantische Analysen zur Sapientia Salomonis, zu Philo und den Paulusbriefen
Volume 250
Paul’s Territoriality and Mission Strategy
Searching for the Geographical Awareness Paradigm Behind Romans
Volume 266
Knowledge and Religious Authority in the Pseudo-Clementines
Situating the 'Recognitions' in Fourth Century Syria
Volume 213
Peacemaking through Blood in Colossians
An Analysis of the Imagery in Its Graeco-Roman and Jewish Context
Volume 615
Lukan Joy and the Life of Discipleship
A Narrative Analysis of the Conditions That Lead to Joy According to Luke
Volume 583
Peter’s Halakhic Nightmare
The 'animal' vision of Acts 10:9-16 in Jewish and Graeco-Roman Perspective
Volume 432
Narratologie und biblische Exegese
Eine integrative Methode der Erzählanalyse und ihr Ertrag am Beispiel von Matthäus 28
Volume 285
Repetition in Hebrews
Plurality and Singularity in the Letter to the Hebrews, Its Ancient Context, and the Early Church
Volume 388
Die Areopagrede des Paulus und Reden bei Josephus
Eine vergleichende Studie zu Apg 17 und dem historiographischen Werk des Josephus
Volume 419
Crucifixion in Antiquity
An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion
Volume 310
Christusglaube
Studien zum Syntagma pistis Christou und zum paulinischen Verstandnis von Glaube und Rechtfertigung
Volume 227
Das Romische Imperium im Lukanischen Doppelwerk
Darstellung und Ertragspotenzial fur christliche Leser des spaten ersten Jahrhunderts
Volume 547
Early Christian Teachers
The 'Didaskaloi' from Their Origins to the Middle of the Second Century
Volume 516
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
