Constructing a New Covenant
Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians
by Thomas R. Blanton
Thomas R. Blanton, IV seeks to reconstruct the social contexts in which two discourses that involve the new covenant were written, and to which they responded. He first examines the Damascus Document from among the Dead Sea scrolls, arguing that this discourse was crafted in order to delegitimate Hasmonean claims to the high priesthood and Pharisaic claims to authority in legal interpretation. In response to the claims and practices advocated by these rival groups, the Essene sect crafted a discourse which construed the new covenant as one that supported Essene claims that they were the legitimate bearers of high priestly authority and the divinely authorized interpreters of the Torah. In the second half of the book, the author argues that Paul crafted his discourse on the new covenant in opposition to an ideology that was espoused by a rival group of missionaries, according to which, under the conditions of the new covenant, the spirit of God was thought to empower individuals to follow the Torah with perfect obedience. Paul crafted his own discourse in opposition to this view, positing that law and spirit were antithetical terms. By arguing in this way, he attempted to bolster the credibility of his own law-free message.
- By (author) Thomas R Blanton
Other Titles in this Series
Der Heilige Geist bei Lukas
Theologisches Profil, Grund und Intention der lukanischen Pneumatologie
Volume 389
The Ransom Logion in Mark and Matthew
Its Reception and Its Significance for the Study of the Gospels
Volume 327
2 Corinthians – a Letter about Reconciliation
A Psychagogical, Epistolographical and Rhetorical Analysis
Volume 239
Die Starken und die Schwachen in Korinth und in Rom
Zu Herkunft und Funktion der Antithese in 1Kor 8,1-11,1 und in Rom 14,1-15,13
Volume 200
Colometric Analysis of Paul’s Letters
Methodological Foundations and Application to 2 Corinthians 10-13
Volume 603
La reconfiguration epistemique du lecteur de Marc
Perspectives synchroniques et diachroniques sur le recit du demoniaque de Gerasa (Mc 5.1-20) mis en resonance avec les jeunes hommes de 14.51-52 et 16.1-8
Volume 569
Johannine Belief and Graeco-Roman Devotion
Reshaping Devotion for John's Graeco-Roman Audience
Volume 528
Proclaiming the Judge of the Living and the Dead
The Christological Significance of Judgement in Acts 10 and 17
Volume 494
Figuren als Handlungsmodelle
Simon Petrus, die samaritische Frau, Judas und Thomas als Zugänge zu einer narrativen Ethik des Johannesevangeliums. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band VI
What was Mark for Matthew?
An Examination of Matthew's Relationship and Attitude to his Primary Source
Volume 344
Christ as the Telos of Life
Moral Philosophy, Athletic Imagery, and the Aim of Philippians
Volume 371
Allegory Transformed
The Appropriation of Philonic Hermeneutics in the Letter to the Hebrews
Volume 269
Mitleid und Erbarmen im Lukasevangelium
Ein Beitrag zu Ethik und Emotionsgeschichte des entstehenden Christentums in seinem antiken philosophischen und frühjüdischen Kontext
Jesus as the Way to the Father in the Gospel of John
A Study of the Way Motif and John 14,6 in Its Context
Volume 584
Creation and Christ
An Exploration of the Topic of Creation in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Volume 527
The High Priest and the Temple
Metaphorical Depictions of Jesus in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch
Volume 473
Ein Jesusbild im Horizont des Nationalsozialismus
Studien zum Neuen Testament des 'Instituts zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des judischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben'
Volume 440
Similar Books
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
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
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
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Tabernacle, Table, Ark, and Text
Richard of Saint Victor on the Interpretation of Scripture
Volume 67
The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Books of Kings, a Critical Edition
(BL Royal 1 C III, fols 234r-274v)
Volume 37
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
The Compositional History of the Book of Kings
An Analysis of the Evaluative Frameworks in 1 Kings 14–2 Kings 25
The Discourse of Rites
Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature