Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome
A Study in the Conflict of Ideology
by James R. Harrison
James R. Harrison investigates the collision between Paul’s eschatological gospel and the Julio-Claudian conception of rule. The ruler’s propaganda, with its claim about the ‘eternal rule’ of the imperial house over its subjects, embodied in idolatry of power that conflicted with Paul’s proclamation of the reign of the risen Son of God over his world. This ideological conflict is examined in 1 and 2 Thessalonians and in Romans, exploring how Paul’s eschatology intersected with the imperial cult in the Greek East and in the Latin West. A wide selection of evidence – literary, documentary, numismatic, iconographic, archeological – unveils the ‘symbolic universe’ of the Julio-Claudian rulers. This construction of social and cosmic reality stood at odds with the eschatological denouement of world history, which, in Paul’s view, culminated in the arrival of God’s new creation upon Christ’s return as Lord of all. Paul exalted the Body of Christ over Nero’s ‘body of state’, transferring to the risen and ascended Jesus many of the ruler’s titles and to the Body of Christ many of the ruler’s functions. Thus, for Paul, Christ’s reign challenged the values of Roman society and transformed its hierarchical social relations through the Spirit.
- By (author) James R Harrison
Other Titles in this Series
Die Gerechtigkeit der Tora im Reich des Messias
Mt 5,13-20 als Schlüsseltext der matthäischen Theologie
Die Nichtigkeit des Menschen und die Ubermacht Gottes
Studien zur Gottes- und Selbsterkenntnis bei Paulus, Philo und in der Stoa
Volume 377
Der Hochste
Studien zur hellenistischen Religionsgeschichte und zum biblischen Gottesglauben
Volume 330
Authoritative Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Their Origin, Collection, and Meaning
Übergemeindliche Verbindungen in den Briefen der paulinischen Mission
Vorkommen, Bedeutung, Funktion und Plausibilität
Studien zum Neuen Testament
Band II: Bekenntnisbildung und Theologie in urchristlicher Zeit
Volume 192
Judasevangelium und Codex Tchacos
Studien zur religionsgeschichtlichen Verortung einer gnostischen Schriftsammlung
Volume 297
Anthropologie und Ethik im Frühjudentum und im Neuen Testament
Wechselseitige Wahrnehmungen. Internationales Symposium in Verbindung mit dem Projekt Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT) 17.-20. Mai 2012, Heidelberg
Paul and the Emergence of Christian Textuality
Early Christian Literary Culture in Context. Collected Essays, Volume 1
Volume 393
Exegesis and History of Reception
Reading the New Testament Today with the Readers of the Past
Volume 455
Religiöse Erfahrung in Korinth
Paulus und die frühchristliche Bewegung im Kontext ihrer griechisch-römischen Erfahrungswelt
Expressions of the Johannine Kerygma in John 2:23-5:18
Historical, Literary, and Theological Readings from the Colloquium Ioanneum 2017 in Jerusalem
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