Widerhall einer guten Botschaft
Die Evangelien und die griechisch-römische Welt
Paperback (Forthcoming)
(February 2027)
ISBN: 9783162009487
5.75 x 8.9 inches
Price: $59.00
George van Kooten reads the four Gospels as Greek literature of the early Roman Empire – each with a voice of its own: Mark as an inner path between religion and politics, Matthew as the “kingdom of heaven” beyond Rome and Parthia, Luke as the way of peace through the world, John as the Logos on the stage of life.
This accessible volume presents the four Gospels as part of the Greek literature of the early Roman Empire and demonstrates how these Gospels, composed in Greek, could be understood by their Greco-Roman readers as “good news.” Drawing on a close analysis of the internal evidence of the Gospels and of the earliest testimonies concerning them, particularly those of Papias of Hierapolis, George van Kooten challenges prevailing views on the dating of the Gospels and advances the thesis that the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Mark are in fact the two earliest Gospels, still independent of one another and representing, respectively, a Judean and a Galilean perspective on Jesus.
Whereas the Gospel of Mark is situated in the first phase of the Jewish Revolt, the Gospel of John is placed in the cultural milieu of Herodian Judaism and early imperial Judaea prior to that uprising. Matthew offers an expanded version of the Gospel of Mark and situates the story of Jesus within the geopolitical tensions between West and East, Rome and Parthia, tensions that were temporarily alleviated by Augustus’ armistice with the Parthians and their Magi, enabling them to travel through Roman territories. The Gospel of Luke, by contrast, presents itself as a Romanized version of Matthew’s Gospel, owing to its familiarity with Josephus’ Antiquities, published in Rome in 93/94 CE.
Across all these diverse cultural contexts, the Gospel of Jesus, with its separation of religion and politics and its advocacy of inner purification and truth, was communicated to new audiences in a remarkably coherent manner. By dispensing with the Q hypothesis, van Kooten moves beyond source-critical scholarship to highlight the distinctive tendencies of the Gospel authors and their efforts to convey the good news.
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