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Description of  Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins

080287990X epub In this pioneering study of Scripture and reception history, Tucker S. Ferda shows that the hope for Jesuss second coming originated in his own message about the coming of the kingdom after a time of distress. Most historical Jesus scholars take for granted that Jesuss second coming was invented by his zealous early followers. In Jesus and His Promised Second Coming, Tucker S. Ferda challenges this critical consensus. Using innovative methodology, Ferda works backward through reception history to Paul and the Gospels to argue that the hope for the second coming originated in Jesuss own grappling with the prospect of death and his conviction that the kingdom was near he expected a return that would coincide with the final judgment and the end of the age within the space of a generation. Ferda also makes a major contribution to the reception history of the Bible, shedding light on how Christians distinguished their faith from Judaism by deriding Jewish messianism as earthly minded and militaristic. In the early modern period, critics found an expedient way to distance Jesus from this caricature of Jewish messianism: they pinned the expectation for the second coming on Jesuss early followers. A new appreciation for the diversity of Judaism and messianism in the Second Temple period makes possible a fresh reconstruction of Jesus. Bold and historically astute, Read more