Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity

Description

This collection of essays originates from the 2014 Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity conference hosted by the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St Mary's University, Twickenham. Featuring an international collection of senior and junior scholars, it represents the cutting edge of scholarship on portrayals of evil in the Second Temple period and the earliest centuries of Christianity. The individual essays consider the significance of "evil" as it relates to a diverse set of topics, including Qumran and its texts, images of disability in 2 Maccabees, dissociations of Jesus from evil in early Christian manuscripts, the "apocalyptic Paul," Jesus' exorcisms, Gospel cosmologies, the epistle of James, 4 Ezra, the Ascension of Isaiah, Marcion, John Chrysostom, and the Acts of the Martyrs. Acknowledgments Table of Contents An Ur-History of the New Testament Devil: The Celestial שׂטן (śāṭān) in Zechariah and Job • Christopher A. Rollston Evil at Qumran • Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer Demonizing Sin? The Evil Inclination in 4QInstruction • Benjamin Wold Evil and the Body of Antiochus IV Epiphanes: Disability, Disgust and Tropes of Monstrosity in 2 Maccabees 9:1–12 • Louise J. Lawrence Variants of Evil: The Disassociation of Jesus from Evil in the Text of the New Testament • Tommy Wasserman Jesus, Healings and Mark 2:1–12: Forgiveness, a Release, or Bound Again to the Great Satan? • James G. Crossley Overcoming Satan, Overcoming the World: Exploring the Cosmologies of Mark and John • Christopher W. Skinner Darkness as Non-Being and the Origin of Evil in John's Gospel • Jonathan A. Draper How Much Evil Does the Christ Event Solve? Jesus and Paul in Relation to Jewish “Apocalyptic” Thought • Loren T. Stuckenbruck Evil's Aetiology and False Dichotomies in Jewish Apocalyptic and Paul • James P. Davies Paul, Evil, and Justification Debates • Chris Tilling Evil in Ephesus: Acts 19:8–40 • Steve Walton Artemis, Demons, Mammon and Satan: The Construal of Evil in First Timothy • Lloyd K. Pietersen The Evil of the Tongue: Evil and the Ethics of Speech in the Letter of James • Susanne Luther A Theology of Evil in the Epistle of James: Cosmic Trials and the Dramatis Personae of Evil • Nicholas J. Ellis Apocalyptic Experience in the Theodicy of 4 Ezra • Robbie Griggs The Portrayal of Evil in the Ascension of Isaiah • Jonathan Knight “The Scriptures are Divine Charms”: Evil, Books, and Textuality in Early Christianity • Chris Keith Evil in Marcion's Conception of the Old Testament God • Dieter T. Roth Overcoming the Devil in the Acts of the Martyrs • Paul Middleton Contributors Index of References Index of Modern Authors