Kirjahaku

Shows how important the beginnings of the four Gospels are. If rightly read they help the reader to make sense of what follows, but because they come from such a different culture it is easy to miss some of the indications they give.

St Mark's Gospel is among the earliest records about Jesus of Nazareth. This commentary focuses primarily on the problem of understanding what Mark himself intended to convey to his readers when he set out to write the good news of Jesus Christ'. There is an examination of information in the gospel about the historical Jesus, about the early Christian community and about Mark's theological concerns. There is, also, consideration of the sources for the Gospel, of the tradition behind it and of interventions by editors. Professor Hooker's new commentary takes account of the many lasted twentieth-century Markan studies and comes with her own translation of the Gospel. References to Greek sources are included but do not require a knowledge of Greek.

""In the course of time the antagonism between Jew and Christian became so bitter that Christians began to behave like cuckoos, or like tycoons who had taken over the company. So concerned were they with their own position in God's scheme of salvation that they ceased to ask fundamental questions about God's purpose for 'Israel according to the flesh.' They forgot that poignant verse in Romans in which Paul declares: 'I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen by race.' For by the time that the church had become a predominantly Gentile community, it had been cut off, not from Christ, but from Paul's kinsmen. I have been attempting in these lectures to understand the situation of those who wrestled with the problem of relating old and new in the first years of the Christian era: if we wish to understand the origins of our faith, then clearly it is essential to explore the context in which it was first formulated. It may well be that the way in which these men and women related old and new may be of help to Christians today who experience the tension between past tradition and present experience. It may be that a better understanding of what was going on as the Christian community sought to establish its own identity could affect our attitudes to questions concerning Jewish-Christian relationships today.""

Convinced that Christ's crucifixion cannot be interpreted in isolation from his resurrection, Morna Hooker here gives a comprehensive and inspiring survey of the New Testament's teaching about the death of Christ. By looking closely at the great variety of images and metaphors employed in the writings of Paul and in Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation, Hooker discusses the different ways in which the authors of the New Testament searched for, and then discovered, meaning in the death and resurrection of Christ. Hooker shows that the concept of substitutionary atonement does not take us far enough in understanding the profound truth, taught especially by Paul, that Christ became what we are in order that we might become what he is. He took his place as one of us and died our death in order that we might be identified with him both in his death and in his resurrection. She also demonstrates in meaningful new ways that the message of the cross - the message that lies at the heart of the gospel - is as relevant, and as disturbing, to the present generation as it was to its first hearers. Provocative, at times even controversial, this volume will be highly stimulating to readers who are prepared to take a fresh look at the New Testament evidence.

The Apostle Paul has shaped the course of Christian ethics for centuries and is widely regarded as the most influential theologian in the Christian tradition. In this authoritative introduction, Morna D. Hooker offers a female perspective on a figure usually portrayed as a conservative misogynist. Looking behind the epistles to reconstruct the real man and his beliefs, she places the scriptures in their original context and suggests a consistent and coherent Pauline theology. Original and thought-provoking, this concise study is essential reading for all who seek to learn more about the most controversial figure in Christianity.

This volume's essays by Morna D. Hooker were written over a period of more than fifty years (1970-2021) and include two previously unpublished essays. They all deal with the theme of continuity and discontinuity - primarily between first-century Judaism and early Christianity - and explore the different ways in which New Testament writers interpreted their experience of Jesus, drawing on their own cultures and beliefs. Evangelists and letter-writers alike attempted to show how their new beliefs were 'in accordance with the scriptures', though those beliefs inevitably shaped the ways in which they read the scriptures. Alongside essays on the Gospels and Paul, the collection also features an exploration of how Paul himself was in turn interpreted by Luther, illustrating the way in which continuity and discontinuity are to be seen in every generation.