Martin Hengel

The debate over the extent of Jewish influence upon early Christianity rages on. At the heart of this argument lies the question of Jesus: how does the fate of a first-century Galilean Jew inspire and determine the nature, shape, and practices of a distinct religious movement? Vital to this first question is another equally challenging one: can the four Gospels be used to reconstruct the historical Jesus? In this work, Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer seek to untangle the complex relationships among Jesus, Judaism, and the Gospels in the earliest Christian movement. Jesus and Judaism, the first in a four-volume series, focuses on the person of Jesus in the context of Judaism. Beginning with his Galilean origin, the volume analyzes Jesus' relationship with John the Baptist and the Jewish context of Jesus' life and work. The authors argue that there never was a nonmessianic Jesus. Rather, his messianic claim finds expression in his relationship to the Baptist, his preaching in authority, his deeds of power, and his crucifixion as king of the Jews, and in the emergence of the earliest Christology. As Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer reveal, Jesus was not only a devout Jew, nor merely a miracle worker, but the essential part of the earliest form of Christianity.The authors insist that Jesus belongs within the history of early Christianity, rather than as its presupposition. Christianity did not begin after Jesus' death; Christianity began as soon as a Jew from Galilee started to preach the word of God.

Vier StudienDie Frage nach dem messianischen Anspruch Jesu und dem Ursprung der Christologie ist nach wie vor umstritten. In vier Beiträgen betrachten Martin Hengel und Anna Maria Schwemer das Thema unter verschiedenen Aspekten und kommen dennoch zu einer einheitlichen Lösung.

The debate over the extent of Jewish influence upon early Christianity rages on. At the heart of this argument lies the question of Jesus: how does the fate of a first-century Galilean Jew inspire and determine the nature, shape, and practices of a distinct religious movement? Vital to this first question is another equally challenging one: can the four Gospels be used to reconstruct the historical Jesus? In Jesus and Judaism, Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer seek to untangle the complex relationships among Jesus, Judaism, and the Gospels in the earliest Christian movement.Jesus and Judaism, the first in a four-volume series, focuses on the person of Jesus in the context of Judaism. Beginning with his Galilean origin, the volume analyzes Jesus' relationship with John the Baptist and the Jewish context of Jesus' life and work. Hengel and Schwemer argue that there never was a nonmessianic Jesus. Rather, his messianic claim finds expression in his relationship to the Baptist, his preaching in authority, his deeds of power, and his crucifixion as king of the Jews, and in the emergence of the earliest Christology. As Hengel and Schwemer reveal, Jesus was not only a devout Jew, nor merely a miracle worker, but the essential part of the earliest form of Christianity.Hengel and Schwemer insist that Jesus belongs within the history of early Christianity, rather than as its presupposition. Christianity did not begin after Jesus' death; Christianity began as soon as a Jew from Galilee started to preach the word of God.Not for sale in Europe.

Der zweite Band dieser auf vier Bände ausgelegten Geschichte des frühen Christentums umfasst die eigentliche Frühzeit bis zum Apostelkonzil 48/49 n.Chr. und die Geschichte der palästinischen Judenchristen. Er beginnt mit der Neukonstitution der Jüngergemeinde in Jerusalem: ihrer Organisation und ihrem Gottesdienst, der raschen Ausbildung der Lehre (Christologie und Naherwartung) und der Weiterverkündigung der Botschaft Jesu, die das Ethos der Urgemeinde bestimmte.Martin Hengel und Anna Maria Schwemer untersuchen die Entstehung der Gemeinde der Hellenisten in Jerusalem, die Bekehrung des Cornelius und das Wirken des frühen Paulus im Zusammenhang mit dem schrittweisen Übergang zur Heidenmission.Die Gemeindegründung in Antiochien und die von hier ausgehende Mission in Syrien wird eingehend behandelt. Die Verfolgung durch Agrippa I. 42/43 n.Chr. bildet einen entscheidenden Wendepunkt, sie änderte die Lage der Urgemeinde und wirkte sich auf die paulinische Mission aus. Die Reise von Barnabas und Paulus als Antiochener Gemeindeapostel nach Zypern und in die Provinz Galatien ruft den Protest der Jerusalemer Gemeinde gegen die beschneidungsfreie Mission hervor; Kompromisse zur Beschneidungsfrage wurden beim Aposteltreffen in Jerusalem und zur Speisenfrage mit dem Aposteldekret gefunden. Der Schlussteil behandelt den Herrenbruder Jakobus, seinen Brief und sein Martyrium; die Verfolgung der palästinischen Gemeinden, die antipharisäische Polemik der Evangelien, die Birkat ha-Minim und die Ausstoßung der palästinischen Judenchristen aus der Synagoge.

Der fünfte Band der Kleinen Schriften von Martin Hengel enthält 27 Studien, die die Person und das Wirken Jesu und die vier Evangelien betreffen. Entstanden sind sie in einem Zeitraum von 55 Jahren. Sie konzentrieren sich einerseits auf den historischen Jesus, fragen aber auch nach den Tendenzen der Evangelien und den Umständen ihrer Entstehung."[Die Beiträge] greifen aktuelle Problemstellungen auf und weisen einen interpretatorischen Weg, der [...] auch nahezu fünfzig Jahre später höchst aktuell, ja auf der Höhe der zeitgenössischen Theologie ist." www.theologie-systematisch.de/christologie/3/hengel.htm "Einige der hier abgedruckten Beiträge haben die neutestamentliche Forschung der letzten vierzig Jahre mitbestimmt und sind fester Bestandteil der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion geworden. Wegen ihrer soliden historischen, philologischen, aber auch theologischen Orientierung, die das Werk Hengels kennzeichnet, werden die Beiträge [...] auch in Zukunft wertvoll bleiben."Christoph Stenschke in European Journal of Theology 17 (2008), S. 73-75

This volume conveniently collects together three related short studies by Professor Hengel, The Son of God, Crucifixion and The Atonement. Together they form an important introduction to the crucial period of Christian belief between the crucifixion of Jesus and the writings of Paul.

How should Christians live in what is still an affluent society? What should be their attitude to money and to possessions ? How far has the welfare state relieved the church of its obligations? Is anything short of a complete renunciation of possessions a compromise with Christian teaching? While the experience of the early church cannot be applied directly to our modern situation, it is by no means irrelevant to these questions. In a brief and lucid study, Professor Hengel looks at the views of property and riches to be found in the teaching of Jesus, the early church and Christian fathers down to the fourth century. He compares Christian ideals with those to be found in Judaism and ancient philosophy, and sets what was taught alongside what was achieved in practice. A final chapter summarizes the relevance his book might have to Christianity today, and an annotated reading list indicates how further study might be carried on. Martin Hengel, author of the monumental Judaism and Hellenism, was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tuebingen.

This short but highly significant study is the first real sequel to Professor Martin Hengel's classic and monumental work Judaism and Hellenism. It demonstrates from a wealth of evidence, much of it made readily available here for the first time, that in the New Testament period Hellenization was so widespread in Palestine that the usual distinction between 'Hellenistic' Judaism and `Palestinian' Judaism is not a valid one and that the word `Hellenistic' and related terms are so vague as to be meaningless. The consequences of this for New Testament study are, of course, considerable. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tuebingen.

It might well be claimed that there was more development in christology during the period from the crucifixion of Jesus to the writing of St Paul's letter to the Philippians than in the following seven centuries of the development of patristic dogma. This survey traces what happened, in connection with the title 'Son of God'. With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the period, Professor Hengel examines the concept of Son of God in the milieu of the-New Testament, in Judaism and the Hellenistic world and their antecedents and then shows how it began to be used in earliest Christianity, in so doing shedding a new light on many classic problems of New Testament interpretation. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

'This is the fascinating story of a group of reformers who tried to go too fast, bungled their reform, and so changed the course of history. Hengel's thesis is that Hellenistic influences were, and had been for centuries, smoothly penetrating Judaism even in Jerusalem; there was respect on both sides between Jew and Greek. Then the Greek party tried to go too fast, make Hellenization obligatory and outlaw the Law. This occasioned a furious defensive reaction; Judaism clammed up, became xenophobic and rigoristic, producing the attitude which in its turn created the defensive reaction of anti-Semitism which has stained so many centuries. The defensive rigidity set up in Judaism made it unable to respond to Jesus' creative reinterpretation of the Law, and so led to the rejection of Christianity. This is a truly important scholarly work. The exhaustive collection of evidence will make it a fundamental textbook for the period' (The Tablet). `A foundation book and essential as a source book and as a guide to trends in present research' (The Expository Times). Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

'This is the fascinating story of a group of reformers who tried to go too fast, bungled their reform, and so changed the course of history. Hengel's thesis is that Hellenistic influences were, and had been for centuries, smoothly penetrating Judaism even in Jerusalem; there was respect on both sides between Jew and Greek. Then the Greek party tried to go too fast, make Hellenization obligatory and outlaw the Law. This occasioned a furious defensive reaction; Judaism clammed up, became xenophobic and rigoristic, producing the attitude which in its turn created the defensive reaction of anti-Semitism which has stained so many centuries. The defensive rigidity set up in Judaism made it unable to respond to Jesus' creative reinterpretation of the Law, and so led to the rejection of Christianity. This is a truly important scholarly work. The exhaustive collection of evidence will make it a fundamental textbook for the period' (The Tablet). `A foundation book and essential as a source book and as a guide to trends in present research' (The Expository Times). Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

Here Professor Hengel argues with a wealth of documentation that the traditional views of the origin and content of the Gospel of Mark have far more to be said for them than has been usually allowed by modern New Testament scholars. He argues that the tradition contained in the Gospel is that handed down by Peter through Mark, and that the Gospel was written in Rome in AD 69. The famous note by Papias quoted in Eusebius' Church History is not to be dismissed, but has every appearance of being reliable. Further evidence in support of this view can be found in a detailed consideration of the titles of the Gospels, which must have been attached to the Gospels at a very early stage, if only to identify them. An appendix, by the distinguished classical philologist Wolfgang Schadewaldt, on 'The Reliability of the Synoptic Tradition', is used to add further weight to the case. With his customary learning, Professor Hengel has produced a powerful argument which those who have held more radical views than his own will have to consider very carefully indeed if they are to continue to carry conviction. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

This learned study may claim to be the most comprehensive and detailed survey ever to have been published of the evidence of the use of crucifixion in the Graeco-Roman world and the way in which it was regarded by the people of the time. Beginning from the use of crucifixion as a form of execution practised among barbarian peoples, Dr Hengel shows how it was employed in the Roman empire, in the Greek-speaking world and among the Jews. He also investigates how far 'crucifixion' was a term used metaphorically or in philosophical discussion. His conclusions bring out more starkly than ever the scandal presented by the Christian message of the crucified Son of God and show that Jesus was seen to have died, not just a cruel death, but one of the worst forms of death devised by man for man. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

This volume brings together two important historical studies by Professor Hengel, Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity, and Property and Riches in the Early Church. Together they give a vivid and clearly written picture of life and values in the first days of Christianity. 'Remarkably easy reading and well within the reach of those who are shy of works of scholarship' (Expository Times). Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen.

The time between the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Maccabaean wars is one of the obscurest periods of Jewish history. Yet it is vitally important for our understanding of Judaism in the period up to and including the New Testament era because it was then that the foundations of first-century Judaism were being laid. In his now classic — and encyclopaedic — study Judaism and Hellenism, Martin Hengel demonstrated how Greek influence on Judaism at this stage was far greater than has usually been supposed, and painted a fascinating picture of a hitherto unexplored culture. Here, in a much slimmer book, he summarizes the results of that larger volume and in some aspects takes it further. First he outlines the history of Palestine from Alexander's expedition to the death of Antiochus III in 187 BC. He then shows the political, social and cultural features of the Hellenistic world, asking in particular how it was possible for a non-Greek to become accepted in it. Finally, he explores the development of Judaism in the various countries of the Diaspora and in Palestine itself.

In recent years it has been increasingly suggested in some quarters that the doctrine of the atoning death of Christ did not come into being in the earliest stages of Christianity; the first interpretation of Jesus is said to have been the image of him as the eschatological prophet, or the innocent man suffering wrongly. Against such views which might seem to devalue the doctrine of the atonement, Professor Hengel argues forcefully and with great scholarship that the doctrine of the atonement can be traced back to the earliest church, indeed to the sayings of Jesus himself. The second part of the book is devoted to this quest, moving back from the letters of Paul, through the pre-Pauline tradition, to Jesus. It is fascinating in itself. However, what gives the book even greater appeal is its first part, in which Professor Hengel examines a wider area of classical antiquity. Would it have made sense to Greeks and Romans of the first-century to say that Jesus had died for them? Were there points of contact in their traditions? Surveying Greek and Latin literature, Professor Hengel shows just how widespread a theme 'dying for' actually was, from Homer, through the Greek tragedians and orators, to Plutarch, Livy and Caesar. Once again, he sheds new light on areas which might be thought to have been long since worked to death.

Die vorliegende Neuauflage von Martin Hengels epochemachender Untersuchung über die Zeloten und die jüdische Freiheitsbewegung im ersten nachchristlichen Jahrhundert ist auch 50 Jahre nach ihrem Erscheinen für die Forschung noch immer unentbehrlich. In ihr wurde zum ersten Mal im Detail das Profil der vierten jüdischen Partei neben den Pharisäern, Sadduzäern und Essenern historisch und theologisch beschrieben. Hengel argumentierte, dass die treibende Kraft hinter dem jüdischen Aufstand gegen Rom nicht in erster Linie soziale Unruhen waren, sondern theologische Motive aus den jüdischen heiligen Schriften, die von den Zeloten in ein konkretes theo-politisches Programm mit messianischen Ansprüchen weiterentwickelt wurden. Wer immer sich mit der jüdischen Geschichte des Heiligen Landes im 1. Jahrhundert unserer Zeitrechnung beschäftigt, kommt an diesem Werk nicht vorbei. Neben seiner Bedeutung für die jüdische Geschichte stellt dieses Buch zugleich den Auftakt für Hengels lebenslange Beschäftigung mit den jüdischen Messiaserwartungen und seinen Studien zum historischen Jesus und der Entstehung der Christologie dar.Die deutsche Neuauflage von 1976 ist seit längerem vergriffen. Noch zu Lebzeiten Martin Hengels und in Absprache mit dem Autor hat sich der Verlag daher entschieden, eine behutsam bearbeitete Neuauflage herauszubringen. Roland Deines skizziert in einem Nachwort die Wirkungsgeschichte des Buches, die durch es ausgelösten Kontroversen sowie den aktuellen Stand der Erforschung des jüdischen Aufstandes gegen Rom.Mit der Aufnahme dieses Titels ist nun das gesamte Werk von Martin Hengel bei Mohr Siebeck erhältlich.

Warum besitzt die Kirche vier verschiedene schriftliche Evangelien, obwohl es nach Paulus von Anfang an nur ein mündlich verkündigtes Evangelium gab? Martin Hengel versucht diese Frage zu beantworten, indem er von der Herausbildung der Vierevangeliensammlung im 2. Jh. ausgeht und nach deren Entstehung zurückfragt. Die entscheidende Rolle spielt dabei die Lesung im Gottesdienst neben alttestamentlichen Texten. Weiter fragt er nach den Autoren der Evangelien und ihrer Abfassungszeit. Der Ausgangpunkt ist Markus als der Urevangelist. Die Berufung auf die eine Q-Quelle erweist sich als fraglich, man sollte eher von einer vielfältigen Logientradition sprechen. Sehr wahrscheinlich hat der spätere Matthäus das frühere Lukasevangelium gekannt und verwendet. Die zahlreichen minor agreements zwischen Lukas und Matthäus gegen Markus legen diese Hypothese nahe."H. hat das bereits bekannte und einschlägige Material in seinem gelehrten Werk eingearbeitet und eine kluge Rekonstruktion geboten. Das Wunder der Vierersammlung bleibt vielleicht immer ungeklärt, hier allerdings liegen in dichter Zusammenstellung die relevanten Quellen vor, die dieses Wunder bezeugen."Theo K. Heckel in Theologische Literaturzeitung 134 (2009), 804f.

Band VI der 'Kleinen Schriften' von Martin Hengel enthält siebzehn zum großen Teil umfangreichere Beiträge aus einem Zeitraum von 36 Jahren. Sie sind alle durchgesehen und zum Teil auch ergänzt. Ihr Schwerpunkt liegt bei Aspekten der lukanischen Geschichtsschreibung als Grundlage unseres Wissens vom Urchristentum. Der Autor behandelt darüber hinaus jedoch auch Probleme der urchristlichen Mission, die Ursprünge der christlichen Gnosis, die Kreuzigung in der Antike sowie die Stellung des frühen Christentums zu Eigentum und Reichtum und zur Arbeit. Weitere Themen sind Grundprobleme einer Geschichte des Christentums im 1. und 2. Jahrhundert, die weibliche Metaphorik im Kirchenverständnis nach 2Joh 1, das urchristliche Verständnis der Augenzeugenschaft, die Königsherrschaft Gottes sowie Qumran und das Urchristentum. Sie zeigen einen Ausschnitt aus der vielseitigen wissenschaftlichen Arbeit des Autors in dem genannten Zeitraum.