Contagious holiness: Jesus' Meals with Sinners (New Studies in Biblical Theology) - Softcover

Blomberg, Craig L

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844740838 ISBN 13: 9781844740833

Publisher: Apollos, 2005

Synopsis

One of humanity's most basic and common practices - eating meals - was transformed by Jesus into an occasion of divine encounter. In sharing food and drink with his companions, he invited them to share in the grace of God. His redemptive mission was revealed in his eating with sinners, repentant and unrepentant alike.
Jesus' 'table fellowship' with sinners in the Gospels has been widely agreed to be historically reliable. However, this consensus has recently been challenged, for example, by the claim that the meals in which Jesus participated took the form of Greco-Roman symposia - or that the 'sinners' involved were the most flagrantly wicked within Israel's society, not merely the ritually impure or those who did not satisfy strict Pharisaic standards of holiness.
In this excellent and thorough study, Craig Blomberg engages with the debate and opens up the significance of the topic. He surveys meals in the Old Testament and the intertestamental period, examines all the Gospel texts relevant to Jesus' eating with sinners, and concludes with some contemporary applications.

About this title

From the Back Cover

One of humanity s most basic and common practices eating meals
was transformed by Jesus into an occasion of divine encounter. In
sharing food and drink with his companions, he invited them to share in the
grace of God. His redemptive mission was revealed in his eating with
sinners, repentant and unrepentant alike.

Jesus table fellowship with sinners in the Gospels has been widely
agreed to be historically reliable. However, this consensus has recently
been challenged, for example, by the claim that the meals in which Jesus
participated took the form of Greco-Roman symposia or that the sinners
involved were the most flagrantly wicked within Israel s society, not
merely the ritually impure or those who did not satisfy strict Pharisaic
standards of holiness.

In this excellent and thorough study, Craig Blomberg engages with the
debate and opens up the significance of the topic. He surveys meals in the
Old Testament and the intertestamental period, examines all the Gospel
texts relevant to Jesus eating with sinners, and concludes with some
contemporary applications.

Dr Blomberg not only addresses current disputes about the "table
fellowship" practices of the historical Jesus, but also traces out the
historical and theologically-laden implications of table fellowship across
the canon of Scripture, and issues a call to contemporary Christians to
reform their habits in this matter (D. A. Carson).

Edition details

• Publisher: Apollos
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844740838
• ISBN 13: 9781844740833
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216