John Ferguson - Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study

Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...64

Routledge Revivals

Jesus in the Tide of Time

First published in 1980, Jesus in the Tide of Time considers the historical Jesus and studies the ways in which he has subsequently been regarded by different people in different cultures.

The book examines the political, social, economic and religious background to Jesus life. It also looks at what is known about Jesus as a historical personality, and considers the use of symbolic figures by the early Christians to represent him. It highlights the attitude towards the person of Jesus as an indicator of the culture of the particular period and place throughout history, and questions whether different cultures, periods and individuals manufacture Jesus in their own image.

Jesus in the Tide of Time will appeal to those with an interest in the history of Christianity, religious history, and social history.

Jesus in the Tide of Time

An Historical Study

By John Ferguson

First published in 1980
by Routledge & Kegan Paul

This edition first published in 2021 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1980 John Ferguson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LCCN: 81150815

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-75074-9 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-003-16087-8 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-75072-5 (pbk)

Book DOI: 10.4324/9781003160878

Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study

John Ferguson

President, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham
Formerly Dean and Director of Studies in Arts,
The Open University

First published 1980

by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

39 Store Street,

London WC1E 7DD and

Broadway House,

Newtown Road,

Henley-on-Thames,

Oxon RG9 1EN

Set in 11/12 IBM Journal

and printed in Great Britain by

Lowe & Brydone Printers Ltd

Thetford, Norfolk

John Ferguson 1980

No part of this book may be reproduced in

any form without permission from the

publisher, except for the quotation of brief

passages in criticism

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Ferguson, John, b. 1921

Jesus in the tide of time.

1. Jesus Christ

I. Title

232 BT202

ISBN 0 7100 0561 X

FOR LESLEY

Contents

• Preface
• Abbreviations

1. Palestine in the First Century
2. Jesus
3. The Person of Christ
4. The Early Church: Types and Symbols
5. Christ and Culture
6. Son of God
7. Son of Man
8. Summing-Up

• Index of Biblical References
• General Index

Preface

Another book on Jesus? When John Hinnells asked me to write originally I had the same sensation. Yet when I came to brood on it, the chance to write about such a seminal and challenging person could not be resisted, and I could see the opportunity to do something which is, I think, new in asking questions about the way different ages and different cultures have reacted to him.

I am myself a Christian. But I did not want to write another account of the Christ for Christians. Nor did I want here to write evangelically. If confrontation with the historic Jesus leads people to commit themselves to him, that is his doing and theirs. I have tried to write as objectively as possible; no doubt my presuppositions affect my presentation, but I have tried to let them obtrude as little as possible. I hope therefore that the result will be of interest to many people as a study of historical and cultural values, no matter what their own beliefs.

Some parts of the book, notably the sixth and seventh chapters, are inevitably selective and impressionistic. It will be easy to point to omissions. What is here is an honest attempt to record significant emphases as they appear to me. One point I think I should make. In the last chapter I come to the conclusion that the Wesleyan and Evangelical movements of the late eighteenth century preserve a healthy balance between Jesus as Son of Man and as Son of God. This was not a predetermined view. It was not a conclusion I was expecting to draw. I am not a Methodist, and my theology is not that of the Evangelicals. The study was not designed to the conclusion; the conclusion came out of the study. And it is of course open to any reader to say that their views, though balanced, were wrong.

One or two debts of gratitude. First to John Hinnells, for his encouragement and helpfulness. Then to Lesley Roff who in the busy-ness of her work as short-courses officer at Cranfield found time, in friendship and interest, to type the manuscript. And to my wife for yet another of her remarkable indexes, and to Brenda Rea for typing this.

Abbreviations

Aug.: Augustine C. Faust.Contra Faustum (Against Faustus)De TrimDe Trinitate (On the Trinity)Ep.Epistula (Letter)Calvin Inst.Institutes of the Christian ReligionDiod Sic.Diodorus SiculusEus.: Eusebius Laud. Const.Laudatio Constantini (Panegyric of Constantine)Hermas Sim.Similitudines (Similitudes or Parables)Ign.: IgnatiusEph. Epistula ad Ephesios (Letter to the Ephesians)Iren.: IrenaeusHaer. Adversus Omnes Haereses (Against All Heresies)Jer.: Jerome Adv Lucy:Adversus Luciferum (Against Lucifer)Jos.: Josephus Ant.Antiquitates Judaicae (Antiquities of the Jews)BJBellum Judaicum (The Jewish War)Nov.: Novatian Trin.De Trinitate (On the Trinity)Phil.: Philo Flacc.In Flaccum (Agaisnt Flaccus)Leg.Legatio ad Gaium (The Embassy to Gaius)Theophil.:TheophilusAd AutolAd Autolycum (To Autolycus)

These are abbreviations of works cited in the text.

ET In the Bibliographies stands for English translation. The figures following titles of early works usually refer to book, chapter, section, subsection.

1 Palestine in the First Century

DOI: 10.4324/9781003160878-1

JUDAISM

Jesus of Nazareth grew up in a Jewish family in a Palestine which had been permeated by Greek influences for three centuries, and was now a part of the Roman Empire.

The folk-memory of the Jews went back to an early migration from Mesopotamia by their forefather Abraham, from Ur of the Chaldees. Ur was in fact one of the cities of Sumer. There is no special reason to doubt such a tradition of emigration, and we can trace the main stages on the route, each of which has been claimed to have associations with Hebrew traditions: Mari with its colossal palace including an archive of 25,000 cuneiform tablets; Haran, a religious centre which the Biblical Abraham calls my country; and then, as they turned southwards, Ebla, a rich and prosperous site in North Syria, where sensational finds were recorded in the 1960s and 1970s. We cannot of course be certain of such folk-memories; but the Jewish people later believed them to be true, and Abraham later became the type of faith in leaving his homeland and going out to an unknown future.

Next page

1234567...64

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study»

Look at similar books to Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

N. T. Wright

Who Was Jesus?

Zondervan

Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus

Carsten Peter Thiede

Jesus, Man or Myth?

Craig S. Keener

The Historical Jesus of the Gospels

Daniel J. Harrington

Jesus: A Historical Portrait

Richard C. Carrier

Proving history: bayess theorem and the quest for the historical jesus

Jesus Christ

Jesus and the Last Supper

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ.

The Historical Figure of Jesus

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ.

Four portraits, one Jesus : an introduction to Jesus and the Gospels

Larson Kyle

Hijacking the Historical Jesus: Answering Recent Attacks on the Jesus of the Bible

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ.

Screen Jesus : portrayals of Christ in television and film

Bart D. Ehrman

Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth

Discussion, reviews of the book Jesus in the Tide of Time: An Historical Study and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.