Exhaustive recent scholarship has focused on Paul's insistence that Gentiles be granted equal status with the Jews as members of the people of God. Tet-Lim Yee's study of Ephesians 2 reveals how the distinctively Jewish world view underlies this key text and he highlight's the reconciling work of Christ for both Jew and Gentile. His study represents an important contribution to the continuing reassessment of Christian and Jewish interaction during the critical period of the latter decades of the first century CE.
Author(s): Tet-Lim N. Yee
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 324
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 6
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
CONTENTS......Page 11
FOREWORD......Page 13
PREFACE......Page 15
ABBREVIATIONS......Page 17
1.1 The problem......Page 25
1.2 The justification of the present study......Page 27
1.2.1 A ‘Gentile Christianity’ drifted from its mooring in the Jewish tradition?......Page 28
1.2.3 Israel, Gentiles and the Church: continuity or discontinuity?......Page 31
1.2.4 The alienation between Jews and Christians?......Page 36
1.2.5 Ethno-cultural conflict between Jews and Greeks?......Page 38
1.2.6 The form-critical analysis of Ephesians 2.1–22......Page 40
1.2.7 The cancellation of time in Ephesians?......Page 43
1.2.8 Weltangst in Asia Minor......Page 45
1.2.9 Linguistics and metalinguistics......Page 46
1.2.10 The language of ‘powers’ in Ephesians......Page 48
1.2.11 Locating Ephesians within a Jewish context......Page 52
1.2.12 The new perspective on Ephesians......Page 53
1.3 The need for this study......Page 54
1.4 Aims, plan and presuppositions of the present study......Page 56
2.1 Introduction......Page 58
2.2 Locating Ephesians within a Jewish context......Page 59
2.3 The new perspective on Ephesians 2.1–10......Page 69
2.3.1 A Jewish representation of the Gentile ‘other’......Page 70
2.3.2 The rhetoric of admission and conciliation......Page 80
2.3.3 The saving grace of God in Christ......Page 82
2.4 Conclusion......Page 93
3.1 Introduction......Page 95
3.2 The Gentiles as the Jews saw them (v. 11)......Page 96
3.2.1…(v. 11a)......Page 97
3.2.2…(v. 11b)......Page 100
3.2.3…(v. 11c)......Page 107
3.3 Jews, Gentiles and ethnic ethnocentrism (vv. 12–13a)......Page 111
3.3.1…(v. 12a)......Page 112
3.3.2…(v. 12b)......Page 127
3.3.3…(v. 12c)......Page 129
3.4 ‘But now you who were far off are made near’: the ‘us-them’ polarity deconstructed......Page 135
3.4.1…(v. 13)......Page 137
3.5 Concluding remarks......Page 145
4.1 Introduction......Page 150
4.2 The literary structure of Ephesians 2.14–18......Page 151
4.3 Ephesians 2.14–18: an amplification of the laudable act of Christ......Page 160
4.4 ‘He is our peace’: Christ and ethnic reconciliation......Page 164
4.4.1…(v. 14a–b)......Page 165
4.4.2… (v. 14c)......Page 168
4.4.3…(v. 14d)......Page 176
4.4.4…(vv. 14d–15a)......Page 178
4.4.5…(v. 15b)......Page 185
4.4.6…(v. 15c)......Page 191
4.4.7…(v. 16)......Page 195
4.4.8…(v. 17)......Page 204
4.4.9…(v. 18)......Page 207
4.5 Conclusion......Page 211
5.2.1…(v. 19a)......Page 214
5.3.1…(vv. 19b–20a)......Page 222
5.3.2…(v. 20a)......Page 224
5.3.3…(v. 20b)......Page 228
5.3.4…(vv. 21–2)......Page 232
5.4 Concluding remarks......Page 235
6.1 Concluding remarks......Page 237
6.2 Exegetical implications......Page 243
6.3 Some questions for further research......Page 245
6.3.2 The ‘household of God’ and the Ephesian Haustafel......Page 246
6.3.3 The language of warfare and consolidation of
the Gentiles’ new identity......Page 251
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 253
SUBJECT INDEX......Page 285
The Old Testament......Page 295
The New Testament......Page 298
Apocrypha......Page 305
Pseudepigrapha......Page 308
Dead Sea Scrolls and related texts......Page 311
Philo......Page 313
Josephus......Page 315
Rabbinic literature......Page 316
Other ancient and early Christian writings......Page 317
Inscriptions and papyri......Page 325
