Eschatology in the Making
Eschatology in the Making
Mark, Matthew and the Didache
This study examines the changes and developments in three early Christian communities' expectations of Christ's return and the End of the World. Mark 13, Matthew 24 and 25 and Didache 16 are analyzed to find how early Christian expectations developed and how they were affected by the delay of Christ's return. The book questions the accepted models of change and offers new insights into the communities behind the Gospels of Mark and Matthew and behind the early Christian writing known as the Didache.
- Offers a new perspective on the much-debated issue of the delay of the return of Christ and its effect on the early church
- Provides insight into the elusive period of the early church prior to the writing of the Gospels
- Gives new interpretative keys to Mark 13 and Matthew 24, and analyses the relationship of the Didache to the Gospels
Reviews & endorsements
"A nuanced study that deserves furthur discussion." Fred W. Burnett, Religious Studies Review
"...we find Balabanski's ultimate objective to be a worthy one...." C.R. Nicholl, The Asbury Theological Journal
Product details
August 2005Paperback
9780521018906
260 pages
217 × 140 × 16 mm
0.354kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. An imminent end? Models for understanding eschatological development in the first century
- 2. Matthew 25:1-13 as a window on eschatological change
- 3. Mark 13: eschatological expectation and the Jewish War
- 4. The Judean flight oracle (Mark 13:14) and the Pella flight tradition
- 5. Matthew 24: eschatological expectation after the Jewish War
- 6. Didache 16 as a development in Christian eschatology
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Indices.
