Jesus and the Village Scribes: Galilean Conflicts and the Setting of Q

by William E. Arnal

Overview

This volume challenges Gerd Theissen's dominant thesis of "wandering radicals" as the earliest spreaders of the Jesus tradition. Several conclusions emerge: (1) the textual evidence for the "wandering radicals" hypothesis is not tenable and it must be replaced with one that more closely comports with the evidence: (2) the immediate context of the Jesus movement, and of Q in particular, is the socio-economic crisis in Galilee under the Romans; and (3) the formation of Q is the product of Galilean village scribes in the Jesus movement reacting to the negative developments in Galilee that affected their social standing.

Arnal moves decisively beyond earlier Q studies, which focused almost exclusively on literary history without dealing with the social realitites of the first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800632601
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	10/02/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

William E. Arnal is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada). He is co-editor of and contributor to Whose HIstorical Jesus? (1997).

Table of Contents

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction

1. Itinerant Preachers and the Didache

2. The Sayings Tradition and Itinerant Preachers

3. The Problem with Itinerant Preachers

4. The Socioeconomics of Roman Galilee

5. Q's Rhetoric of Uprootedness

Notes

Bibliography

Index