The Death of Jesus in Matthew: Innocent Blood and the End of Exile

by Catherine Sider Hamilton

Overview

In this book, Catherine Sider Hamilton introduces a new lens through which to view the death of Jesus in Matthew. Using the concept of 'innocent blood', she situates the death of Jesus within a paradigm of purity and pollution, one that was central in the Hebrew Scriptures and early Judaism from the Second Temple to the rabbis. Hamilton traces the theme of innocent blood in Matthew's narrative in relation to two Jewish traditions of interpretation, one (in Second Temple literature) reflecting on the story of Cain and Abel; the other (chiefly in rabbinic literature) on the blood of Zechariah. 'Innocent blood' yields a vision that resists the dichotomies (intra muros vs extra muros, rejection vs redemption) that have characterized the debate, a vision in which both judgment and redemption - an end of exile - may be true. 'Innocent blood' offers a new approach not only to the meaning of Jesus' death in Matthew but also to the vexed question of the Gospel's attitude toward contemporary Judaism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781316866863
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/16/2017
Series:	Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series , #167
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Catherine Sider Hamilton is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Greek at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto, and Priest-in-charge at St Matthew's Anglican Church, Toronto. She received a Helliwell-Thompson doctoral fellowship from Wycliffe College and a SSHRC doctoral grant which enabled her to begin and complete this book. She is a member of the Society for Biblical Literature and the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and has given numerous papers at these annual conferences. She has published peer-reviewed articles on Matthew and on Paul. In addition, she writes on women in the early church and is currently co-authoring the book Paul and Women through the Ages (forthcoming). She owns and maintains the blog, feastfastferia.wordpress.com, exploring the rhythms of the Christian year.

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. Introducing the question; 2. Innocent blood in the gospel of Matthew: a narrative-critical study; Part II. Innocent Blood in Second-Temple Jewish and Rabbinic Literature: 3. 1 Enoch and the cosmic sweep of innocent blood: from Cain and blood to flood and judgment; 4. Other Cain/blood-flood/judgment traditions; 5. The blood of Zechariah in the lives of the prophets and Rabbinic literature; Part III. Innocent Blood and the Gospel of Matthew: 6. Zechariah traditions and Cain/Blood-flood/Judgment traditions; 7. The meaning of innocent blood in Matthew: pollution and purgation, exile and restoration; Part IV. Conclusion: 8. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

'This is a well-written volume; the prose is lively and engaging. Hamilton shines when she brings together strands of tradition and seeks to make connections among a range of writings. She has done readers a service by drawing attention to the prevalence of the wickedness of shedding innocent blood in the ancient world and by suggesting its impact on the interpretation of Matthew. Students of Matthew will find much here that is helpful, especially relating to the traditions concerning the blood of Zechariah. Hamilton makes an admirable case for the influence of 1 Enoch in the ancient world and in recreating some of the pockets of interpretive tradition that would likely have been in the interpretive air around the first century.' Brandon D. Crowe, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

From the Publisher