Bibliography
| Title: Jesus the new Moses. A Christological understanding of the fourth Gospel Type: Generic Year: 1987 Abstract: "In the Gospels the early Christian communities speak to us through the words of Jesus, attempting to interpret his life through existing Jewish or Hellenistic titles. My thesis is that the Fourth Evangelist, as the situation warrants, uses the Jewish, Hellenistic, and Samaritan understandings of Moses to interpret the person of Jesus. Jesus is the new Moses. The methodology of this study is (1) to trace the concept of Moses through the writings of Palestinian Judaism and Jewish Hellenistic writings of Aristobulus, Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Artapanus, Philo and Josephus and Samaritan literature, and (2) to do exegesis of the relevant Johannine passages that express the Moses motif. However, this is not an extensive study of Moses in terms of his historical contribution but only as he is related to the theme of Jesus as the new Moses in the Fourth Gospel. In the discussed interpretations of the person of Jesus, the evangelist has used the Mosaic motifs to develop his Christology. However, he has presented Jesus as different from Moses. He is not simply another Moses, but superior to him. He is the new Moses. There is a definite continuity and discontinuity between Moses and Jesus. The perfection and fulfillment of Moses' vision of the divine are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Moses is always a positive figure who helps the true seekers of the truth to find Jesus. A true disciple of Moses is a disciple of Jesus, too. Moses is a pointer to Jesus in whom Moses finds the fulfillment of his person and work. The Jewish community claims that Moses is their leader. For the Johannine community, Jesus, the new Moses, is their leader. This christological interpretation is probably a polemic against the Jewish opponents. Having interpreted Jesus as the new Moses the community gains two important things. First, a polemic against the Jewish opponents: those who are outside the Johannine community, especially the synagogue Jews cannot disregard the Johannine community because the new Moses is the head of the community. Second, the unity of the Johannine Christians: the new interpretation, Jesus as the new Moses, unifies the different groups within the Johannine community. The existential situation of the Johannine community forces them to use the category of Moses to interpret their leader. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish, Hellenistic, and Samaritan Mosaic expectations. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)" Keywords: New Testament / Early Christianity |