Kata Markon

["Carl-Magnus Pettersson" <c-m.pettersson AT home.se>]

Dear Steve,

I would suggest that you bought N. T. Wright, "Jesus and the Victory of God"
(JVG), which, in my opinion, extremly helpful in studying the gospels.

Wright works within "a tradition" which is eager to put Jesus (and Paul and
others) firmly within Jewish soil. Therefore christology end repentence are
put within a very Jewish framework with covenants, exile and so forth. His
christology centers on the concept om Messiaship. Even though there are
other aspects as well, Jesus as the Jewish Messiah is always the integrating
motif, as I understand him (See e.g. "Resurrection of the Son of God",
553ff).

When it comes to repentence Wright means essentially two things:
1) Repentence is what the people of God must do in order for the restoration
of Israel to happen - for the return of the exile to happen, covenant
renewal, JHWH returning to Sion as king etc. When Wright talks about
eschatology he does not mean the end of the world but climactic events
within "history" - climactic events of the covenant. Repentence is part of
the what happens at the point when JHWH finally acts on Israel's behalf as
promised. In that sense it is a eschatological concept (See JVG, 246ff). In
other words it is first and foremost a corporate concept, even though the
personal is not lost within that (JVG, 246).
2) Repentence is also (again corporate) a call for Israel to turn around and
follow Jesus ways of being Israel instead of their own violent agendas that
eventually will lead to disaster. They must abandon their revolutionary
zeal. Wright has found a parallell in Josephus, Life, 110 (trans. Thackery),
which has the phrase "repent and believe" (See JVG, 246ff)

I hope this was helpful/
Carl
__________________________________________
Carl-Magnus Pettersson
+46 13-101173
+46 709-498571
c-m.pettersson AT home.se