The Temple in Early Christianity: Experiencing the Sacred

by Eyal Regev

Overview

A comprehensive treatment of the early Christian approaches to the Temple and its role in shaping Jewish and Christian identity

The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this study examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and Christians with a better understanding of their respective faiths and how they grow out of this ancient institution. The centrality of the Temple in New Testament writing reveals the authors’ negotiations with the institutional and symbolic center of Judaism as they worked to form their own religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300197884
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	04/23/2019
Series:	The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.31(d)

About the Author

Eyal Regev is professor of Jewish studies in the department of land of Israel studies and archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. His books include The Sadducees and their Halakhah, Sectarianism in Qumran, and The Hasmoneans: Ideology, Archaeology, Identity.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Editions and Translations xiii

Introduction 1

1 Jesus: "Cleansing," Trial, and Last Supper 18

2 Paul's Letters: Temple Imagery as Religious Identity 53

3 Mark: Criticism or Rejection? 96

4 Q and Matthew: The Sacred Temple 127

5 Luke-Acts: Living and Dying with the Temple 153

6 The Gospel of John: Temple and Christology 197

7 The Book of Revelation: The Alternative Temple 222

8 Hebrews: The New Heavenly Temple Cult Based on the Old One 252

9 Relating to Judaism, Experiencing the Sacred 285

10 Concluding Thoughts 314

Notes 319

Bibliography 415

General Index 451

Index of Ancient Sources 456

Editorial Reviews

This is a valuable scholarly work that shines new light on the relation of early Christianity to its Jewish matrix.”—Donald Senior, Bible Today

“This volume is a major scholarly accomplishment, strongly focused and ambitious in scope. . . . Regev amply succeeds in realizing his major goal: to make us think differently about the role and the meanings of the temple for the earliest generations of Christians.”—Joris Geldhof, Horizons

“Regev’s work successfully offers the reader insightful ways to understand the Temple and sacrificial cult in the NT. Overall, his argument is compelling and clearly articulated . . . Highly Recommended.”—Craig D. Saunders, Religious Studies Review
 

“In this stimulating book, Eyal Regev rightly places the Jewish temple at the center of the new messianic movement that will eventually become known as Christianity. The Temple in Early Christianity makes a fresh and original contribution to a very important topic.”—Craig A. Evans, Houston Baptist University
 

“Far too many scholars still read the New Testament in a way that is shaped by the arguments of generations of Christian writers engaged in anti-Jewish polemic. In these disputations the temple has played a major role. In this must-read book, Eyal Regev shows how the temple played a major positive role in many of the early Christian texts that were eventually canonized as the New Testament.”—Adela Yarbro Collins, Yale Divinity School

From the Publisher