The Synoptic Jesus and eschatological violence
Abstract
This thesis offers fresh insight into the relationship between violence and eschatology
in the Synoptic Gospels’ presentation of Jesus’ life and ministry. It seeks to refute the claims
of scholars who have argued that the hypothesis of a violent, seditious Jesus makes the most
sense of otherwise incoherent Synoptic passages, by contending that such scholars have not
properly understood the role that eschatological expectations played in motivating Second
Temple Jewish revolutionary violence, and hence have misread crucial Synoptic passages.
The thesis can be divided into three units. First, in chapters two and three, I argue that
there were integral connections between violence and eschatology in Second Temple
Judaism; demonstrating first the inherently violent components of eschatological writings,
then the clearly eschatological elements of major instances of revolutionary violence. Second,
in chapters four and five I demonstrate the thematic centrality of Jesus’ opposition to such
eschatological violence throughout the Synoptic presentations of his life and ministry. I argue
that a proper understanding of violence and eschatology together enables us to see allegedly
problematic passages as part of the coherent Synoptic narrative, in which Jesus consistently
disassociates eschatological violence from his inauguration of the kingdom of God and his
identification of its people. Third, in chapter six I argue that the Synoptic Jesus’ rejection of
eschatological violence is closely bound up with the central place of exorcism within his
ministry, through which he began to achieve the eschatological goals which many of his
contemporaries sought to achieve through revolutionary violence.
Therefore, this thesis argues that (i) by understanding the fundamental connections
between eschatology and violence within the worldview of Second Temple Judaism, we can
understand Jesus’ nonviolence––expressed both in his own practice, and in his commands to
his followers––in direct connection with his rejection of the eschatological violence
envisioned by many of his contemporaries; and (ii) this forms a central and consistent aspect
of the Synoptic presentations of his life and ministry.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Embargo Date: 2022-03-07
Embargo Reason: Thesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Print and electronic copy restricted until 7th March 2022
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