The Christian Moses : vision, authority, and the limits of humanity in the New Testament and early Christianity / Jared C. Calaway.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Calaway, Jared C., author.

Series:

Studies in Christianity and Judaism ; 2.

Studies in Christianity and Judaism ; 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Moses (Biblical leader)--In the New Testament.

Moses.

Bible. New Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Visions in the Bible.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (407 pages).

Place of Publication:

Montreal, Quebec : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019.

Summary:

Two verses about Moses in the Bible have been the subject of debate since the first century. In Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses that no one can see God and live, but Numbers 12:8 says that Moses sees the form of the Lord. How does one reconcile these two opposing statements? Did Moses see God, and who gets to decide? The Christian Moses investigates how ancient Christians from the New Testament to Augustine of Hippo resolved questions of who can see God, how one can see God, and what precisely one sees. Jaeda Calaway explains that the decision about whether and how Moses saw God was not a neutral exercise for an early Christian. Rather, it established the interpreter's authority to determine what was possible in divine-human relations and set the parameters for the nature of humanity. As a result, Calaway argues, interpretations of Moses' visions became a means for Jews and Christians to jockey for power, allowing them to justify particular social arrangements, relations, and identities, to assert the limits of humans in the face of divinity, and to create an Other. Seeing early Christians with new eyes, The Christian Moses reassesses how debates on Moses' visions from the first through the fifth centuries were, in reality, debates on the boundaries of humanity.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations to Ancient Sources

Introduction

To See God and Live in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism

Moses’ and Humanity’s Limitations in the New Testament

Justin Martyr of Flavia Neapolis (c. 100–165 ce)

Theophilus to Autolycus

Ireneaus of Lyons (c. 140–202 CE)

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215 CE)

Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160–220 CE)

Origen (c. 185–254 CE)

Moses, Vision, and Episcopal Authority in Late-Antique Christianity

“Show Me Yourself”

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780773559806

0773559809

9780773559790

0773559795

OCLC:

1108620315