I love Tübingen library. Love it. It has so much, and I’m able to bring it all home for months on end. Yesterday I picked up a few real interesting books and one of them I wanted to mention. Namely the Catholic scholar, Brant Pitre’s new monograph, Jesus, the tribulation, and the end of the exile: restoration eschatology and the origin of the atonement (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005)
In an interesting excursus he examines Wright’s ‘End of the Exile’ theme. Wright’s proposal, that even those Jews living in the land were thought of as ‘in Exile’, has come in for some stinging critique from the likes of Dunn, Downing and Casey. Nevertheless, Pitre maintains that Wright’s position can still be maintained albeit with necessary adjustments. ‘Wright has the right insight’, he argues, ‘but the wrong exile. The Jews of the first century were certainly waiting for “the End of the Exile” – but not the Babylonian Exile. Rather, they were waiting for the end of the Assyrian Exile’ – and the restoration of all twelve tribes to Zion.
So, in answer to Wright’s ‘where are we?’ basic worldview question: ‘we have returned to the Land, but the rest of Israel is still in exile; the lost ten tribes of the northern kingdom have not yet returned’ (for all the above, cf. p. 35, italics reduced)
Food for thought.
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6 comments:
Hot Damn!
That is the best quote I have read on any blog. Ever.
I have not thought of this idea and it has me quite excited.
You can take the books out!!!
Actually I love the library here at St. Paul, it is freakin' massive! But it is not a lending library. The plus side is that if I'm looking for something it will be there, somewhere. But the downside is I have to read it there.
Fortunately I have this funky pass that lets me go in 24/7. I've spent many a night pacing the rows in the reference section reading. Try doing that in the daytime, you end up tripping over all the people.
I think it's a good idea (Mt 19:28ff) but would like to see some evidence from 2TJ lit...
Chris-
That's an outstanding book. I was a master's student at ND when Brant was a doctoral student, and his excitement and enthusiasm for the subject is infectious. Expect great things from him.
J.B.-
Brant gives some 2TJ texts (as well as texts from the OT Prophets) in the excursus, as well as throughout his argument about the relevant NT texts (e.g., the "many" of Mark 10:45). The second chapter also convincingly demonstrates that a number of 2TJ texts had some variation on the theme of the messianic tribulation (pace Sanders' assertion that the theme does not exist until after AD 70).
BTW, for anyone interested a much more affordable copy is available through Baker Books.
Hi Dan,
It is rather exciting - serious food for thought.
Frank, what will really make you sick is how many books I can take home .... *pratcically limitless*
Hi JB, I'll post the example Pitre gives later tonight
Rjm,
Thanks for the enthusiastic feedback on this book - really makes me want to down its contents now
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