Contents
Book Marker: What to Read ......................................................................................... xi
Selected Abbreviations ...............................................................................................xiii
Preface ........................................................................................................................ xv
Editor’s Preface .......................................................................................................... xxi
Part One
What Is It About?
Chapter One: Introduction ...........................................................................................3
This Study .............................................................................................................4
The Process of Investigation...................................................................................5
Toward a Conceptual Framework ..........................................................................8
The Quest for Jesus..............................................................................................10
Program of the Book............................................................................................18
Postscript.............................................................................................................22
A Note on the Selection of the Logia Analyzed.....................................................22
Chapter Two: In Search of Mysticism: Framing the Concept ......................................23
Introduction: What Is Mysticism?........................................................................23
The Handbooks...................................................................................................33
Some Testimonies................................................................................................36
Mysticism in the Gospels?....................................................................................42
Conclusions .........................................................................................................46
Chapter Three: Biblical Criticism: The Case of the Jesus Logia ...................................47
Introduction ........................................................................................................47
Sacred Texts.........................................................................................................48
The Logia: A Genre .............................................................................................53
Implications of Method for NT Criticism............................................................68
Annex 1: Methodology Revisited .........................................................................74
Conclusions .........................................................................................................76
Annex 2: Greek and Aramaic ...............................................................................76
Part Two
The Kingdom of God: A Spiritual Interpretation
Introducing the Kingdom of God ...............................................................................81
Chapter Four: The Kingdom of God: Eschaton, Polity, Inner Reality? .........................83
Introduction ........................................................................................................83
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CONTENTS
The Eschaton? ......................................................................................................84
Conclusions .........................................................................................................93
Chapter Five: What Is a Kingdom? The Glory of the Kingdom Restored ....................94
Kingdom .............................................................................................................94
Kingship ..............................................................................................................96
Inner Strength .....................................................................................................97
Partaking .............................................................................................................99
Conclusions .........................................................................................................99
Chapter Six: The Kingdom in the Gospels: ‘When’? .................................................100
Introduction ......................................................................................................100
When?: Mk 1.14-15: The Text ..........................................................................102
Intermezzi..........................................................................................................106
Near or Arrived? ................................................................................................109
Conclusions .......................................................................................................113
Chapter Seven: The Kingdom in the Gospels: ‘Where’? ............................................114
The Scene .........................................................................................................114
The Kingdom Is Inside ......................................................................................116
Observations......................................................................................................117
Inside, or in the Midst Of?.................................................................................120
Where Do We Stand? ........................................................................................122
Conclusions .......................................................................................................123
Chapter Eight: The Kingdom in the Gospels: ‘What’ Is It? .......................................125
Introduction ......................................................................................................125
The mustêrion ....................................................................................................126
The Sower Parable .............................................................................................131
Parables on the Kingdom of God .......................................................................134
Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................137
Chapter Nine: The Kingdom in the Gospels: ‘For Whom’........................................139
Introduction ......................................................................................................139
‘As a Little Child’, hôs paidion ............................................................................139
‘Poor in spirit’, or: Craving for the Spirit? .........................................................148
Transformation..................................................................................................155
Conclusions: What Is Needed to Connect to the Kingdom of God?...................161
Concluding Part Two: The Kingdom of God: A Spiritual Interpretation ..................162
Summarizing .....................................................................................................164
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CONTENTS
Part Three
Transformation: The Psyche
Introduction .............................................................................................................169
Chapter Ten: Transformation of the Self: What Is the Self, the psuchê? .....................172
Introduction: Does psuchê Signify ‘Life’ .............................................................172
Analysis .............................................................................................................173
Greek-Hellenistic Influences ..............................................................................178
Another Paradigm? ............................................................................................180
Conclusions .......................................................................................................182
Annex 3: Classification of the Occurrences of psuchê in the Gospels ...................183
Annex 4: Some Literature Reviewed...................................................................184
Chapter Eleven: Metanoia as Transformation ............................................................187
Introduction: Mk 1.15 par.................................................................................187
Terms and Concepts..........................................................................................189
Continuity.........................................................................................................196
Change, Conversion, Transformation ................................................................200
Metanoia as Transformation...............................................................................201
Sin and Forgiveness............................................................................................204
The Other Logia................................................................................................207
Conclusions .......................................................................................................211
Chapter Twelve: Laying Down One’s Life? The Good Shepherd and
Other Pericopes in John: “tên psuchên tithêmi” ...................................................213
Introduction ......................................................................................................213
What is the Meaning of psuchê and tithêmi? .......................................................216
What is it that Jesus Wants to Communicate?....................................................218
Comments.........................................................................................................221
Conclusion: To Dedicate ...................................................................................223
Chapter Thirteen: To Lose One’s psuchê, or to Save It? .............................................224
Logia about Saving or Losing the psuchê.............................................................224
Psycho-Spiritual Transformation........................................................................229
Conclusions .......................................................................................................232
Chapter Fourteen: The Multifariousness of psuchê: The Other Pericopes...................233
Emotional Aspects of psuchê...............................................................................233
Physical Aspects .................................................................................................236
Conclusions .......................................................................................................241
Concluding Part Three: Transformation: The Psyche................................................242
CONTENTS
viii
Part Four
Explorations in the Field of Pneuma, Spirit
Introduction .............................................................................................................247
Chapter Fifteen: The Concept of pneuma in the Gospels and Its Forms ....................249
‘The Spirit’ or ‘Spirit’: pneuma (hagion) / to pneuma ([to] hagion) .......................249
Is ‘Spirit’ a Feasible Translation of the Anarthrous pneuma? ..............................254
What is ‘Spirit’? .................................................................................................256
What is ‘the Spirit’? ...........................................................................................259
Conclusion ........................................................................................................261
Chapter Sixteen: Being in Spirit: A Case Study on the Pericopes in the
Synoptics with ‘en pneumati’ ..............................................................................264
Introduction ......................................................................................................264
Being in Spirit: en pneumati; the Gospels ...........................................................265
Discussion .........................................................................................................270
Other NT Texts.................................................................................................274
An Inquiry into Literature..................................................................................277
Conclusions .......................................................................................................280
Annex 5: The Texts Analyzed ............................................................................281
Chapter Seventeen: The Words from the Cross: A Scene of Serenity .........................288
Introduction ......................................................................................................288
The Scene at the Cross in John ..........................................................................289
And in the Synoptic Gospels..............................................................................295
Evaluation and Conclusions...............................................................................297
Chapter Eighteen: Rendering ekstasis in the NT ........................................................299
Introduction ......................................................................................................299
Ecstasy: Term and Concept, Greek and English .................................................301
Ekstasis in the NT: A Presentation......................................................................308
Comments.........................................................................................................312
Some Issues........................................................................................................315
Evaluation and Conclusions...............................................................................320
Concluding Part Four: Explorations in the Field of pneuma, Spirit............................322
Summary ...........................................................................................................322
Part Five
What It Was About
Conclusions ..............................................................................................................329
Approach ...........................................................................................................329
Analysis .............................................................................................................333
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CONTENTS
Mysticism ..........................................................................................................337
Evaluation .........................................................................................................338
Synthesis............................................................................................................340
Annex 6: Summaries of the Outcomes of the Case Studies ................................342
Bibliography .............................................................................................................353
Index ........................................................................................................................371
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Transcription of the Greek
Transcription follows current practice with the following particulars:
• h as ê, like in English there
• u as u (not as the usual y), pronounced like in English upper or in German über
• c as ch, pronounced as a guttural h, or as in German hoch
• w as ô, like in English or