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Tucker S Ferda, Jesus and his promised Second Coming: Jewish eschatology and Christian origins (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2024)

Abstract

"An examination and rebuttal of the critical consensus that Jesus of Nazareth did not predict or anticipate his post-death return"-- "In this pioneering study of Scripture and reception history, Tucker S. Ferda shows that the hope for Jesus's second coming originated in his own message about the coming of the kingdom after a time of distress. Most historical Jesus scholars take for granted that Jesus's second coming was invented by his zealous early followers. In Jesus and His Promised Second Coming, Tucker S. Ferda challenges this critical consensus. Using innovative methodology, Ferda works backward through reception history to Paul and the Gospels to argue that the hope for the second coming originated in Jesus's own grappling with the prospect of death and his conviction that the kingdom was near; he expected a return that would coincide with the final judgment and the end of the age within the space of a generation. Ferda also makes a major contribution to the reception history of the Bible, shedding light on how Christians distinguished themselves from Judaism by deriding "Jewish messianism" as earthly minded and militaristic. In the early modern period, critics found an expedient way to distance Jesus from this caricature of "Jewish messianism": they pinned the expectation for the second coming on Jesus's early followers. A new appreciation for the diversity of Judaism and messianism in the Second Temple period makes possible a fresh reconstruction of Jesus. Bold and historically astute, Jesus and His Promised Second Coming breathes new life into a long-stagnant conversation. It also offers readers fresh insight into the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Students and scholars of the New Testament will need to read and engage with Ferda's provocative argument"--

Contents

Reading the future of Jesus backward: Reception history and expanding the conversation -- Two seminal contributions -- Critique -- Complexifying the eschatological Jesus -- The "painful thorn" of the Parousia: The reception of the second coming in biblical studies: Charting Christian eschatology over the centuries -- The "painful thorn" of the Parousia -- Elitism and anti-Judaism -- Awake and at work: Early Christian eschatology and the coming of Jesus: The Parousia in Paul's letters and ministry -- Jesus and the future in Mark -- The return of the king in Matthew and Luke -- Jesus and eschatology in the fourth gospel -- The future kingdom and its messiah: Death, mission, and the end of the age: Tendencies, trajectories, and tradition histories -- Messianic exegesis, imagination, and history -- Death, interim, resurrection, and the Sitz im Leben Jesu -- The ambiguities of the "coming" of the Son of Man -- Two scenarios and Das Leben Jesu Revisited -- Concluding thoughts.