Greater than Caesar
Subtitle: Christology and empire in the Fourth Gospel
By: Tom Thatcher.
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 172
ISBN-13: 9780800663391
Subjects: Bible. -- N.T. -- John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc; Rome in the Bible
Description: "Recent scholarship has shown that the peculiar history of a particular community of believers gave the Fourth Gospel its distinctive shape. Now Tom Thatcher argues that we must take account not just of tensions arising within the synagogue or between factions of believers in Christ but also attend to the Johannine portrayal of figures representing Roman rule in order to understand the Gospel's origin and message. Greater than Caesar examines the Fourth Gospel's characterizations of Jesus' opponents and its depictions of Jesus' authority and power in his confrontations with agents of imperial power, including Pilate and Jewish authorities. Thatcher argues that the Gospel is a thorough repudiation of the Roman Empire's claims on human allegiance. The one who speaks from the 'dying machine' of the cross shows that he is in fact 'greater than Caesar.'" -- Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The problem of John's Christology and the three-headed dog of Rome; title: Reading the whole story : strategies of survival; title: Story as subversion : John's little countermemory; title: Caiaphas : Caesar's accomplice; title: Pontius Pilate : truth, terror, torture; title: The cross as a tale of terror : Rome's perspective; title: The cross inverted : John's perspective; title: The cross as triumph : the perspective of the Johannine Jesus; title: The inversion of empire : faith, hope, and power.