Title: Christ the ideal king
Description: A central rhetorical strategy of Ephesians involves the portrayal of Christ as an ideal king who reunites a fractured cosmos and humanity through his reign. In this comprehensive study, Julien Smith shows how this literary characterization unifies the letter's major themes: reconciling humanity with God, uniting Jew and gentile, establishing ecclesiastical harmony, and defeating hostile powers arrayed against the church. The author grounds his analysis in a thorough account of the kingly ideal's powerful contemporary cultural resonance, which was rooted in the widespread yearning within both Greco-Roman and Jewish thought for a golden age inaugurated by a divinely ordained monarch. For Ephesians' author and audience, only Christ the ideal king has power to form identity and transform behavior.
Subjects: Criticism, interpretation, Religious aspects, Kings and rulers, Bible, Antike, Epheserbrief, Christologie, Herrscherideal, König, Royal office, Bible, criticism, interpretation, etc., n. t. epistles, Kings and rulers, religious aspects