The authors of this collection of scholarly essays examine various ways in which ancient writers, both canonical and non-canonical, understood Jesus' significance, and how they shaped their presentation of him to convey their understandings.

The authors of this collection of essays focus on understandings of Jesus in various early Christian writings. Notable are several texts that examine the presentation of Jesus in the Gospels of John and Mark, as well as in the Book of Hebrews and in the letters of Paul. Other early Christian literature is represented as well, from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas to various Apocryphal Acts of Apostles and liturgical or other prayer texts, while some essays address a range of ancient literature, Christian and non-Christian. The authors of these essays examine the ways in which ancient writers addressed the significance of Jesus, as well as the their sources, dialogue partners, and critics in a variety of perspectives and methods.

Contributors:
Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll, Paul F. Bradshaw, Dylan M. Burns, Joshua Ezra Burns, Stephen J. Davis, Joshua D. Garroway, Judith M. Gundry, Daniel C. Harlow, Jeremy F. Hultin, Timothy Luckritz Marquis, Candida R. Moss, Susan E. Myers, George L. Parsenios, Michael Peppard, Richard I. Pervo, Bryan D. Spinks, Gregory E. Sterling, Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., Emma Wasserman

Autorentext
Born 1958; PhD from University of Notre Dame in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity; currently Associate Professor in the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, USA.

Inhalt
Susan E. Myers: Introduction

Part I: Portraits of Jesus in Gospel Literature
George L. Parsenios: A Sententious Silence: First Thoughts on the Fourth Gospel and the Ardens Style - Joshua Ezra Burns: Like Father, Like Son: An Example of Jewish Humor in the Gospel of John - Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll: The Scripturally Complex Presentation of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark - Jeremy F. Hultin: Disobeying Jesus: A Puzzling Element in the Messianic Secret Motifs - Timothy Luckritz Marquis: Crucifixion, State of Emergency, and the Proximate Marginality of Christ's Kingship - Stephen J. Davis: Bird Watching in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas: From Child's Play to Rituals of Divine Discernment

Part II: Portraits of Jesus in Paul
Gregory E. Sterling: "The Image of God": Becoming Like God in Philo, Paul, and Early Christianity - Judith M. Gundry: Jesus-Tradition and Paul's Opinion About the Widow Remaining as a Widow (1 Cor 7:40) - Emma Wasserman: "An Idol is Nothing in the World" (1 Cor 8:4): The Metaphysical Contradictions of 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1 in the Context of Jewish Idolatry Polemics - Thomas H. Tobin, S.J.: The Use of Christological Traditions in Paul: The Case of Rom 3:21-26

Part III: Portraits of Jesus in Prayer and Liturgy
Paul F. Bradshaw: The Status of Jesus in Early Christian Prayer Texts - Susan E. Myers: Praying to Jesus in the Acts of Thomas - Bryan D. Spinks: Handing on Tradition: Some Themes and Images in the Maronite Baptismal Ordo

Part IV: Portraits of Jesus in Other Early Christian Literature
Joshua D. Garroway: A New Sort of Priest for a New Sort of People: Hebrews as an Interpretation of Romans - Candida R. Moss: Standing at the Foot of the Staircase: Christology and Narrative Structure in the Prologue to Hebrews (Heb 1:1-4) - Daniel C. Harlow: Born of Fornication: The Jewish Charge of Jesus' Illegitimacy in John, Celsus, and Origen - Richard I. Pervo: Shepherd of the Lamb: Paul as a Christ-Figure in the Acts of Paul - Dylan M. Burns: Jesus' Reincarnations Revisited in Jewish Christianity, Sethian Gnosticism, and Mani - Michael Peppard: Archived Portraits of Jesus: Unorthodox Christological Images from John and Athanasius