Baptist Traditions And Q

"Clare K. Rothschild offers the first comprehensive examination of why current models of Q feature traditions concerning John the Baptist both prominently and favorably. A close hermeneutical investigation of the NT Gospels, including literary phenomena such as the double attribution of sayings to John and to Jesus, contradictions among sayings of Jesus, and significant thematic continuities between Baptist traditions and Q sayings on topics such as the Son of Man and Kingdom of God, support the argument that at some point in the undoubtedly complex pre-history of its redactions Q existed as a source of Baptist traditions exclusively. This study also includes an important new interpretation of the Markan transfiguration narrative."--BOOK JACKET.

A wide-ranging examination of the key issues in Q studies. After seeking to establish the existence of Q, Tuckett proceeds to analyze the characteristic features of the Q material. He explores not only what we can learn about the possible 'theology' of Q, but also what we can learn about the social situation of the Christians who valued and preserved this material. There are discussions of John the Baptist in Q, the eschatology and Christology of Q, along with the nature of the polemic in Q. Tuckett also attempts to determine how far Q is a wisdom text and how far it reflects Cynic ideas. This work will be of interest to all New Testament scholars and students interested in the Q tradition, the earliest history of Jesus traditions and early Christianity in general.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph.D. - Claremont) under the title: Q, the Essenes, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: a study in Christian origins.

An analysis that challenges the conventional Christian hierarchy of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth While the Christian tradition has subordinated John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth, John himself would likely have disagreed with that ranking. In this eye-opening new book, John the Baptist in History and Theology, Joel Marcus makes a powerful case that John saw himself, not Jesus, as the proclaimer and initiator of the kingdom of God and his own ministry as the center of God's saving action in history. Although the Fourth Gospel has the Baptist saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease," Marcus contends that this and other biblical and extrabiblical evidence reveal a continuing competition between the two men that early Christians sought to muffle. Like Jesus, John was an apocalyptic prophet who looked forward to the imminent end of the world and the establishment of God's rule on earth. Originally a member of the Dead Sea Sect, an apocalyptic community within Judaism, John broke with the group over his growing conviction that he himself was Elijah, the end-time prophet who would inaugurate God's kingdom on earth. Through his ministry of baptism, he ushered all who came to him—Jews and non-Jews alike—into this dawning new age. Jesus began his career as a follower of the Baptist, but, like other successor figures in religious history, he parted ways from his predecessor as he became convinced of his own centrality in God's purposes. Meanwhile John's mass following and apocalyptic message became political threats to Herod Antipas, who had John executed to abort any revolutionary movement. Based on close critical-historical readings of early texts—including the accounts of John in the Gospels and in Josephus's Antiquities—as well as parallels from later religious movements, John the Baptist in History and Theology situates the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism and compares him to other apocalyptic thinkers from ancient and modern times. It concludes with thoughtful reflections on how its revisionist interpretations might be incorporated into the Christian faith.

Baptists are not often thought of as leading theologians and practitioners of worship. But forgotten in history is one crucial fact: the Baptist tradition formed out of a desire to worship God purely. Early Baptists devoted immense energy to questions of worship and drew conclusions of even contemporary value. Through the seismic liturgical shifts of English society in the seventeenth century, worship was both their most galvanizing and disintegrating impulse. As time passed and terminology changed and Baptists shied away from this divisive topic, this emphasis was lost. No one today considers worship a Baptist distinctive. Pure Worship re-creates the fascinating historical context of the early years of the English Baptists. Examining many thousands of manuscript pages, Matthew Ward pieces together an entire theology of worship that not only guided the early Baptists but also attracted the attention of many elements of English Christianity. Baptist thoughts on worship were neither minor nor tangential but the very heart of what distinguished them from the rest of England. Pure Worship offers a complete reenvisioning of what it meant to be an early Baptist and reveals their overwhelming desire to be known as pure worshippers of God.

Baptists' Timothy George and David S. Dockery update and substantially reshape their classic book in an effort to preserve and discover the Baptists' “underappreciated contribution to Christianity's theological heritage.” George and Dockery have re-arranged this volume—considerably abbreviated from the seven-hundred page first edition—in light of the Southern Baptist identity controversy.

In this inspirational book, preacher and educator Clarence Larkin explains the characteristics of Baptism which motivated him to join his denomination. Larkin offers in this fine work an in-depth guide to baptism, from its origins in the Gospels, to its character, traditions and doctrine in the modern-day. The aim of baptizing, and its symbolism in Christian belief, are also explained with the use of the Biblical Gospels and other sources. Never one to stray from the very core of his subject, Clarence Larkin keenly tells the reader about the origins of the very word 'Baptism'. The ceremonial procedures, from the view of the baptizer and the person to be baptized, are also discussed. Quotes of the Gospel are frequent, with Larkin striking the tone of clarity which was his custom. The assumption that Baptists believe baptizement is essential to salvation is shown to be incorrect, with Larkin careful to cite the Gospels to support this assertion.