Class Struggle in the New Testament

299 Pages·2019·4.523 MB·English

by  Robert J. Myles

Class Struggle in
the New Testament

Class Struggle in
the New Testament
Edited by
Robert J. Myles
LEXINGTON BOOKS/FORTRESS ACADEMIC
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
978-1-9787-0207-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
978-1-9787-0208-0 (electronic)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
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for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Figures and Diagrams vii
Abbreviations ix
Preface xv
1 Class Struggle in the New Testament! 1
Robert J. Myles
2 Jesus, the Temple, and the Crowd: A Way Less Traveled 15
Neil Elliott
3 Romans Go Home? The Military as a Site of Class
Struggle in the Roman East and New Testament 53
Christopher B. Zeichmann
4 Peasant Plucking in Mark: Conceptual and Material Issues 67
Alan H. Cadwallader
5 IVDAEA DEVICTA: The Gospels as Imperial
“Captive Literature” 89
Robyn Faith Walsh
6 Fishing for Entrepreneurs in the Sea of Galilee?
Unmasking Neoliberal Ideology in Biblical Interpretation 115
Robert J. Myles
7 Hand of the Master: Of Slaveholders and the Slave-Relation 139
Roland Boer and Christina Petterson
v
vi Contents
8 Populist Features in the Gospel of Matthew 153
Bruce Worthington
9 Troubling the Retainer Class in Antiquity 169
Sarah E. Rollens
10 Rethinking Pauline Gift and Social Functions:
Class Struggle in Early Christianity? 191
Taylor Weaver
11 The Origin of Archangels: Ideological Mystification of Nobility 209
Deane Galbraith
12 Christian Origins and the Specter of Class: Locating Class
Struggle in the New Testament Today 241
James G. Crossley
Bibliography 249
Index 273
About the Contributors 281
Figures and Diagrams
Figure 1.1. Lenski’s model of an advanced agrarian society 6
Figure 5.1. Vespasian “Judea Capta” commemorative coin 94
Figure 5.2. Bronze statuette of a captive Gaul awaiting his
death sentence 95
Figure 10.1. Three Graces Statue 197
vii

Abbreviations
COMMON ABBREVIATIONS
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols.
New York: Doubleday, 1992
ANRW Temporini, Hildegard, and Wolfgang Haase, eds. Aufstieg und
Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms
im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Part 2, Principat. Berlin: de
Gruyter, 1972–
BibInt Biblical Interpretation
BCT The Bible and Critical Theory
BDAG Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F.
Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2000 (Danker-Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich)
BDB Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew
and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
BIFAO Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale
BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester
BRev Bible Review
BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CPJ Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum. Edited by Victor A. Tcherik-
over. 3 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 195–964
CurBR Currents in Biblical Research
ix