Fracture by Roy A. Harrisville

Fracture: The Cross as Irreconcilable in the Language and Thought of the Biblical Writers by Roy A. Harrisville

Since the advent of formal biblical criticism, many have come to see the crucifixion as merely one event in the process of religious development. Yet for the New Testament writers it was so much more, representing a radical break that forever affected their perception of God and the world.

In this book Roy Harrisville examines the thought worlds of the New Testament writers, showing how the cross fractured their previously held ideas, causing a profound reorientation centered on the story of the cross. Focusing chronologically on Paul, the Synoptic writers, John, and the authors of Hebrews and 1 Peter, Harrisville demonstrates changes in the writers’ understanding of sacrifice, law, Hellenism, apocalyptic, and other areas — changes that created the new values of the radically different Christian community.

An insightful work of careful critical scholarship, Harrisville’s Fracture will appeal to anyone interested in reviewing the New Testament’s witness to that which lies at the heart of earliest Christian confession and which has provoked such bitter conflict in history.

J. Louis Martyn
— Union Theological Seminary, New York
“A bold and unabashedly theological essay on the interpretation of the cross of Christ by Paul, the three Synoptists, John, Hebrews, and 1 Peter, this work from a veteran New Testament scholar provides a high-protein diet for student and pastor alike. Roy Harrisville has a keen sense of the theological jugular of these ancient texts, thus focusing our attention on the multiple ways in which the event of the cross shattered and creatively remade the theological cosmos of early Christians. No aspect of the New Testament is of greater import.”

Craig R. Koester
— author of Revelation and the End of All Things
“The crucifixion of Jesus remains a powerful and disputed element in Christian faith and thought. Entering into the theological fray, Roy Harrisville shows how the cross disturbs earlier traditions and reshapes the way the New Testament writers think of God, the world, and the human condition. Combining passion for the subject with breadth of scholarship, Harrisville offers a compelling way to interpret the message of the cross in today’s world.”

Leander E. Keck
— Yale Divinity School
“Harrisville contends that in the New Testament, Jesus’ cross is an event that ruptures and reconfigures worldviews, and so this book confronts interpretations that reduce the meaning of the cross to a fated tragedy, an admirable martyrdom, or an illustration of a principle — all of which leave one’s world intact. Attentive readers will be challenged by this provocative book.”

Theological Book Review
“This kind of biblical theology has become unfashionable in some scholarly circles, but still has much to teach the church….It is perhaps the only American book for thirty years to refer far more to European (German) scholars than to fellow-Americans and as such is a useful compendium of continental exegetical opinions.”

Author: Roy A. Harrisville is professor emeritus of New Testament at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also coauthor of The Bible in Modern Culture: Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs

Table of Contents:

Preface

Abbreviations



1. Introduction

   Textbook History without Breaks

   Where Revolutions Begin

   Polarization

        "Jews Demand Signs . . ."

        "Greeks Desire Wisdom"

   "Conversion" or "Call"

        Paul

        The Evangelists

        The Fathers

   A New World

   The Convert

   Continuity and Contrast

   
   

2. The Death of Jesus in Paul

   The Old Testament Cultic and Legal Tradition

        Use and Fracture of Wisdom, Sacrifice, and the Law

        Use and Fracture of Apocalyptic

   Use and Fracture of Stoicism

   Use and Fracture of Gnosis

   Use and Fracture of the Pre-Pauline Christian Tradition

   The Pauline Experiential Theology

   Paul and the Cross in the Believer's Life

   
   

3. The Death of Jesus in Mark

   The Scheme

   Old Testament Theology

        Use and Fracture of the Servant Motif

        Use and Fracture of Apocalyptic

   Use and Fracture of the Divine Man

   Use and Fracture of the Pre-Marcan Tradition

   
   

4. The Death of Jesus in Matthew

   The Scheme

   Use and Fracture of Old Testament Theology and Apocalyptic

   Use and Fracture of Nomism

   
   

5. The Death of Jesus in Luke

   Luke and the heilsgeschichtlich Scheme

   A Second Reading

   Use: Martyrs and Wisdom

   Fracture: The Divine Necessity

   
   

6. Synoptic Confession of the Crucified
   
   

7. The Death of Jesus in John

   The Debate

   The Scheme

   Use and Fracture of Judaism

   Use and Fracture of Gnosis

   
   

8. The Death of Jesus in Hebrews

   The Death of Jesus

   Hebrews and Judaism

        Use and Fracture of the Cultic

        Use and Fracture of Apocalyptic

   Use and Fracture of Hellenistic Bible Exegesis

   Use and Fracture of Gnosis

   
   

9. The Death of Jesus in the First Epistle of Peter

   The Independence of the Epistle

   Use and Fracture of the Old Testament and Judaism

   Hellenization and Its Fracture

   Gnosis and its Fracture

   Christian Sources and Their Fracture

   
   

10. Conclusion
    
    

    Index of Names

    Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Literature