Strangers to Family: Diaspora and 1 Peter's Invention of God's Household

ISBN-13: 9781481305488 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 229 str.

Shively T. J. Smith

Opis

In "Strangers to Family"Shively Smith reads the Letter of 1 Peter through a new model of diaspora. Smith illuminates this peculiarly Petrine understanding of diaspora by situating it among three other select perspectives from extant Hellenist Jewish writings: the Daniel court tales, the Letter of Aristeas, and Philo s works.While 1 Peter tends to be taken as representative of how diaspora was understood in Hellenistic Jewish and early Christian circles, Smith demonstrates that 1 Peter actually reverses the most fundamental meaning of diaspora as conceived by its literarypeers. Instead of connoting the scattering of a people with a common territorial origin, for 1 Peter, diaspora constitutes an "already-scattered-people" who share a common, communal, celestial destination.Smith s discovery of a distinctive instantiation of diaspora in 1 Peter capitalizes on her careful comparative historical, literary, and theological analysis of diaspora constructionsfound in Hellenistic Jewish writings. Her reading of 1 Peter thus challenges the use of the exile and wandering as master concepts to read 1 Peter, reconsiders the conceptual significance of diaspora in 1 Peter and in the entire New Testament canon, and liberates 1 Peter from being interpreted solely through the rubrics of either the stranger-homelessness or household codes. 1 Peter does not recycle standard diasporic identity, but is, as "Strangers to Family"demonstrates, an epistle that represents the earliest Christian construction of diaspora as a way of life."

Spis treści

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part 1. Diaspora through the Lens of 1 Peter
• Chapter 1. Chosen Kinship: Imagining Christian Diaspora
• Chapter 2. The Cultic Life: Practices of the Christian Diaspora
• Chapter 3. Provinces and Households: The Relational Matrix of the Christian Diaspora
• Part 2. Diaspora the Way Others Imagine
• Chapter 4. Diaspora Life in Babylon: The Court Tales of Daniel
• Chapter 5. Diaspora in Egypt: The Letter of Aristeas
• Chapter 6. Diaspora in Alexandria: Philo
• Conclusion: Liberating 1 Peter's Diaspora Vision
• Bibliography
• Index