NSBT 19: Contagious Holiness

Jesus' Meals With Sinners.One of humanity's most basic and
common practices - eating meals - was transformed by Jesus into an occasion of
divine encounter. In sharing food and drink with his companions, he invited
them to share in the grace of God. He revealed his redemptive mission while
eating with sinners, repentant and unrepentant alike.

Jesus' 'table
fellowship' with sinners in the Gospels has been widely agreed to be
historically reliable. However, this consensus has recently been challenged,
for example, by the claim that the meals in which Jesus participated took the
form of Greco-Roman symposia - or that the 'sinners' involved were the most
flagrantly wicked within Israel's society, not merely the ritually impure or
those who did not satisfy strict Pharisaic standards of holiness.

In
this excellent and thorough study, Craig L. Blomberg engages with the debate
and opens up the significance of the topic. He surveys meals in the Old
Testament and the intertestamental period, examines all the Gospel texts
relevant to Jesus' eating with sinners, and concludes with contemporary
applications. (= 0830826203 / 9780830826209)'Blomberg not only
addresses current disputes about the 'table fellowship' practices of the
historical Jesus, but also traces out the historical and theologically-laden
implications of table fellowship across the canon of Scripture, and issues a
call to contemporary Christians to reform their habits in this matter.' -
D.A. CarsonSeries: New Studies in Biblical Theology, volume
19.Recommended € 23,90