Full Description
What made Jesus' message "good news" in its original context - and why does it still reverberate today? In Reverberations of Good News, the Gospels are brought vividly to life as cultural, political, and spiritual responses to the world of the first century. Rather than offering a detached or purely historical analysis, this book explores how Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John each articulate Jesus' message in strikingly different ways - through inner renewal, radical justice, peaceful subversion and a bold claim to truth. With fresh insight into the dating, authorship and purpose of the Gospels, George van Kooten challenges familiar assumptions and invites readers to see these texts as dynamic responses to real-world tensions. Bridging ancient context and modern meaning, this book is essential reading for preachers, students, and scholars alike- anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Gospels as living texts that continue to shape lives and societies.
BLOGPOST: Read an extract on who the Magi were and why they travelled on the SCM Press blog here.
Contents
Map of the ancient Near East, first centuries bce/ce, with places
featured in this book x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xiii
Timeline of the most important events mentioned in this book xix
1 Mark - 'Good News': Inner Catharsis as the Third Way
Between Religion and Politics 1
'Good news' 1
Mark in time and place 5
A new understanding of religion and politics 21
A new understanding of purity and purification: An inner
catharsis 48
Jesus as innovator 57
The death of an innovator: The end, or a whisper of divinity? 59
An open ending: 'And they said nothing to anyone, for they
were afraid' 70
The figure of Mark, according to Papias, bishop of Hierapolis
(c. 101-110 ce) 74
Postlude - A poetic reverberation: W. H. Auden's 'Kairos
and Logos' (1941) 79
2 Matthew - Beyond the Roman West and the Parthian East:
The 'Kingdom of Heaven' and its Constitution 96
The antithesis between West and East: The Magi from
the East 97
The constitution of an alternative kingdom between West
and East: The Sermon on the Mount 108
The return to the mountain of the Sermon on the Mount 119
Readership and place of writing 121
The destruction of Jerusalem 123
The quest for the kingdom 124
The figure of Matthew, also according to Papias of
Hierapolis 126
Postlude - A poetic reverberation: T. S. Eliot's 'Journey
of the Magi' (1927) 127
3 Luke - 'The Way of Peace': The Gospel as Journey Through
the World 135
The Gospel of Luke, the last of the Synoptics 135
The location where Luke's Gospel was written, Part I: Rome 140
The location where Luke's Gospel was written, Part II: The
Library of Peace 144
The relationship between the Gospels of Luke and Matthew 153
A SWOT analysis of Luke's Gospel 168
Writing for a Roman Readership: Luke's Romanization,
Stoicization, and juridicization 202
Luke: Paul's co-worker? 208
Postlude - A reverberation in prose: Maurice Laurentin's
Notebooks of an Infantryman (1914) 210
Postlude - A poetic reverberation: W. H. Auden's 'For the
Time Being' (1941-1942) 21
4 John - Spectators of the Truth: The Incarnation of the
Logos on the Stage of Life 228
The Gospel engages its readers: Prologue, literary turning
point, and direct second-person address 228
The date, location, and author of John's Gospel 249
The Gospel's themes 260
The purpose of John's Gospel 273
Postlude - A poetic reverberation: Goethe's Faust: A Tragedy
(1808/1832) 275
5 Conclusion: The Circular Ripples of Jesus' Historical Impact 286
The first ripple effect of Jesus' impact: The Gospels of John
and Mark 287
Abolishing the nineteenth-century distinction between
John's Gospel and the 'historical' Gospels 294
The second ripple effect of Jesus' impact: The Gospel of
Matthew 298
Placing Papias and Paul in the concentric circles 303
The third ripple effect of Jesus' impact: The Gospel of Luke 305
After Luke: Various possible responses to the four Gospels 308
The various degrees of relationship between the Gospel
authors and Jesus 309
The Jewish, Roman, and Greek identities of the Gospel
authors and their distinctive emphases 313
Postlude - A poetic reverberation: Edward Shillito's 'Jesus
of the Scars' (1919) 314
List of Illustrations 321
Index of Names and Subjects 329
Index of Biblical References 355
