Posts Tagged ‘New Testament’

Colossians Remixed

Part 1.

Jesus is no longer worth following, or, at least, the Jesus painted by twenty-first American Christianity is not worth following. He is not exciting. He does not energize. Many in America have made Jesus into a prosperous, white-collared North American in order for anyone to pay interest. On the other hand, the Jesus, who Paul espouses, is exciting and challenging. Through Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat in their book Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire bring to light a first-century Jesus, who is the Lord of the whole world and an alternative to Caesar and his empire. Based on this type of Jesus, the authors do well to remind the reader of a few things that he or she should take into account. They take this first-century, subversive message of Jesus and apply it directly to followers of Christ today. This Jesus is worth following.

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Caesar Augustus

Many of my recent studies have been focused around Rome and the New Testament (as with my post on Warren Carter’s book). After doing much research, I have put together a document comparing Caesar and Jesus. We must remember that many (if not all) of these titles/topics were dedicated to the Caesars before Jesus so the New Testament’s critique on empire should not be missed. I know I left off some other important titles such as “son of God,” but this should be a good starting point. Also, I must state that I am indebted to Richard Smith from Biblical Seminary as his lectures have assisted me in these studies.

View the document “Comparison between Caesar and Jesus” here (.pdf).

Is there anything I missed?

What are your thoughts after viewing this document?

The Roman Empire in the days of the New Testament is the focus of Warren Carter’s The Roman Empire and the New Testament: an Essential Guide. Carter attempts to show the reader that the Roman Empire was at the forefront of the first century, Christian writers’ minds, and the empire is engaged in every chapter of the New Testament text (2006, p. 1). The contemporary reader struggles to see clearly each reference to Rome, but first century readers would have recognized the subversive nature of the text in every manner explicit, as well as, implicit. Warren Carter’s argument is quite convincing. He does well to develop the mindset of the first century writers, and he accomplishes his goal that the writers had Rome on their minds.

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