How Jesus understood his death is an important datum for the reconstruction of· the aims of Jesus. Having experienced the rejection of his message of the Kingdom of God, Jesus found himself in a situation of crisis, wherein he was forced to reflect on the theological significance of his failure. He came to the conclusion that it was God's will that his death be an expiation for sin. This is how he incorporated his death into his understanding of his role as
the messenger of
the Kingdom of God.
If the
historian
does
not
take
Jesus'
understanding
of
his
death
into
consideration,
his
reconstruction of
the aims
of
Jesus
will
necessarily be
truncated.
In
particular,
Jesus
came
to
understand
his
approaching death in the light of Jewish paschal theology. He viewed the sacrifice of the Passover lambs in Egypt as typological of his own death. In like manner, his death would be a redemptive event, being both an expiation for sin and the means by which the new covenant, foretold by Jeremiah, would be realized. Appropriately enough, he expressed this to his disciples at his last Passover meal. Jesus' understanding of the significance of his death parallels the Jewish tradition of the Binding of Isaac. In post-biblical Judaism, Isaac's sacrifice or at least his willingness to be sacrificed was interpreted as expiatory and as the ground of the efficacy of the original Passover offerings. Similarly, Jesus saw his own death as expiatory
and
the
typological
fulfilment of the
original
Passover
offerings.
The
words
of
institution,
moreover,
represent
the
establishment by Jesus of a new liturgical practice in continuity with the Passover, reflecting his self-understanding of being the eschatological messenger of God. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/15812 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Smith, Barry Douglas |
| Contributors | Meyer, Dr. Ben F., Religious Studies |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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