Christology Within Messianism

A bold reassessment of a long-standing divide

The perceived divide between early christology and ancient Jewish messianism has long shaped how scholars read the New Testament—but what if that divide is neither inevitable nor tenable any longer?

Christology Within Messianism gathers an international team of scholars to challenge this assumption head-on. Through historical, sociolinguistic, and theological analysis, contributors situate the earliest christologies firmly within Second Temple Judaism, examining how titles and attributes applied to Jesus emerge from diverse royal, priestly, and heavenly messianic expectations. They trace the “grammar of messianism”—the shared scriptural conventions and Jewish exegetical practices through which early Christian writers articulated claims about Jesus—and consider what it means to position christology within Judaism rather than against it.

Structured in three parts, the volume moves from the development of messianic ideas to close analyses of early Christian texts, and finally to methodological reflection with implications for contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. For students and scholars of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism, this book challenges the assumptions that have shaped the field—and charts a new way forward.