How Jesus offered revolutionary and luminous insights into knotty ethical dilemmas

The author's aim is to help thinking lay persons and people preparing sermons to apply NT ethics within a modern culture, while still remaining faithful to the text - by taking into account the ancient culture. This is high quality scholarship at a very accessible level. Over the centuries Jesus's teaching on ethical matters has often become muted and distorted. This book sets the matter straight. Here are 30 areas of ethical debate: in each context Jesus offered insights which would have left his contemporaries agape. They range from singleness (rare: could Jesus be trusted?) to abortion (unwanted children were strangled, and the early church notably took a strong stance against this practice) to sexual immorality (the NT church had an unusually high number of people who had been sexually promiscuous) to boasting (Jesus taught his disciples to take lowly titles as he did for himself, but the church ignored him).

The Revd Dr David Instone-Brewer is Senior Research Fellow and Technical Officer at Tyndale House, Cambridge. A Baptist minister, his hobby is computer programming. A rabbinic scholar, he is author of many academic and popular articles, and of 'Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities', published by Paternoster.

__Contents__  
Acknowledgments 7  
Introduction 9  
Why Look for Scandals? 11  
__Part 1: Scandals in Jesus' Life Illegitimate Birth 16__  
Ineligible Bachelor 22  
Fraudulent Miracles 27  
Bad Table Manners 33  
Alcohol Abuse 38  
Disruptive Worship 43  
Exposing Temple Scams 49  
Supplanting Passover 54  
Contemplating Suicide 60  
Censored Arrest Warrant 65  
Shameful Execution 71  
Embarrassing Resurrection 76  
__Part 2: Scandals Among Jesus' Friends Mary Magdalene 82__  
Judas Iscariot 88  
Second-rate Disciples 93  
The Unchosen 102  
The Cursed 106  
Prostitutes 111  
__Part 3: Scandals in Jesus' Teaching Child Abuse 118__  
Hypocrisy 122  
Polygamy 126  
No-fault Divorce 132  
Marital Abuse 140  
Unfair Loans 147  
Oaths and Curses 153  
Bitterness and Hatred 158  
Good and Bad Luck 163  
God-sent Disasters 168  
Unforgivable Blasphemy 173  
Eternal Torment 178  
Further Reading 185  
Index 187

"The Jesus Scandals" by David Instone-Brewer explores 30 ethical debates in Jesus's teachings, addressing modern applications while respecting ancient contexts for laypersons and sermon preparation.

\["For seekers of deep biblical insights and ethics", "Clarifies Jesus's teachings on modern ethical issues", "You will gain a fresh perspective on Jesus's impact"\]

Explore the shocking ethical teachings of Jesus in The Jesus Scandals.

David Instone-Brewer

Cover

Praise

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Why Look for Scandals?

Part 1: Scandals in Jesus' Life

Illegitimate Birth

Ineligible Bachelor

Fraudulent Miracles

Bad Table Manners

Alcohol Abuse

Disruptive Worship

Exposing Temple Scams

Supplanting Passover

Contemplating Suicide

Censored Arrest Warrant

Shameful Execution

Embarrassing Resurrection

Part 2: Scandals Among Jesus' Friends

Mary Magdalene

Judas Iscariot

Second-rate Disciples

The Unchosen

The Cursed

Prostitutes

Part 3: Scandals in Jesus' Teaching

Child Abuse

Hypocrisy

Polygamy

No-fault Divorce

Marital Abuse

Unfair Loans

Oaths and Curses

Bitterness and Hatred

Good and Bad Luck

God-sent Disasters

Unforgivable Blasphemy

Eternal Torment

Instone-Brewer, David

How Jesus offered revolutionary and luminous insights into knotty ethical dilemmas.

The author's aim is to help thinking lay persons and people preparing sermons to apply NT ethics within a modern culture, while still remaining faithful to the text - by taking into account the ancient culture. This is high quality scholarship at a very accessible level. Over the centuries Jesus's teaching on ethical matters has often become muted and distorted. This book sets the matter straight. Here are 30 areas of ethical debate: in each context Jesus offered insights which would have left his contemporaries agape.

The Good Book Stall

I doubt that I would have picked this book off the bookshelf having merely glanced at its title. My first impression would have been, ‘Oh no, not another in the ‘let’s discredit Christianity’ genre’. How wrong can one be!  
The author’s credentials are impeccable. The Revd Dr David Instone-Brewer is a Baptist Minister and renowned academic. He is currently Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House in Cambridge. His personal presuppositions are that Jesus is who he claimed to be in the Gospels and that these accounts represent what actually happened.  
He sets out his ‘raison d’etre’ for this book as follows; ‘Scandals are our best guarantee of historical truths in the Gospels. When disgraceful, embarrassing and shocking details about Jesus are recorded by his friends and supporters, it is much harder to disbelieve them.’   
In highlighting Jesus’ counter-cultural ethics and the scandals associated with him in the eyes of his contemporaries Revd Instone-Brewer convincingly demonstrates the unlikelihood of their inclusion in the Gospels were they false. In so doing he makes an excellent case for the veracity of the Gospels.  
The lively and accessible style is enjoyable whilst remaining scholarly and authentic. Parallels are drawn with our own society which will engage a wide range of readers. Thought provoking, illuminating and challenging, this book is not for the faint hearted and may well shock you out of your comfort zone. However, it will also remind you all too clearly of our calling as Christians.  
Offering well informed contextualisation the author demonstrates how truly shocking Jesus’ teaching and ministry were to the people of his day. Through a better understanding of the historical perspective and culture the reader is led to a greater awareness of the emphasis of Jesus’ teaching and the impact it had.   
The individual chapters are designed to be self-contained and short enough to be read in a coffee break or used as the basis for a short talk. In addition to its benefits to the individual reader, I believe this book would offer an excellent resource in nurture groups for those wishing to deepen their understanding of Jesus and the Christian faith.  
This is one of those books to which I shall return often, finding it applicable to many different contexts and no doubt offering it to family, friends and congregations as a stimulus to their own walk of faith.

The Jesus Scandals

Why He Shocked His Contemporaries (and Still Shocks Today)

Navigation Bar

Header Default

Download the Christian360 App to read eBooks and listen to Audiobooks bought at Christian360

Download the App

The Jesus Scandals

Description

Need support?

Customer reviews

Download the App

Download the App