Abraham, Ancestry, and Ethnicity in Lukes Gospel: From These Stones [Hardcover]

What happens to the racial identity of those who follow Jesus?Abraham, Ancestry, and Ethnicity in Lukes Gospel: From These Stonesexplores how Luke employs the concept of ancestryespecially descent from Abrahamto recategorize believers and nonbelievers. Lukes use of the patriarch is informed by his function in Second Temple literature, as the ancestor of the Israel, but also the father of several other races, and a point of surprising contact between Jews and gentiles. In his gospel, Luke offers a new layer of ethnic identity to gentile believers, as adjunct members of Abrahams family tree.Abraham, Ancestry, and Ethnicity in Luke's Gospel: From These Stones explores how Luke employs ancestry-especially descent from Abraham-to recategorize believers and nonbelievers. Capitalizing on the surprising slipperiness of race antiquity, Luke offers a new layer of ethnic identity to gentile believers, as Abraham's extended family.Andrew Benkois Academic Dean of the Iona School for Ministry and serves as a priest in the Diocese of Texas (Episcopal).

In this richly detailed, elegantly written, and thoughtful book, Andrew Benko explores Lukes racial reasoning using an ethnos-conscious approach. Setting his analysis of Luke in the context of other Jewish, Greek and Roman writings, Benko explores the various ways in which Luke appeals to ancestry, and especially to Abraham, to construct the identity of Christ-believers as well as to configure their relationship to (other) Judeans. He also conducts this primarily historical enquiry with a sensitivity to its contemporary implications, and to the ambivalent legacy that such texts bequeath to us. David G. Horrell, University of Exeter, UK

With this deeply researched and timely book, Benko continues his interrogation of the complex way that race functions in the Gospels. He makes a compelling case that the competing interpretations of the figure of Abraham provides a critical window into how 2nd TemplS,