The Death of Jesus in Matthew: Innocent Blood and the End of Exile

In this book, Catherine Sider Hamilton introduces a new lens through which to view the death of Jesus in Matthew. Using the concept of 'innocent blood', she situates the death of Jesus within a paradigm of purity and pollution, one that was central in the Hebrew Scriptures and early Judaism from the Second Temple to the rabbis. Hamilton traces the theme of innocent blood in Matthew's narrative in relation to two Jewish traditions of interpretation, one (in Second Temple literature) reflecting on the story of Cain and Abel; the other (chiefly in rabbinic literature) on the blood of Zechariah. 'Innocent blood' yields a vision that resists the dichotomies (intra muros vs extra muros, rejection vs redemption) that have characterized the debate, a vision in which both judgment and redemption - an end of exile - may be true. 'Innocent blood' offers a new approach not only to the meaning of Jesus' death in Matthew but also to the vexed question of the Gospel's attitude toward contemporary Judaism.

Author: Catherine Sider Hamilton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/16/2017
Pages: 284
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.80w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781107110519

About the Author
Hamilton, Catherine Sider: - Catherine Sider Hamilton is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Greek at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto, and Priest-in-charge at St Matthew's Anglican Church, Toronto. She received a Helliwell-Thompson doctoral fellowship from Wycliffe College and a SSHRC doctoral grant which enabled her to begin and complete this book. She is a member of the Society for Biblical Literature and the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and has given numerous papers at these annual conferences. She has published peer-reviewed articles on Matthew and on Paul. In addition, she writes on women in the early church and is currently co-authoring the book Paul and Women through the Ages (forthcoming). She owns and maintains the blog, feastfastferia.wordpress.com, exploring the rhythms of the Christian year.