The Christian Moses
Vision, Authority, and the Limits of Humanity in the New Testament and Early Christianity
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The Christian Moses
Vision, Authority, and the Limits of Humanity in the New Testament and Early Christianity
About this book
Two verses about Moses in the Bible have been the subject of debate since the first century. In Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses that no one can see God and live, but Numbers 12:8 says that Moses sees the form of the Lord. How does one reconcile these two opposing statements? Did Moses see God, and who gets to decide?
The Christian Moses investigates how ancient Christians from the New Testament to Augustine of Hippo resolved questions of who can see God, how one can see God, and what precisely one sees. Jaeda Calaway explains that the decision about whether and how Moses saw God was not a neutral exercise for an early Christian. Rather, it established the interpreter's authority to determine what was possible in divine-human relations and set the parameters for the nature of humanity. As a result, Calaway argues, interpretations of Moses' visions became a means for Jews and Christians to jockey for power, allowing them to justify particular social arrangements, relations, and identities, to assert the limits of humans in the face of divinity, and to create an Other.
Seeing early Christians with new eyes, The Christian Moses reassesses how debates on Moses' visions from the first through the fifth centuries were, in reality, debates on the boundaries of humanity.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations to Ancient Sources
- 1 Introduction: Moses, Vision, and Human Limits
- 2 To See God and Live in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism
- 3 Moses’ and Humanity’s Limitations in the New Testament
- 4 Justin Martyr of Flavia Neapolis (c. 100–165 CE): Theophany Is Christophany
- 5 Theophilus to Autolycus: The Son’s Masquerade
- 6 Ireneaus of Lyons (c. 140–202 CE): Progressive Dispensational Visions of Purification
- 7 Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215 CE): Moses as the Model Gnostic Visionary
- 8 Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160–220 CE): Theophany as Incarnation Training
- 9 Origen (c. 185–254 CE): Purifying the Eye of the Mind
- 10 Moses, Vision, and Episcopal Authority in Late-Antique Christianity
- 11 “Show Me Yourself”: Corporeal, Spiritual, and Intellectual Vision in Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE)
- 12 Conclusion: The Agonies and the Ecstasies of Moses’ Visions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index