Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins

What is the historical basis for today’s atonement theology? Where did it come from, and how has it evolved throughout time? In Atonement, a sterling collection of renowned biblical scholars investigates the early manifestations of this core concept in numerous ancient Jewish and Christian sources. Rather than imposing a particular view of atonement upon these texts, these specialists let the texts speak for themselves, so that the reader can truly understand atonement as it was variously conceived in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, and early Christian literature. The resulting diverse ideas mirror the manifold perspectives on atonement today. 

• Table of Contents
• Introduction - Max Botner; Justin Duff; Simon Dürr
• Section 1: Critical Issues and the Development of Atonement Legislation in the Hebrew Bible
• 1. Atonement: Amid Alexandria, Alamo, and Avatar - Christian A. Eberhart
• 2. Sin, Sacrifice, but No Salvation: When the Circle Cannot Be Completed - Deborah W. Rooke
• 3. Atonement beyond Israel: The Holiness School’s Amendment to Priestly Legislation on the Sin Sacrifice (ḥaṭṭā’t) - David P. Wright
• Section 2: Anthropology, Cosmology, and Mediators in Early Jewish and Christian Atonement Theologies
• 4. When the Problem Is Not What You Have Done but Who You Are: The Changing Focus of Atonement in Second Temple Prayer and Poetry - Carol A. Newsom
• 5. Ben Sira 50: The High Priest Is an Incorporative Divine Messiah and At-One-Ment Takes Place through Worship in the Microcosm - Crispin Fletcher-Louis
• 6. Get the Story Right and the Models Will Fit: Victory through Substitution in “Atonement Theology” - N. T. Wright
• 7. “Seeing,” Salvation, and the Use of Scripture in the Gospel of John - Catrin Williams
• 8. Sealed for Redemption: The Economics of Atonement in Ephesians - T. J. Lang
• 9. What Goes on in the Heavenly Temple?: Celestial Praise and Sacrifice in Ancient Judaism and Christianity - Martha Himmelfarb