A VISION FOR THE CHURCH

Studies in Early Christian Ecclesiology in Honour of J. P. M. Sweet

Edited by

MARKUS BOCKMUEHL and MICHAEL B. THOMPSON

T&T CLARK

EDINBURGH

T&T CLARK LTD

59 GEORGE STREET

EDINBURGH EH₂ ₂LQ

SCOTLAND

Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd, 1997

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of T&T Clark Ltd.

First published 1997

ISBN 0 567 08573 2 HB

ISBN 0 567 08579 1 PB

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

J. P. M. Sweet

Contents

Preface

Foreword

C. F. D. Moule

Abbreviations

1. Septuagintal and New Testament Conceptions of the Church

William Horbury

2. Matthew’s Vision for the Church

Michael Goulder

3. Mark’s Vision for the Church

Morna D. Hooker

4. Luke’s Vision for the Church

David Seccombe

5. Q and the ‘Church’: The Role of the Christian Community within Judaism according to Q

Christopher M. Tuckett

6. A Vision for the Church: John’s Gospel

J. C. O’Neill

7. The Johannine Community and the Letters of John

Stephen S. Smalley

8. The Pauline Communities

Andrew Chester

9. Romans 12:1–2 and Paul’s Vision for Worship

Michael B. Thompson

10. The Church in Hebrews

Markus Bockmuehl

11. James, ₁ Peter, Jude and ₂ Peter

Richard Bauckham

12. The Hearing Formula and the Visions of John in Revelation

G. K. Beale

13. The Lamb and the Beast, the Sheep and the Goats: ‘The Mystery of Salvation’ in Revelation

Christopher Rowland

14. The Vision of the Church in the Apostolic Fathers

James Carleton Paget

15. Universalism and Particularism: Twin Components of Both Judaism and Early Christianity

John M. G. Barclay

Select Bibliography of the Writings of J. P. M. Sweet

List of Contributors

Index of Ancient Sources

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Subjects

Preface

When we first hatched the idea of honouring John Sweet with a Festschrift on his 70th birthday, it was heartening to see the enthusiastic responses from his friends and former students whom we approached as contributors. It quickly became clear that here was a man whose nearly four decades of teaching the New Testament at Cambridge have endeared him to his colleagues and students as a scholar, a Christian pastor, and (as one contributor puts it) a prince of teachers. He is someone whose selfless service, putting the needs of others before his own concerns, has won him the unreserved affection of all who know him.

This volume is itself designed to express and bear witness to three important foci of his work. It is a book intended in the first instance for students. Second, in keeping with John Sweet’s life-long engagement for the Church, it surveys the earliest Christian writers’ ideas of what the Church should be and become. And third, its title alludes to the vision which John of Patmos had of and for the Church, a vision ...