The Parousia and Its Rereadings: The Development of the Eschatological Consciousness in the Writings of the New Testament

One of the fundamental presuppositions of the theology of the Old Testament is the coming of God to establish the kingdom and to vindicate God’s people, Israel. This metaphor receives ample and diverse treatment in the Hebrew Bible, ranging from beliefs in a temporal, earthly kingdom to a supra-temporal, heavenly kingdom. In the New Testament, this idea informs the early church’s belief in a future coming of Christ at the end of the age to save and to judge and to usher in God’s reign. This book attempts to analyze three different rereadings of this concept in the writings of the New Testament: the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Mark, and the second letter of Peter.