Jesus' Messianic Self-Consciousness Revisited: Christology and Community in Context

This study reconsiders the question of Jesus’ messianic self-consciousness in light of his proclamation of God’s coming kingdom and its backdrop within Jewish texts that likely influenced or paralleled his own apocalyptic worldview (Second Isaiah, Daniel, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Similitudes of Enoch). Evidence mined from Gospel sources suggests that the historical Jesus’ mission was both broadly ‘messianic’—that is, as one closely associated with God’s coming reign—and corporate in thrust—that is, involving others as active participants in that reign. Further, the communal dimension of Jesus’ messianic role coheres with the Jewish writings explored here, which consistently situate individual messianic figures in dynamic relationship with the faithful, serving to bridge the chasm between the divine and human realms.