Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament

Download or read book Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament written by Paul Raymond Trebilco and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What terms did early Christians use for outsiders? How did they refer to non-members? In this book-length investigation of these questions, Paul Trebilco explores the outsider designations that the early Christians used in the New Testament. He examines a range of terms, including unbelievers, 'outsiders', sinners, Gentiles, Jews, among others. Drawing on insights from social identity theory, sociolinguistics, and the sociology of deviance, he investigates the usage and development of these terms across the New Testament, and also examines how these outsider designations function in boundary construction across several texts. Trebilco's analysis leads to new conclusions about the identity and character of the early Christian movement, the range of relations between early Christians and outsiders, and the theology of particular New Testament authors.