W. D. Davies

Bio: W. D. Davies is an academic researcher from State University of New York System. The author has contributed to research in topics: Judaism & New Testament. The author has an hindex of 18, co-authored 37 publications receiving 1165 citations. Previous affiliations of W. D. Davies include Duke University.

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew

Abstract: For over one hundred years, the International Critical Commentary series has held a special place among works on the Bible. It has sought to bring together all the relevant aids to exegesis - linguistic and textual no less than archaeological, historical, literary and theological-with a level of comprehension and quality of scholarship unmatched by any other series. No attempt has been made to secure a uniform theological or critical approach to the biblical text: contributors have been invited for their scholarly distinction, not for their adherence to any one school of thought. The first paperback editions to be published cover the heart of the New Testament, providing a wealth of information and research in accessible and attractive format.

The Gospel and the land;: Early Christianity and Jewish territorial doctrine,

Abstract: Ostensibly Davies' patient study of the concepton of the "land" (Israel, Jerusalem) in early Christianity is an essay in Biblical theology, but he also wishes to raise serious questions about Christian understanding (or misunderstanding) of Judaism. "Christians have usually understood Judaism in too theological, and therefore, too intellectual terms. And they have also looked at their own foundation document, the New Testament, in the same way. In their proper concern to unravel theological developments and subtleties in primitive Christianity, they have neglfected to search for evidences of an encounter between it and the realia of Judaism and for any possible resolutions of such an tencounter. In particular, they have failed to inquire after the place of the land in the thought and lives of early Christians" (p. 161). Davies observes, for example, that bible dictionaries often have no references whatsoever to "land" and those that do allot it but a few pages. Even in Old Testament scholarship, where the land is of central significance in the documents themselves, it has been neglected. His work is an attempt to provide a context of Jewish thinking from early Israelite writings up to the Talmud in which to place the Christian materials. The bulk of the book is an account of the historical and theological process by which early Christianity gave a "spiritual" interpretation of traditional Jewish views of the land. Read against the Jewish background, the radical spiritualizing of the tradition is striking. Yet Davies also shows that Jewish attitudes were not monolithic in the first century, that notions of a preexistent, heavenly or eschatological Jerusalem were present, and that some Jews considered the viability of Judaism apart from the land. At some point however what could be entertained as an abstraction in Judaism, when it was made concrete in the life of the Christian movement, could not be tolerated. The conflict was heightened, of course, by the destruction of Jerusalem and the continued existence of Christianity as a movement increasingly receptive to non-Jews. Christianity, however, while rejecting the link between the land and religion, did create a new sense of "holy space" by hallowing the places where Christ had been, a development which would find fullest expression some several centuries later. As a result of the Holocaust and the establishment of the modern state of Israel Christians are faced with a whole new series of issues which have lain dormant since the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Davies' work must be read against this backdrop to appreciate its significance. It is as much a book about modern Christian thinking as it is about the past, as many of his citations and his several appendices of speeches at Jewish-Christian conferences show. To some it may appear that he has sided too closely with certain strands of Judaism and allowed this to color his way of handling the pre-Christian and pre-Rabbinic material, but such criticism is carping. Much of the material here is gathered together in this fashion for the first time, and he has successfully shown that a major preoccupation of ancient Judaism is missing in contemporary biblical scholarship. Further, he has given us a moving yet scholarly statement of the pathos of the modern Christian who cares about Christ and Israel and who tries to understand Israel while loving Christ.

Paul and the People of Israel

Abstract: To understand the Apostle Paul's attitude to his own people, it is necessary to place it in the perspective of his interpretation of the Gospel as a whole. Two main approaches to this have been taken. There are those who see Paul's point of departure in his conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and in the transformation of the understanding of the messianic condition which this demanded. Others point out that in his epistles Paul seems to be most concerned, not with the messiahship of Jesus, but with the criticism of the Law, that Paul's call (misnamed a ‘conversion’) arose from a new insight into the meaning, function and weakness of the Law (and with this, the insight into the nature of the self), not from a new concept of messiahship. They claim that Judaism, always tolerant of diversity of belief even in messianic claimants, could absorb Paul's paradoxical doctrine of a crucified Messiah but could not overlook Paul's acceptance of Gentiles, sinners who did not observe the Law, as members of the people of God. This passed the limits of Jewish tolerance and brought down upon the Apostle the wrath of his own people. The two positions indicated are too polarized. The immediate cause of the Jewish opposition to Paul centred in the Law. But his understanding of the Law was inextricably bound up with the significance which he had come to ascribe to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and with the challenge that this issued to all the fundamental symbols of Jewish life. To isolate the criticism of the Law from the total messianic situation as Paul conceived it is both to exaggerate and to trivialize it. That criticism was a derivative of the place which Paul ascribed to Jesus as the Messiah.

シナゴ-グ〔Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land 4,1978より〕 (シナゴ-グ考古学ノ-ト-1-)

Abstract: This revised and updated edition of the classic in its field is an essential reference tool for all students of Christianity. Listing archaeological sites vital to an accurate understanding of the origins and developments of the great western religions, it also contains app. 100 pages on ancient Churches and Monasteries. Organised alphabetically and in four volumes this comprehensive work contains over 400 articles prepared by more than 150 scholars around the world. Lavishly illustrated with more than 2000 maps, plans, charts and drawings.

Place-Names in Israel's Ideological Struggle over the Administered Territories

Abstract: This paper deals with the symbolic role of place-names as expressions of ideological values. Names are symbolic elements of landscape that reflect abstract or concrete national and local sentiments...

The hermeneutics of social identity in Luke-Acts

Abstract: Social Identity Theory (SIT) is a promising tool in New Testament studies for helping readers understand the dynamics and formation of group identity in the First Century. The specific contention of this dissertation is that the author of Luke-Acts seeks to create and shape identity among God-fearers in the New Christian Movement by means of “cultural memory” and prescribed group behavior. Luke has an inclusive agenda that involves decentralization of the Jewish establishment, while redefining a number of core symbols of Judaism (notably the Temple and the land) around Jesus. Luke’s robust sense of gospel - rooted in Israel’s history, while extending to all people – forms a crucial backdrop for investigating his ethnically universalist tendencies and his narrative methods of communication. Specifically, social identity is formed through the use of prototypes and exemplars, characters that resemble a quality that the group either desires to promote or eliminate. Luke communicates many of these facets through speeches, utilizing elements of firstcentury Greco-Roman rhetoric. My eclectic, yet integrated approach aims to do justice to under-recognized features of social identity formation in Luke’s two volume work, with a particular focus on volume two (Acts).