My New Article in Journal of GR Christianity and Judaism

I just saw (recently posted) the new article by Fred Long (Asbury) and me in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism called:

“The Politics of Ephesians and the Empire: Accommodation or Resistance?”

I am very proud of this article, partly because it was a pleasure to partner with Fred Long on this as he is the real Ephesians guru. This was also good preparation for me as I prepare a commentary on Colossians – as there is much overlap in cosmology and interest in “powers.”

This article has been in the works for a long time. It began, partly in my hands, as an idea for an extended review article arguing against some of the claims made by Neil Elliott about Ephesians/Colossians. Elliott saw these documents as witnessing to a “canonical betrayal” of the real Paul in that they were accommodating documents that gave in to the imperial status quo and tried to soften the radicality of true Pauline disruption of power plays. Fred contacted me, as he is writing a truly revolutionary commentary on Ephesians, and offered the suggestion of working on something more constructive and substantial. (We were both surprised that the topic of Ephesians and empire has been rarely broached by NT scholars.) What we have now is the result of some of my theoretical and history of interpretation work, and his impressive Greco-Roman context research. We learned a lot in the process of working on this and we appreciate the support of Stan Porter and his editorial team. I would certainly endorse the idea of co-authorship, but we both recognized that such an endeavor comes with a unique set of challenges in terms of unity and coherence. Enjoy!