Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins

by Tucker S. Ferda, Dale C. Allison Jr. (foreword)

In this pioneering study of Scripture and reception history, Tucker S. Ferda shows that the hope for Jesus’s second coming originated in his own message about the coming of the kingdom after a time of distress.    Most historical Jesus scholars take for granted that Jesus’s second coming was invented by his zealous early followers. In Jesus and His Promised Second Coming, Tucker S. Ferda challenges this critical consensus. Using innovative methodology, Ferda works backward through reception history to Paul and the Gospels to argue that the hope for the second coming originated in Jesus’s own grappling with the prospect of death and his conviction that the kingdom was near; he expected a return that would coincide with the final judgment and the end of the age within the space of a generation.    Ferda also makes a major contribution to the reception history of the Bible, shedding light on how Christians distinguished themselves from Judaism by deriding “Jewish messianism” as earthly minded and militaristic. In the early modern period, critics found an expedient way to distance Jesus from this caricature of “Jewish messianism”: they pinned the expectation for the second coming on Jesus’s early followers.  A new appreciation for the diversity of Judaism and messianism in the Second Temple period makes possible a fresh reconstruction of Jesus.     Bold and historically astute, Jesus and His Promised Second Coming breathes new life into a long-stagnant conversation. It also offers readers fresh insight into the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Students and scholars of the New Testament will need to read and engage with Ferda’s provocative argument.

Genres: Christianity, Biblical Studies, New Testament

564 pages, Hardcover

Published September 12, 2024

Reviews

[Charles Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an ambitious book! The author makes a case that predictions of Jesus's second coming go back to Jesus Himself. He spends a good deal of time surveying the history of interpretation, and debunking the idea that these eschatological expectations were drummed up and added by Jesus's followers after His death. In addition he points of that most of these predictions seem to imply a delay between Jesus's death and that return, contra Schweizer. He deals with most all the salient texts in the NT, as well as the DSS and Hebrew Bible - and reviews second temple messianic expectations. Overall the amount of material the author attempts to cover is so voluminous the attention given some themes is thin. Still a very well researched study with some great insights.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ferda explores the historicity of the expectation of Christ's second coming in the early church. This book serves to fill a lacuna in the study of the historical Jesus especially as it pertains to the parousia. While there are some exegetical and historical-critical moves Ferda makes that I do not find persuasive but, overall, this is a welcome and needed addition to this field of study.

[Russell Matherly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waffled between a 3 and a 4 on this one (bc I was thinking like a 3.75 but figured it earned the 4.

I think (and this was pretty much entirely my fault) I was expecting this book to be much more eschatology and less historical Jesus. Not that it didn’t have eschatology bc it certainly did! Those parts (which were very well done) were drowned out by the sometimes droning pages of historical Jesus ins and outs. I felt like this book was very strong exegetically (the excursus on the intermediate state in particular was excellent), but I didn’t feel there was enough of it, or that it was particularly as deep as I would have liked. For instance, his interaction with more preteristic arguments like those from Wright or Caird ultimately came down to “there’s no way this was just about the destruction of the temple” without showing a lot more of the necessary evidence (except for in Paul’s letters and in John, where such arguments didn’t need defending).

I will say Ferda is RIDICULOUSLY well read and well studied. Dude knew his stuff, and especially in his grasp of the second temple literature. That was very impressive.

Overall a good (though at times slow) read with some fascinating implications. It’s just funny to me how so much modern scholarship is basically just uncovering the historic orthodox positions of the church, but I am here for it!