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End of the Ages Has Come
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- GenresBiblical StudiesTheology
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
54 people want to read
About the author
Dale C. Allison Jr.
33 books69 followersDr. Dale C. Allison Jr., an Errett M. Grable professor of New Testament exegesis and early Christianity, has been on the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary since 1997. Before then he served on the faculties of Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) and Friends University (Wichita, Kan.).
His areas of expertise include Second Temple Judaism, and he is the author of books on early Christian eschatology, the Gospel of Matthew, the so-called Sayings Source or Q, and the historical Jesus.
He has also written The Luminous Dusk, a book on religious experience in the modern world, and a full-length commentary on the Testament of Abraham. His most recently published works are The Love There That’s Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison, The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus, and Constructing Jesus: History, Memory, and Imagination. He is currently at work on a full-length commentary on the Epistle of James. He is married to Kristine Allison and they have three children.
His areas of expertise include Second Temple Judaism, and he is the author of books on early Christian eschatology, the Gospel of Matthew, the so-called Sayings Source or Q, and the historical Jesus.
He has also written The Luminous Dusk, a book on religious experience in the modern world, and a full-length commentary on the Testament of Abraham. His most recently published works are The Love There That’s Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison, The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus, and Constructing Jesus: History, Memory, and Imagination. He is currently at work on a full-length commentary on the Epistle of James. He is married to Kristine Allison and they have three children.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 6, 2017
The classic study of early Christian eschatology and, so far as I know, the source of such terms as "inaugurated eschatology" and the "already-but-not-yet" schema.
Allison observes the widespread use of eschatological and apocalyptic imagery in descriptions of Jesus' death and resurrection in the NT. That is, Jesus' death is the long-expected eschatological tribulation (the "messianic woes" the Mishnah describes); Jesus' resurrection the eschatological victory and vindication. So why didn't the other aspects of the eschaton - peace, judgment, a general resurrection, the end of suffering, etc. - dawn as expected? The second part of the book grapples with this question and proposes a novel solution which, he argues, has implications for modern Christian theology.
Allison observes the widespread use of eschatological and apocalyptic imagery in descriptions of Jesus' death and resurrection in the NT. That is, Jesus' death is the long-expected eschatological tribulation (the "messianic woes" the Mishnah describes); Jesus' resurrection the eschatological victory and vindication. So why didn't the other aspects of the eschaton - peace, judgment, a general resurrection, the end of suffering, etc. - dawn as expected? The second part of the book grapples with this question and proposes a novel solution which, he argues, has implications for modern Christian theology.
April 4, 2024
A dense exposition of Allison's thesis regarding the eschatology of the historical Jesus and how it changed as the expected apocalyptic events he predicted did not occur. Allison's many references to relevant Jewish apocalyptic writing to illustrate his arguments are particularly useful.
December 13, 2019
This is a gold mine. It’s also one of the few books I found myself rolling my eyes over something postulated every other page; yet because a ton of gold is unearthed for the reader, it has incredible potential for researchers in most subjects revolving around eschatology within second temple Judaism.
Allison Jr provides literally a few hundred examples in defense of views advocated by preterists, yet he touches none of that. Instead he assumes post ad70 authorship and offers sociological studies to explain away an imaginary dilemma.
The whole research project asks, how do we make sense of the crystal clear New Testament texts that announce and expect the promised eschaton to be imminent within that first century generation?
Obviously, the answer will be professionally convoluted if the author presupposes that it didn’t occur as promised.
I find his ultimate explanation of Christian application to be interesting and reasonable from his critical perspective, but that seems to be unnecessarily esoteric to appreciate, and boringly unoriginal; and, sadly, no solution is offered that seems necessary from a perspective of genuine first century fulfillment.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if God actually became man and actually brought about exactly what everybody was actually hearing him teach and what everybody was actually announcing—that which we can clearly see today in the manuscripts?
It’s too bad we now know that God accomplished everything that he and his disciples announced would be imminently fulfilled in that generation except those pesky statements which we NOW know could not have happened in the first century.
Cue eye roll.
Allison Jr provides literally a few hundred examples in defense of views advocated by preterists, yet he touches none of that. Instead he assumes post ad70 authorship and offers sociological studies to explain away an imaginary dilemma.
The whole research project asks, how do we make sense of the crystal clear New Testament texts that announce and expect the promised eschaton to be imminent within that first century generation?
Obviously, the answer will be professionally convoluted if the author presupposes that it didn’t occur as promised.
I find his ultimate explanation of Christian application to be interesting and reasonable from his critical perspective, but that seems to be unnecessarily esoteric to appreciate, and boringly unoriginal; and, sadly, no solution is offered that seems necessary from a perspective of genuine first century fulfillment.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if God actually became man and actually brought about exactly what everybody was actually hearing him teach and what everybody was actually announcing—that which we can clearly see today in the manuscripts?
It’s too bad we now know that God accomplished everything that he and his disciples announced would be imminently fulfilled in that generation except those pesky statements which we NOW know could not have happened in the first century.
Cue eye roll.
February 24, 2021
Allison contextualizes the synoptic apocalypse (Mk 13 = Mt 24 = Lk 21) against a background of Second Temple Jewish literature that shares a similar (and at times identical) Sitz im Leben. He collates a vast amount of literary data, justifying the generalization from it that, in the post-Easter period, the passion and resurrection accounts mirrored world-ending apocalyptic expectations. Using the historiographer's flawed (but only) methods available to exhume a historical Jesus, Allison asserts that the deified Nazarene likely predicted and interpreted his own death and vindication in apocalyptic terms.
Allison helpfully goes beyond the traditional tools of the biblical studies scholar, comparing other messianic movements in order to justify by analogy his apocalyptic inferences.
Against N. T. Wright, C. H. Dodd and other remythologizers of the canonical Jesus, Allison provides a heuristic with more explanatory depth and breadth than common confessional models.
And so C. S. Lewis's confession stands: the synoptic apocalypse is certainly 'the most embarrassing in the Bible.'
The coming never came.
Allison helpfully goes beyond the traditional tools of the biblical studies scholar, comparing other messianic movements in order to justify by analogy his apocalyptic inferences.
Against N. T. Wright, C. H. Dodd and other remythologizers of the canonical Jesus, Allison provides a heuristic with more explanatory depth and breadth than common confessional models.
And so C. S. Lewis's confession stands: the synoptic apocalypse is certainly 'the most embarrassing in the Bible.'
The coming never came.
October 14, 2023
One of the most challenging books I've read. Brant Pitre draws on this one in his dissertation book. Allison argues that Jesus and His followers seemed like they thought the world would soon end. Allison in a later essay challenged NT Wright and others who see the gospels as situating Jesus's death and resurrection as an event in the middle of history. He touches on a number of passages in Paul, but doesn't give much attention to details there.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews