Ep 159: Jesus and His Promised Second Coming with Tucker Ferda

In this episode I talk with Dr. Tucker Ferda, associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is the author of the brand-new book Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins, out now on Eerdmans Press. In this book Ferda challenges a long-standing assumption in New Testament scholarship by arguing that the hope for Jesus’ second coming was not a product of the early church but originated with the historical Jesus himself. Tucker explains the reception history of the second coming, demonstrating that the early church and pre-Enlightenment Christians all believed Jesus taught of his own second coming, and how that perspective shifted during the Enlightenment. New Testament scholarship has essentially assumed that Jesus couldn’t have predicted his own second coming, and the question has been ignored in modern scholarship. Ferda disagrees. Working backwards from Paul, through the Gospels, to the historical Jesus himself, Ferda contends that the belief in the second coming only makes sense if it was originated by Jesus himself, and shows that his view of his own death, interim, and second coming is completely compatible with 2nd temple Jewish eschatology. We then discuss the intended impact of his work on NT scholarship and the forthcoming ‘Next Quest’ for the historical Jesus. 

Media Referenced:

Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: https://a.co/d/5l7E3dX

Tucker Ferda Faculty Page: https://www.pts.edu/ferdat

Tucker Ferda on Academia: https://pts.academia.edu/TuckerFerda

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