| This work explores the early discourse of the Jesus movement as an antisociety recorded from the synoptic authors Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This work squarely places the Jesus movement in the midst of a first century Palestinian Jewish milieu ever struggling to retain its unique identity within the overwhelming syncretism of a Hellenistic parent culture. The synoptic authors tell of a Jesus who demonstrated Messianic claims and resocialized his disciples in the countercultural praxis of God's kingdom proclamation. The sociolinguistic methodology of this work uncovers the Jesus movement's antisocietal tendencies as recorded in the synoptic material in order to dissect the early years of the Jesus movement from a social perspective: why it spawned, what it stood for, what sociological direction it took, and why it left Palestinian Jewish audiences heads rattling between the extremes of either blessing God, or killing Jesus. |
