Outsider Designations and Boundary Construction in the New Testament
Early Christian Communities and the Formation of Group Identity

The first book-length study of the outsider designations that early Christians used and what they reveal about the movement's identity, self-understanding and character.

Paul Raymond Trebilco (Author)

9781108408141, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 November 2021

370 pages
23 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.558 kg

'Scholars, pastors, and students interested in the social context and identity formation of the early church will certainly benefit from Trebilco's labors.' David M. Shaw, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

What terms did early Christians use for outsiders? How did they refer to non-members? In this book-length investigation of these questions, Paul Trebilco explores the outsider designations that the early Christians used in the New Testament. He examines a range of terms, including unbelievers, 'outsiders', sinners, Gentiles, Jews, among others. Drawing on insights from social identity theory, sociolinguistics, and the sociology of deviance, he investigates the usage and development of these terms across the New Testament, and also examines how these outsider designations function in boundary construction across several texts. Trebilco's analysis leads to new conclusions about the identity and character of the early Christian movement, the range of relations between early Christians and outsiders, and the theology of particular New Testament authors.

1. Introduction
2. Methodology: insights and perspectives from other areas of study
3. The broad concept of 'the outsiders' and its lexicalisation using a range of different terms
4. Unbelievers: ï? ?ðéóôïé and other terms
5. 'The outsiders': ï? ?îù, ï? ?îùèåí and ?äé?ôáé
6. The sinners: ï? ?ìáñôùëï?
7. The Gentiles: ô? ?èíç
8. The Jews: ï? ?ïõäá?ïé
9. The functions of outsider designations in 1 Corinthians, Romans and 1 Thessalonians
10. The functions of outsider designations in the Pastoral Epistles and 1 Peter
11. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Biblical commentaries [HRCG1], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG], New Testaments [HRCF2], Church history [HRCC2], Christianity [HRC]