tailieunhanh - Animals, Gods and Humans - Chapter 8

Judaism and Christianity There was no single Christian view of animals in antiquity, and no single view of animals in the New Testament. None of the New Testament texts make animals a special issue, and no systematic theology of animals can be deduced directly from these texts. However, even if none of the New Testament | 8 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE LAMB OF GOD Judaism and Christianity There was no single Christian view of animals in antiquity and no single view of animals in the New Testament. None of the New Testament texts make animals a special issue and no systematic theology of animals can be deduced directly from these texts. However even if none of the New Testament texts treat animals as a specific issue many of them reflect attitudes towards animals more indirectly. The aim of this chapter is to survey attitudes to animals in the New Testament. Let us start with the Jewish background. In the earliest form of Christianity there was some continuation of Jewish tradition at the same time as Christians used animals as cultural and religious markers in the process of separating themselves from Judaism. The different New Testament genres reflect various perspectives on animals. In the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles animals are part of the natural environment and frequently used in parables in the letters of Paul animals appear only sporadically and are described more negatively while in the Revelation of John fantastic animals are included in the rich imagery of apocalypse. These animals are except for the slaughtered lamb used mainly to describe destructive forces. Christianity started out as a Jewish sect and took much of its outlook on the world from Judaism. The close connection between the two religions is to be seen among other things in the fact that the Septuagint was the canonical text for Christians in the first century and that the Jewish Bible was later made part of the Christian canon. It is safe to say that Jewish traditions about animals formed the background to most conceptions of animals in the New Testament. Some of these conceptions continued to be meaningful to Christians some were rejected and others were developed in new directions. Crucial texts about animals are found in Genesis. Here God created animals directly on the fifth and sixth days of .