Jesus and the metaphors of God

by Bernard J. Lee

Jesus and the Metaphors of God is the second of a richly significant three-volume study of the Jewish origins of Christianity and their relevance to Christian identity today. In Volume 1, The Galilean Jewishness of Jesus, Lee explores the Galilean Jewish character of Jesus and of Christian beginnings. Jesus and the Metaphor of God, Volume 2, explores the layers of God-meanings in the New Testament as they are found encoded in several major metaphors: Ruach/Spirit; Dabhar/Word; Sophia/Wisdom; Logos/Word. Whenever God-meanings shift, explains Lee, so does the christological meaning of Jesus as the Christ of God. Jesus and the Metaphors of God is a ground-breaking study of these multiple layers of God-meanings and an important contribution to understanding how culturally conditioned metaphors function throughout the Christian scriptures. This truly significant work makes a well-argued and distinctive contribution to the theology of the New Testament and the Jewish-Christian dialogue.