review of nicholas perrin, jesus the temple

8/2/2019 Review of Nicholas Perrin, Jesus the Temple

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Nicholas Perrin is Franklin S. Dyrness Associate Professor of New Testament at

Wheaton College Graduate School and previously served as research assistant to N.T. Wright.

Perrin clearly shares much with his mentor: a critical-realistic approach to historical Jesus

studies, excellent facility with ancient sources, thematic convictions about continuing exile and

messianism, and an engaging, accessible style.

Perrins thesis inJesus the Temple is that Jesus of Nazareth saw himself and his

movement as nothing less than the decisive embodiment of Yahwehs eschatological temple

(12). If, Perrin claims in the introduction, the movement from which Jesus movement sprang

can be shown to have been counter-temple, and if the movement which continued after Jesus

earthly ministry could also be categorized as such, then it makes sense to argue that Jesus and his

followers also saw themselves in a similar counter-temple light.

Preceding Jesus were multiple Jewish counter-temple movements, including

Qumran sect and the community that produced thePsalms of Solomon. Perrin outlines common

aspects of these two movements and compares them with that of another close predecessor of

Jesus, John the Baptist. These movements, despite their clear differences, Perrin argues, share

four major features that characterize them as counter-temple: 1) finding fault with the ruling

priesthoodso that they considered the temple defiled, 2) believing that a time of tribulation

was underway, 3) seeing themselves as the scriptural fulfillment of the poor, and 4) carrying

out temple functions in response to perceived defilement of the Jerusalem temple.

Perrin attempts in Chapter 2 to establish that the early church also exhibited these four

characteristics of counter-temple movements, albeit with differences in important areas. Perrin

examines temple language in the earliest patristic literature, the later NT, and the synoptics and

Acts, ending with a discussion of temple in Paul. These texts, according to Perrin, reveal a


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similar counter-temple stance in the early church, but one that was grounded on the conviction

that the longed-for eschatological temple had come in the resurrection of Jesus (48). So, since the

movements that both preceded and succeeded Jesus earthly ministry could be described in these

terms, it is historically plausible that Jesus, who straddled both groups, also saw his own

mission and destiny in similar terms (78).

The most obvious evidence for Jesus view of the Jerusalem temple are the gospels

accounts of the cleansing of the temple. In chapter 3, Perrin argues that the cleansing shows

that Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of an array of Old Testament eschatological expectation,

from Isaiah 56 to Daniel 9. Perrin argues that this fateful act of Jesus shows his consciousness

that the temple had been profaned by the idolatrous greed of the established priesthood. Jesus

and his movement were Gods answer to this defilement of the temple, and the cleansing was a

sign that the transition had begun. His followers did not lay up their treasure in the temple, as so

many did, but in heaven, in the eschatological temple that was being introduced to the world,

both Jew and Gentile, in Jesus.

Jesus understanding of himself/his movement as new temple gives context to his

special interest in the poor. The major catalyst for Israels continuing exile was economic

injustice, Perrin argues, especially the centuries-long ignoring of jubilee by the priestly

leadership. Jesus program of identifying with and financially relieving the poor should, then, be

understood as part of his role as high priest in the reconstituted temple, bringing about the

eschatological jubilee.

The fifth chapter is devoted to what Perrin considers the two activities most

characteristic of Jesus movement: healings/exorcisms and meals. These two behaviors, he

argues, signal the inauguration of the kingdom and, simultaneously, the renewal of sacred space


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(152). In healing the sick and exorcizing unclean spirits, Jesus is beginning the re-purification

of the Promised Land in his role as eschatological high priest. Perrin makes the case that these

exorcisms were not limited to purification at the spiritual level, but that they also bore acute

political significance tied especially to the occupation of the land by the pagan Romans and the

legion garrisoned nearby, whose mascot was the wild boar (cf. Mk 5:9-13). Perrin argues

that Jesus feedings should be seen as a priestly messianic banquet that accomplished both the

purification of the poor, the unclean, and the Gentiles and constituted them as both a temple

and priests themselves. The coming of the eschatological temple in the person and movement of

Jesus is one and the same with the coming of the kingdom of God (176).

Perrins provocative thesis has wide-ranging implications and explanatory power. The

theme of Jesus as temple highlights the similarities between him and John the Baptist before him

and Paul after him in a time in which their differences are emphasized. It also holds potential for

relating the ethical and the eschatological in the study of Jesus. Another important contribution

of Perrins work is to highlight the priestly aspect of the Jewish messianic expectation. Too often,

messiah is given exclusively royal connotations, and Perrin is careful and convincing in his

emphasis on the priestly aspect of messiahship and of Jesus fulfillment of it.

Jesus the Temple is tightly argued and concise, and Perrins style makes his

sophisticated arguments and adroit use of ancient sources much easier to read. Nearly every

point of his argument could sustain a level of in-depth investigation that would have been

impossible within the parameters of this book. Still, the limits of the book (only 190 pages of

argument) in relation to the magnitude and originality of many of the claims made in it also

means that the busy pastor not well-versed in early Jewish and Greco-Roman literature must in

places simply trust that Perrins interpretation of the sources.Jesus the Temple, though perhaps a


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dense read for the non-specialist,is a fascinating and original look at Jesus ministry, and it

deserves careful attention from pastors and scholars both for Perrins stimulating and convincing

individual exegeses and for its sweepingly provocative thematic argument.

review of nicholas perrin, jesus the temple

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