$42.00

This work examines how early Christians understood the concept of rest theologically, and more specifically, how early Christian preachers proclaimed rest as part of the Christian gospel. Wray takes an in-depth exegetical look at the use of rest in the early Christian sermons we know as the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Truth (a second-century Christian gnostic text). After adding observations from other examples of early Christian proclamations of rest, Wray concludes that Jewish-Christian animosity and internal Christian politics caused the Christian church to lose sight of this important dimension of the gospel.

Judith Hoch Wray (Ph.D., Union Theological Seminary, 1997) is a Visiting Scholar at Union Theological Seminary.