Prioritising the narratives

You say I ‘prefer to prioritise the narrative about Jesus’. Is there any other possibility? The story of Jesus and the story of a people are of course interdependent - with Jesus being the priority (chief cornerstone of the temple, head of the body etc). That’s why I used the word ‘primarily’. The Gentiles share in the resurrection life of Jesus, and not primarily in the renewed life of Israel, which is only, initially, a vehicle for taking the message of the resurrection of Jesus to the Gentiles. It rapidly becomes clear that there is no renewed life which can be said to belong specifically to Israel in distinction from the Gentiles. The barriers have been broken down between the two in the renewed people of God.

Son of Man

I think the ‘Son of Man’ narrative is at odds with the Abraham narrative; your version takes one aspect of the narrative, judgment on Jerusalem/Rome (thereby, in my opinion, creating a misinterpretation), and subordinates other aspects of Jesus’s history to this event - ie his life/ministry, death, resurrection (in its initial phase), outpoured Spirit. My understanding of the fulfilment of the Abraham narrative gives the entire Jesus story a worldwide significance. It was the ‘seed’ in its entirety which brought blessing (through the people who announced it) to the world, not just one aspect of his story which left the other aspects as the exclusive possession of Israel.

Romans

I’m completely disarmed by your gracious comments!

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

I don’t really see how you get from the “we” of the apostles to a restricted usage of “all” in verse 11. If the gospel is ‘a Jewish gospel for a Gentile world’, as I take it to be, then the movement to universality fits well with the natural flow of the passage. This is reinforced by the “anyone” of verse 17, and the “old” and “new” creation terminology, which takes us outside the boundaries of ethnic geo-political Israel.

Cornelius and his household

The language of Peter’s proclamation moves from the particular (Jesus the Jewish messiah) to the universal: “the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead” (I think that covers everyone!), and “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins”, thereby cutting out the middleman, Israel, which is also reinforced by the direct descent of the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and his household. Peter didn’t even have time to lay hands on him - which might have suggested Cornelius’s need to participate in the community of renewed Israel as a precondition of receiving the blessing. The message is clear - there was indeed a people who shared in the blessing, but this was no longer a renewed people identified with the Israel with which Peter was familiar.