Peter-Ben Smit unternimmt die erste umfassende Untersuchung der eschatologischen Mahlzeiten im Neuen Testament sowie der Szenen, in denen von Nahrung im Überfluß gesprochen wird. Er stellt die entsprechenden Textstellen in ihren sozio-historischen Kontext und zeigt ihren Zusammenhang mit zeitgenössischen Vorstellungen von Symposien auf. Der synchrone Aufbau des Buches verdeutlicht, wie die untersuchten Textstellen mit den vier Evangelien und der Johannesoffenbarung interagieren.
Peter-Ben Smit undertakes the first encompassing study of New Testament eschatological meals and scenes of nutritional abundance. His study thus fills a large gap in current research. In terms of its main contributions and emphases, the study challenges the widespread assumption that the origin of the imagery of eschatological meal fellowship and nutritional abundance can be found in Isa 25:6-8 by showing how the images of meal fellowship and nutritional abundance played a significant role in the (utopian) thinking of the Ancient Near East as well as the Mediterranean world. Thus, the book helps to do away with widespread assumptions about these meals with its detailed studies of the individual texts. Furthermore, the typology of eschatological meals and scenes of nutritional abundance presented here will help to differentiate between different kinds of traditions and their various functions and emphases. Through the integration of the various texts in their socio-historical context, the author shows how these texts, particularly the eschatological meals, interact with contemporary 'symposiastic ideology.' At the same time, the book's synchronic backbone facilitates a demonstration of how the various eschatological meals and scenes of nutritional abundance interact with other meal scenes in the NT books discussed, and this leads to a better understanding of what kind of literary and theological interests the four canonical Gospels and the Apocalypse of John have in their use of these traditions and of banqueting scenes and scenes of nutritional abundance in general.
