Date

5-20-2026

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)

Chair

Ben Brammer

Keywords

Gentile inclusion, early Christianity, Abrahamic promise, Second Temple Judaism, new covenant, Jerusalem temple, Acts of the Apostles, Pauline theology, Jewish-Gentile relations, early ecclesiology, Biblical Theology, temple destruction, 70 CE, AD 70, apologetics, restorationism, Hebrew Roots Movement, Jewish roots, old testament origins

Disciplines

History of Christianity | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

This study examines how a Jewish movement grounded in Israel’s Scriptures, institutions, and covenantal identity came to be predominantly Gentile in its membership and leadership within a few decades of its inception. It argues that this Gentile Transformation—that is, the emergence of a Gentile-majority church shaped in its leadership, theology, and identity by Gentile believers—was not the result of socio-political pressures or theological deviation, but rather the product of divine intent as revealed in Scripture. The study begins with God’s promise that in Abraham “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3), which establishes, from the beginning, his divine intention for a multi-ethnic kingdom. We then trace the evolution and development of that promise chronologically through the Torah, the Writings, and the Prophets, where Israel is designated a “light to the nations” (Isa 49:6), and the in-gathering of the Gentiles is foretold. The study then examines how that promise is both confirmed and further developed by Jesus and the apostles via a fourfold framework, analyzing it through theological, historical, sociological, and doctrinal lenses. Lastly, we analyze how the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE served as a divine, public validation of this promise across that same fourfold framework. By integrating these lines of evidence, this study argues that the early emergence of a Gentile-majority church reflects a coherent, unified redemptive trajectory that began with Abraham, long before Israel existed. The Gentile Transformation is thus best understood as the fulfillment of God’s covenantal purposes rather than a deviation from Israel’s story, not as the replacement of Israel or the erasure of its identity, but as the divinely intended expansion of a multi-ethnic people of God composed of both Jews and Gentiles.

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Available for download on Saturday, May 19, 2029

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