New Testament Studies

At some point between the writing of 1 and 2 Corinthians, there has been a significant falling out between Paul and some in the Corinthian Christian community. As a result, Paul leaves Corinth with the intention of returning to deal with it at a later date. He then changes his mind, instead writing a letter known to us as the 'painful letter'. This letter was effective in bringing about reconciliation, but questions still lingered as to why he did not return in person, instead staying away and sending a harsh letter. The section of letter found in 2 Cor. 1.1-2.13 and 7.5-16 seeks to address these concerns. It is the contention of this article, however, that Paul does more than simply recount recent events. Instead, he reframes his behaviour as something akin to voluntary exile. By comparing the letter to exilic writings from Cicero, Ovid, Seneca and Demosthenes, it will be proposed that 1.1-2.13 and 7.5-16 resembles a letter from exile.

This book  discusses the foundations of biblical interpretation among enslaved Africans in America and free Africana people's as an introduction to significant twentieth and twenty-first century developments among formally trained black biblical scholars. The final two chapters offer an African American intersectional reading of the Matthean parable of the ten virgins and a womanist reading of Judges 19.

Scholars have commonly located the source of Paul’s analogy for the resurrection body in 1 Cor 15:39–49 in the enumerated creatures of Genesis 1. Some interpreters have suggested Sir 43:1–10 lies behind the reference to the variegated glory of the celestial bodies mentioned in 1 Cor 15:41. Paul seems to list each of the respective terrestrial creatures and their bodies in a hierarchical order, as he does with the celestial bodies, relating the resurrection body to the later. Rather than the eschatological egalitarianism presumed in some attempts to appropriate Pauline eschatology for theological purposes, this text suggests that Paul envisioned the imminent resurrection of the dead would result in a kind of celestial hierarchicalism, a point often overlooked by interpreters. In this paper, I will argue for an alternative source for the celestial hierarchicalism apparent in the formulation of Paul’s resurrection mythos in 1 Cor 15:41, namely, an apocalyptic reception of Exodus tradition rooted in the hierarchical ascent of the cosmic mountain in Exodus 24 and its later reception. As is the case for other apocalypticists before, contemporary with, and after Paul, this paper will provide further evidence that Paul's own particular construal of Jewish eschatological mythoi, while recognizable, would place him squarely alongside other Jewish contemporaries who operate at the fringes of their own tradition in the wider ancient Mediterranean religious landscape.

Author: Kirsten Laurel Guidero
Publisher: CBE International

Evangelicalism can find a foothold in renewed practices of reading Scripture. This article first illustrates the larger problems haunting evangelical patterns of reading Scripture by analyzing as a test case two prevalent evangelical interpretations of Gal 3:26–29.2 Next, I offer a better interpretive method and spell out how it treats this passage. We will see that, far from viewing the biblical texts too reverently, with a proposed correction of qualifying textual authority—an approach some evangelicals who struggle with difficult elements of Scripture have adopted—both of the earlier approaches may fail to respect the text enough.

This volume is a collection of ten essays on the Bible. It reflects the range of biblical reading I have enjoyed doing over the first third of my thirty-year career as student and teacher of the Bible. Having lived in a multifaith, multi-textual, and multicultural context in Malaysia for twenty-four years, I cannot help but think of the given convention of reading: a Chinese Christian reading of the biblical text from a Chinese perspective.

Despite John's distinctive and theological character, however, it still renders an independent memory of Jesus of Nazareth deserving full consideration in any effectively critical quest for the historical Jesus. The question is how do to so adequately, given the unique origin and development of the Johannine tradition. If John represents a self-standing Jesus tradition with its own points to make, however, differences with Mark and the Synoptics might contribute to a sense of history rather than diminishing it.

The essay concentrates on the Martyrdom of Polycarp, a script largely believed to contain the earliest extant occurrences of a Christian technical martyrdom vocabulary. On the one hand, we will lay bare the distinctively urban character of this death performance by showing how and to what extent all the components of the martyrdom apparatus relate to the city as socio-spatial condition of production and consumption, textualisation and memorialisation of an ‘urban religious event’. On the other, we will look at how the text manages to turn a Roman death spectacle into a Christian propaganda event by hijacking practices and re-routing sequences of a public urban show. For both purposes, the critical conceptual toolkit will be provided by the most quintessentially urban among the 20th-century artistic-cum-political avant-gardes: the Situationists.

This paper argues that the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) can profitably be understood as a second Deuteronomy. The author makes his case through the development of strong conceptual links between these texts such as presentation and interpretation of Torah, Jesus as the greater Moses within Matthew, and the concluding calls at Matt 7:24-27 and Deut 30:11-20 to choose obedience (=life). This linking has many interesting results including advancing the concept of "Torah" as instruction that demands a response because it comes from God to man through authorized teachers and the strengthening of the depiction of Jesus as the greater Moses (i.e., the greater law giver/interpreter).

Author's Note I am thankful for the opportunity to present this paper at the 2021 EABS. I am thankful for the organizers and the participants. I wish to state up front that this is a draft of an idea. This is the first step toward a paper. This is a draft of a draft. In other words, I am very thankful for the kind reception and assistance that was given. In that vein, I have included the comments that were given in the Canonical Approaches to the Bible program unit after I read the paper. Their comments will make the paper better in the end.

A wide-ranging, academically oriented list of over sixty forthcoming publications on the Pastoral Epistles (as of April 2022) including essays, monographs, and commentaries. This list helps students of the Pastorals to see current trends in research. The list was compiled mainly through contacting academic publishers and Pastorals scholars who have published previously on the letters. In some cases, authors provided a brief synopsis of their work specifically for this project.

In the book we argue that 2 Cor 10, although presenting strong characteristics of polemical discourse, actually sets in motion a self-praise speech with a pedagogical, not defensive purpose. The chapter in question serves as a programmatic introduction to the Pauline boasting developed in chapters 11–13. Applying rhetorical analysis, we show that 2 Cor 10 contains an exordium (10,1-6) and a propositio for the entire speech (10,7-8); we further identify by this analysis the criteria crucial for legitimate apostolic boasting (10,12-18). The main problem of 2 Cor 10–13 expressed in the propositio (10,7-8) regards Paul’s claim to be a true servant of Christ and to have the right to boast about it. This problem is strictly connected with the accusations of the opponents which point at his weakness and ineffectiveness in dealing with the community’s problems.

Thus, 2 Cor 10 sets the stage for all of 2 Cor 10–13. This chapter is the key to a proper understanding of the rhetorical stasis of the entire speech elucidated from the Pauline inventio and dispositio. Paul’s use of the periautologia, metaphor, and irony reveals the strong position of the Apostle in Corinth but also points out the fatal infatuation the Corinthians have with newcomers. The causa of Paul ultimately revolves around the status qualitatis: he proves he is strong enough to be the leader in Corinth and paradoxically demonstrates that weakness should belong to the identity of apostle.  Such a reading of the rhetorical stasis introduces two problematic issues begun in 2 Cor 10 and continued in Cor 11–13: the relationship between power and weakness and the legitimacy of Pauline boasting. Paul’s approach to weakness in 2 Cor 10–13 challenges the standards on which the evaluation of true apostleship is made. Contemporaneously, he also recognizes infirmity as an integral part of his apostolic identity. Christ himself is the only model that enables Paul to subvert worldly standards of judgment and claim weakness as an integral part of his apostolic mission (13,3-4). Subsequently, 2 Cor 10 is crucial to understanding the legitimacy of Paul’s boast developed throughout all of 2 Cor 10 – 13. The thesis (10,7-8) and its argumentation (10,12-18) elaborate the exterior criteria of such boast including a divine call (status qualitatis) and apostolic praxis (performance), as well as the supreme rule saying that all credit for apostolic achievements should be given to the Lord (i.e. boasting en kyriô 10,17). Paul successfully responds to the first two imperatives of boasting. Problems, however, arise when he comes to the last criterion, namely, boasting in the Lord (en kyriô). The ego-centric boast based additionally on the comparison mentioned for the first time in 10,12 is the one that Paul fears and abhors and calls foolish, but he is forced, nevertheless, to undertake it for the sake of his spiritual children. The tool that ultimately enables him to transform self-aggrandizing speech into speech that is focused on Christ is his paradoxical boasting of weakness. It is being prepared in the pivotal section 11,30-33 (the entirety of 11,1-29 should be read as boasting of the apostolic achievements) and reaches its climax in 12,9-10. The careful crafting of the discourse based on Christological principles and meant for the edification of the community (10,8; 12,19; 13,10) ultimately speaks against qualifying it as a parody of the opponents’ boasting.

The following video presentations were designed for the online study program at South Florida Bible College & Theological Seminary. They are similar in format to a class that has been taught by the same professor at Trinity International University and corresponding Powerpoint presentations are available for free downloads on this website.

This book debunks the myth that the cross was never used as a visual symbol in pre-Constantinian Christianity, bringing together the relevant material evidence demonstrating Christian use of the cross prior to Constantine. The artifacts presented in this book interlock with literary witnesses from the same period to provide a consistent and robust portrait of the cross as a pre-Constantinian symbol of Christian devotion. The material record of the pre-Constantinian period illustrates that Constantine did not invent the cross as a symbol of Christian faith; for an impressive number of Christians before Constantine’s reign, the cross served as a visual symbol of commitment to a living deity in a dangerous world.

This essay was published in The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology, edited by Christopher A. Beeley and Mark E. Weedman, for the CUAP Studies in Early Christianity (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018); this is the uncorrected proofs. Exploring the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the Son's relation to the Father, and the agency of the Holy Spirit, it is one of five essays suggesting Johannine contributions to trinitarian discussions in the early church.

This essay offers insight into Luke's concept of God by analysing three sections in which God is explicitly a topic of discussion. These sections are Stephen's apology (Acts 7:2-53), the account of Paul's and Barnabas' mission in Lystra (Acts 14:8-18), and the Areopagus speech (Acts 17:22-31). Because these texts share similar motifs, they can be said to constitute an argumentative series. In these sections, Luke provides a coherent concept of God comprised of many motifs from Luke-Acts. The central motif is that God created the world, which results in God's self-sufficiency. Therefore, a worship with neither sacrifices nor temple is the appropriate response to God as a self-sufficient, transcendent, spiritual, and perfect being that is completely different from every mortal being on earth.

Reading verses like Matthew 28:18-20 was previously seen as that “missionary” statement – for those who felt called to foreign missions – as it was always used to promote and propagate missionaries and their work overseas. Yet, it was through the class whilst preparing a sermon that my eyes were opened to the Truth; that these verses, this statement by Jesus Christ was not just a call to missionaries, not just a “if you feel like it” adventure for Jesus. In the original Greek, it is a literal command, for all of us, not just the few who go overseas; but what Christians are supposed to be doing on a daily basis, and not just to the world and nations, but to individuals, your friends, family, neighbors, strangers – making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them all Christ has taught us

When leadership is right in any nation, peace and tranquillity always attends the people, and such a society easily obtains unprecedented growth and development. This paper investigates a possible nexus in leadership between the context of the Jews in the sixth century B.C. and that of Nigerian people of the 21st century A.D.  The inquiry is with a proposition that the prolonged state of anarchy in Nigerian democracy, primarily since the start of the Fourth Republic in 1999, may result in a serious execution of the divine wrath against the nation if the trend remains unchecked. This end was the fate of the Jews in the sixth century B.C. as a result of years of failure in leadership delivery. The writer applies the grammatical approach to interpret Ezekiel 22:23-31 while he considers five critical sectors of the Nigerian nation to explore her leadership dynamics; namely, human rights, electoral system, economy, transparency in governance, and health sector. He, therefore, observed two key elements characterising leadership within the two contexts. First, three divisions of leaders mark the presidential system of government in Nigerian democracy: the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislator. This situation is in tandem with Yahweh’s exercise of leadership in Israel through three classes of leaders (called human agents, regents, and rulers); namely, the Prophets, Priests, and Kings. Second, situations in Nigeria is tense as bloodshed, political assassination, violations of human rights, underdevelopment, and poor Public Health Care delivery (PHC) are few of the cumulative effects of leadership failure in the land. This situation is similar to the context of the Jews where all classes of leaders in Judah failed to deliver and drove the nation to a state of anarchy. The paper, therefore, recommends that all political leaders in Nigeria should come up with a significant developmental policy that is capable of addressing the nation’s underdevelopment, injustice, human rights abuse, economic paradox, and electoral riggings, among others, to avoid similar execution of the divine justice which came upon Judah and Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Keywords: Leadership, Theocracy, and Democracy

This paper presents a text-oriented survey of some ongoing experimentation in translating the Bible poetically in the Chichewa language of Malawi and Zambia. An initial overview features a summary of ten important stylistic characteristics of the ndakatulo popular lyric genre along with illustrations of their use and comments on their varied communicative function, all selected from the publications of a number of well-known local poets. Certain aspects of this ndakatulo style are then applied in a creative poetic rendition of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) in Chichewa. This version is comparatively evaluated in relation to two existing translations of this same biblical text, one being very literal in nature, the other much more idiomatic. In conclusion, some wider implications and possible applications of this study are discussed, including several proposals for future research and testing in the field of translating sacred texts into the Bantu languages of south-central Africa.

In this book, Sabine R. Huebner explores the world of the protagonists of the New Testament and the early Christians using the rich papyrological evidence from Roman Egypt. This gives us unparalleled insights into the everyday lives of the non-elite population in an area quite similar to neighboring Judaea-Palestine. What were the daily concerns and difficulties experienced by a carpenter's family or by a shepherd looking after his flocks? How did the average man or woman experience a Roman census? What obstacles did women living in a patriarchal society face in private, in public, and in the early Church? Given the flight of Jesus' family into Egypt, how mobile were the lower classes, what was their understanding of geography, and what costs and dangers were associated with travel? This volume gives a better understanding of the structural, social, and cultural conditions under which figures from the New Testament lived.

This study seeks to determine the meaning of Luke 16:19-31. The question of whether this passage teaches intermediate state of the disembodied soul after death has been a theological conundrum. In Lucan context, both thematic and linguistic considerations suggest that the passage can be a pre-resurrection tradition. Having studied the setting in which Jesus tells this parable and Lucan context, this study, employing a quasi-allegorical method, concludes that the presentation of the unseen world represents events and class of people in the eschatological judgment.

What did it mean to be a Christian in the Roman Empire? In one of the inaugural titles of Oxford's new Essentials in Biblical Studies series, Harry O. Maier considers the multilayered social contexts that shaped the authors and audiences of the New Testament. Beginning with the cosmos and the gods, Maier presents concentric realms of influence on the new religious movement of Christ-followers. The next is that of the empire itself and the sway the cult of the emperor held over believers of a single deity. Within the empire, early Christianity developed mostly in cities, the shape of which often influenced the form of belief. The family stood as the social unit in which daily expression of belief was most clearly on view and, finally, Maier examines the role of personal and individual adherence to the religion in the shaping of the Christian experience in the Roman world.

In all of these various realms, concepts of sacrifice, belief, patronage, poverty, Jewishness, integration into city life, and the social constitution of identity are explored as important facets of early Christianity as a lived religion. Maier encourages readers to think of early Christianity not simply as an abstract and disconnected set of beliefs and practices, but as made up of a host of social interactions and pluralisms. Religion thus ceases to exist as a single identity, and acts instead as a sphere in which myriad identities co-exist.

The sample rough draft of Hebrew Matthew chapters 1 and 2 attempts to compare the Hebrew Matthew MSS available today with more being discovered. The format chosen is English with Hebrew variants listed within the Hebrew MSS as noted.

This is part of a larger attempt to translate and study the 4000+ Hebrew New Testament MSS I recently found from around the world.

Please feel free to copy, and to distribute as it might meet the purpose of helping yourself and others get to understand the purpose, person, and authority of Jesus' life and His teaching according to the Gospel of John.
Anyone who is seeking helpful interaction while or after completing these studies may feel free to contact me by email - [email protected]

This is an annotated bibliography on important intertextual works. After this bibliography is given, an extensive general bibliography is also included. For interpreters, especially biblical interpreters intending to work on the subject or use intertextuality as their approach, this may be a useful tool.

The books of 1 and 2 Samuel offer a three-fold thematic scheme that supports the central claim of the Pentateuch, the claim found in Deuteronomy 6:4 and known to the Jews as “the Shema,” a verse that declares the God of Israel is one, true and living God, a theme that undergirds all of the historical books as well. Thus, the foundational theme of 1 and 2 Samuel is the central claim of the Pentateuch, a theme shared by all books of the Holy Scriptures. The secondary, structural theme of the book of 1 Samuel supports the primary theme of the historical books by offering the testimony that God has called out David to establish the Davidic lineage to bring about Israel’s redemption as supporting evidence that YHWH is the true and living God. The secondary, structural theme of the book of 2 Samuel supports the primary theme of the historical books by offering the testimony that God has justified David in his role as king. The third, imperative theme of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel states that Israel loved the Lord their God with all of their strength by accepting the one whom God called and justified as their king and redeemer. The application of this third theme for today’s reader is to believe that God has called and justification the Lord Jesus Christ as King of Kings in the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. The New Testament believer should trust in Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecies concerning the Messiah coming from the Davidic lineage who will reign eternally over all nations. As believers, we have been called to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are justified as members of this Kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

This Survey Chart was created for Dr. Andreas Köstenberger and the biblical backgrounds Ph.D. seminar at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for Second Temple Jewish and Greco-Roman literature. This chart surveys the key literature, historical timeline, and information surrounding the Second Temple period as well as offers a select bibliography for each section for further research. This 234 page survey chart is divided into nine major sections: Second Temple History, Greek OT (LXX), OT Apocrypha, OT Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo and Josephus, Targums and Rabbinical Literature, NT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and Greco-Roman literature.

Although Paul is sometimes depicted as anti-rational, he actually assumes in his letters that human reason, with the aid of the Spirit, can achieve genuine religious knowledge. The specific kind of reason which Paul assumes will be fruitful has a distinctly narrative shape. Paul's theological knowledge is structured as a story within which he and his converts interpret their own lives. Ethical reasoning is a matter of "emplotting " oneself within this theological narrative and asking what fate lies ahead in the story for one who acts in certain ways. When we look more closely at the letter to the Galatians we find that Paul is primarily arguing there for a re-configuration of Israel's theological narrative. The Apostle understands new events as further episodes in the one over-arching story. This means that, just as later chapters in a book can surprise readers and force them to re-consider what they read early on, so new experiences can open up interpretive &quo...

I presented my paper, "THE REDISCOVERY OF CODEX BEZAE CANTABRIGIENSIS AND ITS SUBSEQUENT EFFECT ON THE RECEPTION OF LUKE 16:19-31" in room Central 214 of the Pontifical Gregorian University on Friday, July 05. My lecture was part of the Synoptic Gospels program unit (chairs: J. R. C. Cousland and John P. Harrison), which met for presentation at the 2019 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in Rome, Italy (July 01-05, 2019). The Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Gregorian University were the host institutions.

Description:
The Synoptic Gospels, which have formed a coherent unit since antiquity, have played an important role in modern scholarship. This section provides an open forum for the presentation of papers, from a variety of perspectives and using a variety of methods, on these seminal religious texts.

Call for papers:
This year’s primary focus will be on the parables in the Synoptic tradition. The Synoptic Gospels Section will have three sessions: i) a session for invited papers only on the parables; ii) a general invitation for papers related to the parables in the synoptic tradition, with particular focus on matters of material culture and methodologies; and iii), a general invitation for papers on the Synoptic Gospels. There are plans to publish a selection of studies on the parables.

It is hard to make statements like the previous one because we are oriented to think ALL JEWS loved the Lord and served Him faithfully. Oh, how I wish it had been true, but this series of lessons will show that the number of believers in Moses' day was more like the number in Noah's day. They all died in the wilderness because of their unbelief: Joshua and Caleb excepted. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. … According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.

www.holybibleinstitute.com 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is the first of many to come with the help of the Lord's power and guidance. This book is the by-product of a recent paper that I submitted while earning my master's degree in theology at Liberty University. Both of these achievements would have not been a reality today if it were not for some very special people in Pikeville, Kentucky. With that said, I would like to dedicate this first book to three of those special people. I want to thank Lynn and Jessica Parrish; who without their prayers, support and encouragement none of this would even be a reality today. My wife Bridgette has also played a very important part in these accomplishments and has always been fully supportive as I go about each day seeking what the Lord would have me to do.

The study of Jesus in the Qur'an might profitably begin with the fact that there he is called not the expected Arabic Yasu' but rather the unaccountable 'Isa. From there the reader of the Qur'an may wonder to what extent the writer of the materials on Jesus was familiar with the canonical Gospel accounts that had circulated widely and extensively in the Middle East during the six centuries preceding the emergence of Islam. The Qur'anic portrait of Jesus is full of mysteries, lacunae, and intriguing questions.

This is the revised final draft of one of the two lead papers presented at the SNTS pre-conference on The Johannine Question. It covers the last half-century of Johannine paradigms, critiques Pierson Parker's 21 objections to the son of Zebedee having ANYTHING to do with the Johannine tradition, and introduces three aspects of overlooked evidence on the subject.

I believe it was published in 2018:

Paul N. Anderson, “The Son of Zebedee and the Fourth Gospel: Some Clues on John’s Authorship and the State of the Johannine Question.” El Evangelio de Juan. Origen, Contenido y Perspectivas--The Gospel of John. Origin and Perspectives, eds. B. Estrada and L. G. Sarasa, Colección Teología Hoy 80 (Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 2018).

PART 1: The hope of the faithful, and the grave from which we are dug. The traditional (patristic and early Reformation) doctrine of heaven and hell.
PART 2: The “Larger Hope” and lesser grave taught in the 1894 Revised Version. The assault on the doctrine of eternal retribution and re-definition of the Hebrew 'sheol.'
PART 3: The treatment of 'sheol' in the 1537 Matthew Bible. Comparing the Geneva Bible, Revised Version, and modern Bibles. The problems with the modern translations.