Canonical Gospels Research Articles

Guns, Thorns, and Zeal: Popular Depictions of a Kombative Christ

What are the political, gender, and theological implications at stake when associating Jesus with modern combat and righteous violence? Jesus is rendered in combative form across media—i.e., live-action films and shorts, animated television, sketch comedy, graphic novels, and video games. This rendition occurs at a confluence of meaning, most immediately for the sake of generating comedy through juxtaposition (in this case, rendering the meek with a sword) and/or reaffirming Jesus’ prominent cultural value through an association with other popularly mediatized entities. Beyond these initial layers of significance, however, I argue that Jesus becomes associated with violence and brutality for the sake of de/legitimizing politically conservative ideologies with respect to Christianity and American exceptionalism, redeeming the crisis of “domesticated masculinity” and fortifying traditional masculine norms, and theologically reinstituting popular paradigms of low Christology. Ideological “manhood” remains traced to one’s ability to perform traditional gender roles (i.e., family provider, community protector, and father/procreator). To capture the discrepancy that Jesus of Nazareth, as presented in canonical gospels, largely concerns none of these roles, I analyze the hypermasculine Christ, and the various weapons he employs, as part of a popular genealogy of Western value systems and discourse. Though in this article I reference some examples of non-American media, I reserve my analysis and commentary for the stakes and implications of what it means for U.S. Americans to produce and consume such content. In short, I submit that popular America idolizes itself in the form—one amidst many—of a naïve, combative, and boorish Christ: an arrogant and, at times, narcissistic man with delusional views of the world made dangerous through invasive power and authority. Western entertainment has deemed the United States (through its fictional stand-ins) as morally failing yet still chosen. Within this logic, American Christians need not reform their ways as long as they cultivate evidence of their exceptionalism.

The Politics of Ear Mutilation: Cropping an Enslaved Person in the Gospel Passion Narratives

This article challenges a slaveholder perspective of the treatment of the high priest’s enslaved agent in the canonical gospels. It seeks to demonstrate how ancient traditions and practices of ear cropping and facial mutilation, especially of enslaved folks, give insight into the significance of the enslaved agent’s treatment in the gospels. Far from being a mere plot device, the enslaved person who is maimed is a site of political knowledge that has simultaneous implications for our understanding of the enslaved agent themselves, the mutilating disciple, and Jesus. While the vast majority of interpreters of the passage view the maiming of Malchus’s ear as unimportant, a close analysis of contexts where ears are mutilated, maimed, and cropped provides a useful framework for rereading the episode in each of the gospels. After analyzing the contexts of ear cropping, from ancient Southwest Asia to second-century literature, I re-read each version of the episode from a narrative-critical point of view. In light of ancient accounts of cropping and mutilation, I find that the mutilating disciple’s behavior in the gospels was not heroic, that the enslaved person retains no agency, and that Jesus is complicit in the disciple’s actions against the high-priest’s agent.

From Darkness to Light: Nicodemus, “the Jews,” and John’s Gospel

Abstract How might we read the canonical Gospel of John as anything other than anti-Jewish, a scholarly point of view that in recent years has received renewed support? The accusation is absolute and raises serious problems for the gospel’s ongoing reception as Christian Scripture. The appropriate response to this challenge of such high stakes is to return to the gospel and offer close readings of the relevant passages. This article participates in the ongoing debate regarding the status of the gospel by examining how John characterizes Nicodemus, the first “Jew” with whom Jesus engages in extended dialogue. Through a reading of his three appearances (John 3:1–21; 7:45–52; 19:38–42), this article argues for a positive characterization of Nicodemus. It contends that he progresses toward a fuller understanding of Jesus’s true identity, which culminates in reverently burying Jesus, this act representing an embodied confession commensurate with Johannine faith. Becoming a disciple, Nicodemus nevertheless remains a “Jew.” Thus, he is a case in point for how the gospel, while striking in its marked dualistic contrasts and exclusivist in its claim for Jesus as the only Way, permits movement across the very boundaries it establishes, thereby challenging the appropriateness of labeling John an anti-Jewish gospel. Part of the theological challenge of John’s Gospel is for all readers to recognize themselves in the story of Nicodemus.

The Souring of the Ways: Anti-Jewish Readings of Psalm 69 and the Wine Offerings to Jesus

Abstract This essay traces one particular way that the passion tradition of mixed/sour wine offered to Jesus developed in extracanonical gospels, broader New Testament Apocrypha, Tatian’s Diatessaron, and other early Christian writings. Notably, the divergent details of these offerings in the passion narratives of the four canonical gospels were often simplified out of a growing awareness of an allusion to Ps 69:22 (68:22 LXX) with its reference to gall and sour wine. The early Christian tradition comes to be stabilized as a single offering of sour wine and gall, even though that pairing does not appear in the canonical gospels. Further evidence that early Christians used Ps 69 to simplify the various traditions is seen from the way they also drew upon the imprecations from the broader context of the psalm for polemical leverage against the Jews. This hermeneutical and apologetic trajectory developed despite the fact that (a) the gospels show varying degrees of awareness of the psalm in their respective passion accounts, and (b) the gospels do not indict anyone making the offer, except for Luke (implicitly), when the Roman soldiers do so mockingly.

Gesture as the Expresion of the Pascal Mystery in the Central European Medieval Art

The Paschal Mystery is the central reality of the Christianity. This is a series of historical events, presented in the canonical Gospels, in which Jesus from Nazaret was submit to the suffering, death, but was revived and bas ascend 10 the glory. These events was Ml of meanings and significations. This significations of paschal event has been meditated and analyzed in the Christian text, - in Gospels, in Paul’s Letters, but in the sermon of Fathers of the Church. Meliton of Sardes, Orygenes, Pseudo-Hypolite, and others are known as the interpreters of paschal events. The liturgical texts - Exultet and Victimae Paschali explain the profound sense of the Death and the resurrection of Christ All these works inspired the iconography. This presentation has to review the some works of art in Central Europeand interpretations their theological sense. The gestures will be the key to discovery of meaning.

Oἱ Ἰουδαῖοι (The Jews) in John’s Gospel: An African Reading

The portrait of the Jews in John’s Gospel has been the object of a great debate among Western scholars. The negative portrait of many of the Jews of the fourth canonical gospel has led some to qualify John’s Gospel as the most “anti-Jewish” writing of the New Testament. Recent Western history, in particular the Shoah, has certainly had a heavy weight on this negative interpretation of John’s Gospel. But another perspective, here African Biblical Hermeneutics, may give a different understanding of this disputed theme. Following this non-Western approach, we want to show that maybe it is not John’s Gospel’s characterization of the Jews which is problematic, but the hermeneutics used to interpret it. In the end, what is at stake, is not the Jews or Jewish people as such, but how one, Jew or non-Jew, responds to Jesus’ message and gift of abundant life.

Exousia and Conflict in the Gospel of Mark

Interest in the Gospel of Mark has been steadily growing in the field of biblical studies for years. Although Mark’s narrative had long been treated as less polished and thus theologically lacking compared to the other canonical gospels in the past, many scholars now recognize it as a complex narrative with various intertwining and intentionally employed plots and storylines. This study aims to contribute to this growing scholarship which takes the narrative skill of Mark’s author seriously when it traces the term ἐξουσία (exousia) throughout the whole gospel. Special attention will be paid to the way ἐξουσία (exousia) is connected to conflict. Read through this lens, several interesting developments in the Markan presentation of Jesus, the disciples, and reader involvement will emerge. Finally, the question of why ἐξουσία (exousia) is totally absent from the Markan passion story will be answered. This study proposes to see Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross as a consequence of his practice of ἐξουσία (exousia) for which readers are prepared from the beginning of Mark’s narrative.

Отношение к ереси в свете понимания Церкви как анти-полиса

The article attempts to theoretically resolve the contradiction between negative and positive attitudes towards persecution in Christianity, a particular case of which is the persecution of heretics. The New Testament texts that constitute Christianity reveal grounds for both condemning and justifying persecution. Two ways of getting out of the indicated contradiction are critically considered. The first way is to distinguish between just and unjust persecution. It is shown that the Gospel contains a strong anti-persecution potential associated with the activities of Jesus Christ and, first of all, with his violent death. The asocial, escapist position of the supporters of the individualistic understanding of religious salvation is also criticized. As an alternative to both solutions, the author proposes an understanding of the Church as an anti-polis, that is, a social order that is not based on violence and ideological manipulation. The foundations of such an understanding are found in the "political philosophy" of the canonical gospels, where "magistrates and authorities" are associated with the figure of the "prince of this world" and, in turn, with the Devil or Satan, "murderer" and "father of lies". The gospel "political philosophy" opposes the power of the "prince of this world" with the ideal of the Kingdom of God, where people can coexist in love, that is, without violence and lies. This ideal was given to Christians not as a ready-made model along with an implementation algorithm but as a creative task. In this case, the social history of Christianity can be presented, on the one hand, as a search for the historical form of the Church as an anti-polis, and on the other hand, as a deviation from this ideal and the politicization of the Church. As a result, it is shown that in modern Christian thought, the question of the place of persecution in church life again becomes open, just as the question of attitude toward heresies turns out to be open: to perceive them as "waste products of dogmatic production" or as a valuable theological and philosophical heritage of the Christian tradition.

Jesus’ Descent from the Cross in Ancient and Medieval Reception

Abstract This article traces out the receptions of the Gospel accounts of the removal of Jesus from the cross (which has been variously titled the “deposition of Christ” or the “descent from the cross”). This scene is narrated only very briefly in the four canonical Gospels and receives very little attention in the commentary tradition. However, it does receive attention in creative retellings of the Gospel narratives in antiquity and the middle ages; whereas receptions of this scene are less frequent in antiquity, they explode in the high middle ages. Focusing on the Gospel of Peter, Nonnus of Panopolis’ poetic Paraphrase of John, and the Pseudo-Bonaventuran work Meditationes Vitae Christi, this article explores what might have interested these authors in Jesus’ descent from the cross, and then what these receptions teach us anew about the scene as narrated in the canonical Gospels.

Old Testament Worldview and Early Christian Apocalypses

Abstract Simon Gathercole suggested at the 2015 meeting of the British New Testament Conference that what distinguishes the four canonical Gospels from apocryphal gospels is not primarily literary features, or even apostolicity per se, but apostolic content. This article makes a similar argument with respect to the book of Revelation and its relation to other early Christian apocalypses, namely that what distinguishes the canonical Apocalypse from others is its reliance on an Old Testament worldview.

Vision and Voice: Revelatory Experience in the Formation of Christian Identity by Mark D. Batluck

Reviewed by: Vision and Voice: Revelatory Experience in the Formation of Christian Identity by Mark D. Batluck Olegs Andrejevs mark d. batluck, Vision and Voice: Revelatory Experience in the Formation of Christian Identity (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2021). Pp. x + 176. £60/$85. In this insightful monograph, Mark Batluck analyzes the narrative role of the accounts of revelatory experiences in the four canonical Gospels. His objective is to encourage "readers to enter into the experience of early believers" (p. 143). In B.'s view, revelatory events in the Gospels "portray a dialectical process or exchange" whereby Jesus's followers "are prompted to reconcile or 'negotiate' their experience of Jesus with their tradition" (p. 2). The book is divided into eight chapters. In the Introduction, B. discusses the key terms and his methodology. Revelatory events are defined as "Gospel experiences that a character deems 'special' as a communication from heaven" (p. 3). The author explains his intention to analyze each of the Gospels separately. The reader may also wish to consult here the Conclusion, where B. notes that his work "is strictly a narrative project" and that he is not "drawing historical conclusions" (p. 141). Back in the Introduction, n. 21 (p. 7) states that the author assumes the priority of Mark but does not differentiate further between the Synoptic theories based on Marcan priority. The limiting of the discussion to narrative criticism enables the investigation to proceed in the canonical order. In the second chapter, B. provides a Forschungsbericht of religious experience in NT research from 1888 to the present. He identifies three streams of research: (1) phenomenological approaches; (2) religious experience as an effect of the Holy Spirit; and (3) religious experience as a historical factor in the formation of the earliest Christian communities. Each of these approaches receives its own subsection. B. concludes by highlighting how these streams of research converge in his book, specifically in the application of social memory theory (p. 22). Chapters 3–6 are each dedicated to one of the canonical Gospels. The frequently overlapping revelatory accounts help structure the analysis. The chapters mostly focus on the same events: infancy stories (Matthew and Luke); baptism and temptation (Matthew, [End Page 350] Mark, Luke); transfiguration (Matthew, Mark, Luke); crucifixion and resurrection (Matthew, Mark, Luke). The chapter on John's Gospel then discusses the Baptist's report of the Spirit's descent (John 1:32–34); the voice from heaven that confuses witnesses (John 12:27–40); and the Spirit of peace commissioning the disciples at the resurrection (John 20:1–21:25). Each of these events forms a subsection in its chapter. Each chapter receives its own separate conclusion. Because of the focus on the aforementioned Gospel accounts, this book will be of interest to anyone doing research on these pericopes. B. does not hesitate to state his opinion on a number of perennial topics and to engage the existing views. One may especially mention here the engagement with L. A. Huizenga's hypothesis of an Isaac typology in Matthew (The New Isaac: Tradition and Intertextuality in the Gospel of Matthew [NovTSup 131; Leiden: Brill, 2012]) (pp. 40–45) and the discussion of the various elements of the Marcan crucifixion scene (pp. 74–80). In chap. 7, B. seeks to synthesize the separate Gospel accounts, summarizing the divergence and convergence among the four Gospels. He highlights nine ways in which he finds the Synoptic Gospels and John converging in their depiction of revelatory events (pp. 133–36). Finally, in chap. 8 (Conclusion), B. offers several sets of implications of his work: (1) for research on social identity and worship in early Christianity; (2) for research on orality and textuality; (3) for narrative interpretations of devotion to Jesus in the Gospels; and (4) for the relationship between early Christian revelatory experience and the crucifixion and resurrection. I list here some of the notable implications. According to B., the revelatory experiences analyzed here in written form "become paradigmatic for the way first century Christian readers understand Jesus" (p. 138). "From a literary-critical standpoint," the Gospels "do not appear to be unfinished 'notes'" (p. 140, in disagreement with Matthew Larsen—especially with regard to Mark's Gospel). "[T...

"I am Christ": Keyness Analyses of Christ Claimants' Sermons

Various religious leaders claim that they are Jesus Christ (the fundamental figure in Christianity), which makestheir groups highly distinct from other religious groups. This claim allows society to view generally these leaders as false Christs. To guide individuals in society in identifying their characteristics empirically, in this paper, the language in the discourses of these leaders from the aboutness and communication style perspectives is viewed through the key linguistic features identified. The sermons of Apollo Quiboloy (the leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ) and the sermons of AJ Miller (the leader of Divine Truth) who view themselves as Jesus Christ incarnate were used as the target corpora. The sermons of these leaders were comparedto different versions of the four canonical gospels (namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as the benchmark corpora found in the Christian Bible using keyness analyses to identify the patterns of key linguistic features in the sermons for language characterization. The findings show that the language in the sermons of Apollo Quiboloy displays concepts such as the relationship of father and I (son) which are likely to be similar when compared to the gospels, whereas the language in the sermons of AJ Miller displays psychological concepts which are likely to be different when compared to the gospels. The findings in the sermons of Christ claimants may allow the characteristics of these religious leaders to be identified.

The Little Messiah: Jesus as τῇ ἡλικίᾳ μικρός in Luke 19:3

Abstract New Testament scholars almost universally understand Zacchaeus to be “short in stature” (τῇ ἡλικίᾳ μικρὸς ἦν) in Luke 19:3. I argue that it is just as plausible, if not more so, to understand Jesus as “the short one” instead. I problematize three approaches scholars use to justify Zacchaeus as “the short one” in Luke 19: (a) that the canonical gospels do not contain physical descriptions of Jesus, unlike other ancient bioi; (b) that the syntactical and intratextual evidence in Luke 19 points incontrovertibly to Zacchaeus as the short one; and (c) that ancient physiognomic parallels related to Zacchaeus’s behavior confirm that he is the one described in Luke 19:3. I contend that readers cognizant of Luke’s portrayal of Jesus as an Aesopic fabulist or as a Socratic figure would have perceived Jesus as the one who was short. Early Christian reception of Jesus’s physical appearance, especially mediated through Origen’s report of Celsus, indicate that regarding Jesus as “the short one” in Luke 19 is plausible even in an ancient Christian context.

Jesus and Satan Dialogue in the Canonical Gospels: A Comparative Approach

Online OkuEPUBŞeytanın sınayıcı yönü birçok dinî anlatıda mevcuttur. Şeytan bu yönüyle Tanrı tarafından seçilmiş pek çok dinî önderi saptırmaya çalışmıştır. Bununla birlikte Şeytan; insanoğlunun dünyada yaşamasının ve günahkâr olmasının da asıl sebebi görülmektedir. Hıristiyan dinî geleneğinde de Şeytan bu özelliği ile bilinmekte ve İncillere bakıldığında İsa’nın böyle bir durumla karşılaştığı görülmektedir. İlk başta Şeytan, Âdem ve karısı Havva’yı kandırarak onların cennetten düşüşüne sebep olurken, İsa ile olan diyalogda İsa’nın vahşi hayvanlarla birlikte oluşu, bir cennet tasviri barındırmaktadır. Yahudi geleneğinde Tanrı’nın hizmetindeki kötü varlık özellikleriyle betimlenen Şeytan, Hıristiyan geleneği ile birlikte Tanrı’nın karşısında konumlanmıştır. Şeytan, İsa’yı çölde önemli bir sınamaya tabi tutmuştur. Yahudilerin çölde geçirdikleri kırk yıl süre içindeki tutumları ile İsa’nın kırk günlük açlığa ve susuzluğa direnmesi arasında bir benzerlik söz konusudur. Bu süreçte İsa, Yahudilerden farklı olarak “günahsız Oğul” olma özelliğiyle sınanma karşısında Şeytan’ın çabalarını boşa çıkarmıştır. Kanonik İncillerde Şeytan’ın İsa’yı sınamasına ilişkin anlatılar benzerlikler kadar farklılıklar da içermektedir. Bu bağlamda vaftiz hadisesi, göğün yarılması, Kutsal Ruh’un betimlenmesi, çölde sınanma ve Şeytan’ın İsa’ya yaklaşımı ile içinde bulunduğu çaresizlik durumu makalenin odak noktasını oluşturmaktadır. Makale İncillerdeki farklı anlatımlar ve çelişkiler sonuç için betimleyici ve özetleyici bir tablo sunmaktadır. Bu çalışma karşılaştırmalı bir yöntemle ele alınmıştır ve İnciller arasındaki farklılıkların ortaya çıkarılması, değerlendirilmesi ve rivayetlerin daha iyi anlaşılmasına katkı sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır.

Seeing Light: A Critical Enquiry into the Origins of Resurrection Faith by Peter Gant

Reviewed by: Seeing Light: A Critical Enquiry into the Origins of Resurrection Faith by Peter Gant Glenn B. Siniscalchi peter gant, Seeing Light: A Critical Enquiry into the Origins of Resurrection Faith (Durham, UK: Sacristy Press, 2019). Pp. xii + 302. Paper $31.80. Peter Gant’s thought-provoking book will be of interest to biblical scholars and fundamental theologians whose area of specialization is dedicated to historical-critical exegesis and the earliest Christian claim that “God raised Jesus from the dead.” The first half of the book comprehensively covers the relevant aspects of the ancient Jewish matrix leading up to the emergence of Christianity, including the multiple understandings of immortality (which is consistent with and reinforced by the hellenization of Palestine), Sheol, angelo-morphic visions, rewards and punishments for the dead, the notion of resurrection itself, exaltation, and heavenly redeemer figures and titles. One should agree with G. in affirming that “Jesus’ followers were able to draw on a wide variety of existing Second Temple afterlife beliefs” (p. 19). Gant’s lucid coverage of the wisdom traditions and cultic practices of Judaism sets the stage for the possibility of many nuanced interpretations of the NT evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. He exposits the embedded testimonies and cultural factors that are behind and underneath Paul’s writings and the canonical Gospels. These testimonies include [End Page 158] “a short, powerful and multiply attested formulaic assertion to the effect that God has raised Jesus from the dead” (p. 20). Other considerations include “pre-Pauline christological hymns . . . that speak powerfully of the heavenly exaltation of Jesus. . . . There is also an early Aramaic prayer for the coming or return of Jesus from heaven. And, most especially, there is a very early tradition concerning appearances of the risen Jesus to his disciples, a tradition differing significantly from the much later appearance stories in the Gospels” (p. 20). G.’s text is especially helpful in distinguishing the earliest evidence (i.e., the after-death appearances of Jesus) from later understandings that developed in the first twenty years of the Christian movement. Gant’s assessment of the understandings of the religious background and the NT evidence is fairly presented and consistently informative. Although G. does not completely discount interpretations of the resurrection that resonate with most of the agreed-upon evidence in contemporary studies (see, e.g., the proposals set forth by senior scholars such as Gerald O’Collins and N. T. Wright), he settles for a reconstruction that many critics will want to dispute. Introducing his willingness to push forward a newer depiction of Easter faith, G. believes that “key texts such as Daniel 12:2–3 are capable of more than one interpretation. Even if it is true that ‘resurrection’ without an empty grave would have been unthinkable, allowance must still be made for the possibility of innovation on the part of Jesus’ earliest followers” (p. 197). Consequently, G. maintains that the earliest evidence points in favor of the earliest Christian belief in the exaltation of Jesus (see Phil 2:5–11). However, other believers said that Jesus was raised from the dead. More importantly, these distinct beliefs were not necessarily complementary to one another (p. 262). According to G., the latter point highlights the uncertainty and pluriform ways in which evidence can be assessed. A second controversial point is the irrelevance of the empty tomb of Jesus for resurrection faith. The final controversial contention is that modern scientific worldviews will preclude the possibility and defensibility of miracles. It is unfortunate that G. repeatedly takes this assumption for granted and never explains to the reader why anyone should accept it. Part of the problem is that miracles are defined as divine interference with the laws of nature, but this outdated definition indicates that G. is unaware of the scholarship that discusses miracles in ways that are congruent with science and its relationship to philosophy. Since the nature of the evidence is uncertain, allowing for many interpretations in light of a modern scientific worldview, one should merely resort to theological language for understanding the origins of Easter faith: “resurrection faith emerged as a theological interpretation of the totality of the history of Israel, the life...

Rudolf Bultmann's method of form criticism in the context of the origin of the Canonical Gospels

Rudolf Bultmann's method of form criticism in the context of the origin of the Canonical Gospels

Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure by David Wenham

Reviewed by: Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure by David Wenham Glenn B. Siniscalchi david wenham, Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure (Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021). Pp. xii + 249. Paper $29.99. David Wenham’s evenhanded, concise, and accessible book is dedicated to the basic themes of contemporary research on the historical Jesus. It is strongly recommended for introductory-level college courses that are related to historical approaches to the NT writings. One of the best aspects of Jesus in Context is the comprehensive coverage of most of the pertinent subjects in the current state of historical Jesus research. Whether it is the broad contours of the Roman Empire or the Jewish matrix from which Jesus and his first followers emerged in ancient Israel, there is plenty of informative and digestible material in this book. Wenham’s impartial coverage of the current findings of Jesus research is both ecumenically sensitive and consistent with the presuppositions of Christian theology. In this way, W.’s text subtly reports that christological orthodoxy and many well-established conclusions about the historical figure of Jesus can now be seen as comrades-in-arms. W. is keen on informing the reader where the consensus of NT scholars stand with respect to Jesus and his self-understanding; his teachings, actions, and miracles; and the immediate impact that he made on his followers. One might profit from understanding the political and socioreligious contexts in which Jesus lived (part 1) and some of the major themes that characterized his sayings and ministry (part 2). Toward the beginning of Jesus in Context, W. discusses the literary sources that ancient historians commonly use to study Jesus, the geographical and archaeological discoveries that seem pertinent for the relevant contemporary studies, and the history of ancient Israel and the Roman Empire up to and including the first century of the Common Era. [End Page 168] Wenham’s text is also excellent with regard to the fundamental reliability of the canonical Gospels. He rightly reports that form criticism, redaction criticism, the fascination with the second-century apocryphal Gospels, and the notion of oral traditions in ancient Palestine are not relevant enough concerns to lead one to conclude that the Christian Gospels are unreliable. Moreover, the current state of NT scholarship is not on the side of the revision-ist views of Rudolf Bultmann (who was known for separating the theology of the canonical Gospels from whatever history might lie behind them) or the older nineteenth-century scholars who saw the Gospels as fabricated myths. In the words of W., “The skepticism that ends up with scholars concluding or implying that much gospel tradition is the creation of the early Christian church rather than Jesus is curious, to say the least. It is much more likely that the main creative genius reflected in the gospel stories and teaching was the person who inspired the Christian movement, rather than . . . his followers” (p. 76). Rather, most of the newest questers in the guild endorse the historicity of Jesus and his various teachings about the reign of God, his baptism by John the Baptist, his wondrous miracles, and his resurrection from the dead. Recognizing that Paul’s letters were not understood as inspired texts by the original recipients, W. pointedly brings home the relevance of the apostle Paul for Jesus studies: “Both these early letters and others that followed, . . . give a lot of evidence about what the first Christians said and believed about Jesus. The letters are not telling the stories of Jesus, but are dealing with issues that had arisen in the churches; their references to Jesus are all the more revealing for being incidental” (p. 47). One of W.’s areas of special interest is that the apostle Paul and the four Gospel writers were not literarily dependent on one another. Despite that barrage of technical publications on early christology and historical criticism, W.’s book should be warmly welcomed as one of the best introductory texts on the current state of the basic questions on the historical Jesus and the reliability of the NT. In terms of accessibility and depth of...

Profanações lexicais em O evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo, de José Saramago

Saramago's work was masterful in evoking and/or provoking the past and its crystallized discourses, with The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991) being a notable example. In this article, I propose to revisit this Saramago’s novel in order to argue that the work in question mobilizes a profanation of biblical figures at the lexical level. More specifically, and in the light of the Agambenian concept of profanation (2007), I argue that the narrator and the characters, through their lexical choices, set in motion a process of restoring certain words to a use that until then was denied to them not only by the weaving of the canonical gospels as well as by the historically constructed readings of these same texts, which, ultimately, contributes to a profanation of biblical figures.

Gestykulacja jako sposób wyrażenia treści Misterium Paschalnego w sztuce średniowiecznej Europy Środkowej

The Paschal Mystery is the central reality of the Christianity. This is a series of historical events, presented in the canonical Gospels, in which Jesus from Nazaret was submit to the suffering, death, but was revived and bas ascend 10 the glory. These events was full of meanings and significations. This significations of paschal event has been meditated and analyzed in the Christian text, - in Gospels, in Paul’s Letters, but in the sermon of Fathers of the Church. Meliton of Sardes, Orygenes, Pseudo-Hypolite, and others are known as the interpreters of paschal events. The liturgical texts - Exultet and Victimae Paschali explain the profound sense of the Death and the resurrection of Christ All these works inspired the iconography. This presentation has to review the some works of art in Central Europeand interpretations their theological sense. The gestures will be the key to discovery of meaning.

A New Hermeneutical Approach to the Qur’an with Special Reference to the Narrative of Prophet Yaḥyā (John the Baptist) in the Qur’an and the Bible

Prophet Yaḥyā (John the Baptist) is considered to be a bridge between Islam and Christianity. Both traditions emphasize that he is a ‘rightly-guided’ figure and among the company of ‘the righteous’ such as Abraham and Moses. The story of Yaḥyā is included in two chapters (Q. 3: 39 and Q. 19: 12–14) in the Qur’an. Canonical Gospels also provide various aspects of John the Baptist. Muslim commentators have used biblical and other sources in their interpretation of the Qur’an, elaborating some aspects of his life within the Qur’anic theological framework. Whereas various similarities may be seen in narratives of Islamic sources and the biblical sources regarding Prophet Yaḥyā, some differences are present. Therefore, this article seeks to provide an analysis on the story of Prophet Yaḥyā through Qur’anic narratives. It also investigates the classical exegetical approach to such a comparative reading (isrā’īliyyāt, biblical materials) and a modern tendency of direct citations from the Bible. Relying on the framework of comparative theology, considered as “welcoming wisdom wherever it exists” and “faith seeking understanding” in light of truth seen deeply in other religious tradition, such mutual close readings and interactions across religious traditions could be a good model for the Muslim world, instead of a fully rejectionist fundamentalist discourse against other traditions. Such a pluralist approach emphasizes a global raising of awareness and mutual understanding.