Christian Bible Research Articles

The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible: An Introduction to the History of the Bible (review)

The Jewish Bible and Christian Bible: An Introduction to History of BibleOriginally published in 1993 as La Biblia judia y la Biblia cristiana, Julio Trebolle Barrera's wide-ranging handbook attracted a limited but genuine acclaim among biblical scholars in Spanish-speaking world. For one thing, though it is presented almost as a general introduction to field, Barrera's unusual polymathy across fields currently in relative academic isolation from one another lends to his study a richly synthetic and therefore cartographical character. Among denizens of fields of enquiry often disparate -- linguistic, literary, historical, text-critical, canonical, and hermeneutic -- not to mention among dwellers in discrete provinces of Jewish and Christian approaches generally -- his impressively generous command and capacity to redeem to consciousness an integrated picture of biblical transmission is welcome on many counts.Wilfred G. E. Watson's painstaking and ultimately lucid translation extends dramatically reach and hence value of Barrera's work. It includes as well Barrera's updating of sections on Dead Sea Scrolls and on extra-canonical or parabiblical literature, in each case helpful. There are in addition numerous corrections and updatings throughout book.Barrera is Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in Universidad Complutense of Madrid, where, at time of his writing this impressive volume, he was also Director of Institute of Religious Studies. One of members of editorial team working on Dead Sea Scrolls, he has been especially well known for books and articles in fields of textual and literary criticism of Bible, but also for an active interest in field of contemporary biblical hermeneutics.All of these spheres of evident special competency, augmented by his familiarity with linguistic and canonical studies research, have made it possible for him to respond with passion and professional judgment to decade-old call of M. H. Goshen-Gottstein (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) for an overcoming of our contemporary fragmentation in biblical studies. Likewise, Barrera decries split between necessarily narrow research interests and necessity, in classroom, for a broader grasp of traditions of biblical studies whose work a new generation must attempt to advance without a destructive loss of foundations.The comprehensive scope of this work forbids detailed comment in a limited review, but a few features deserve highlighting. First, in section concerning linguistics (Chapter 1), Barrera emphasizes the Hebrew-Aramaic-Arabic trilingualism in which Jewish masoretes, grammarians and exegetes of Arabian East and of Muslim Spain operated in such a way as to clarify for non-specialists important role of Arabic for grasping grammatical and exegetical tradition of biblical texts. Like most contemporary literary critics he finds analytical rigidity of redaction criticism, especially in its usual separation from study of historical transmission and interpretation, distorting of more important tasks of seeking a better understanding of social and intellectual contact in which Judaism took shape in Persian and Hellenistic periods. …

The Bible and Multiscripturality in South Africa: Moving Beyond the Boon-or-Bane Debate1

AbstractA nominally Christian country, South Africa abounds with varieties of Christianity, all of which ultimately subscribe to the Bible as foundation document. Often, however, the appropriation of the Bible as a symbol is as much a problem as different and radically opposing interpretations of it: ownership of the Bible is widely contested and biblical hermeneutics is truly a site of struggle. However, not only is the need for an ecumenical approach to the Bible becoming increasingly pronounced, but ecumenicity will have to be broadened out to include multiscripturality as well. South Africa is simply also a multi-religious country with a number of other religions with their scriptures in close attendance. This demands a reappropriation of the Christian Bible as scripture amidst many other scriptures, and requires the development of an adequate, responsible and relevant multiscripturality. At the same time, it is necessary to move beyond over-simplified 'realist' options for conceptualising scripture and its role in religion. Perceiving scripture as activity rather than texts allows for investigating the interrelationship between scripture and identity, within a more adequate theology of scripture.

The Word: An Essay on Seeing, Owning, and the Sacred

In the classical period of ancient Greece, Logos had a variety ofmeanings, most or all of which connoted one aspect or another ofHeraclitus's conception of the term, ``the rational governing principleof the universe''. The triadic semiotics of Charles Sanders Peircesuggests that, through the linguistic sign, humans construct structuresof meaning, which form the cognitive Worlds in which humans exist, thesubstantive content of consciousness, and which, as such, provide theexplanation for the Cosmos. The three-term Peircean Sign becomestriadic, however, only in conjunction with Peirce's Ground, whichprovides particular substantive values that form the basis ofconstructing the meaningful World. Thus, it is possible, for example, totrace in the heterogeneity of judicial doctrine in United States law thealternative sets of values that are available; the function ofWorld creation proceeds when the Ground is suffused with a particularvalue set. If Logos is conceptualized in terms of these value sets, thenit can be understood in terms of ``the rational governing principle ofthe World.'' In this understanding, the substantive content of theGround becomes equated with the Sacred. This conceptualization alsoprovides an alternative way of understanding the opening of the Gospelof John in the Christian Bible and the concept of the Trinity inChristian doctrine in terms of the creative powers of humans through theSign. The fact of this same creative power also provides a way ofunderstanding the strong limitations in ancient Israel on pronouncingthe Tetragrammaton.

La Bible au risque de la lecture et de la relecture

Two points particularly hold the Author’s attention: the fundamental perspective of the Christian reading of the Old Testament and the relation of the Christians to the Jewish people in the context of the New Testament writings. The Author analizes the recent document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission with its important foreword by Card. J. Ratzinger, which underlines the specifics of the Christian reading of the Old Testament. The first part presents the Holy Scriptures of the Jewish people as being a fundamental part of the Christian Bible; the second part is devoted to the study of NT topics in OT texts; the third part is concerned with the theme of the Jews in the New Testament. On this subject the Author discusses ancient and modern translations of a famous text of the first epistle of Paul to Thessalonicians (2,14-16)

The Endangered and Reaffirmed Promises of God: A Fruitful Framework for Biblical Theology

Traditional ways of understanding the relationship between the First and Second Testaments of the Christian Bible have proven untenable both theologically and historically. Theologically, they have had at their foundation a supersessionistic stance over against biblical Israel and Judaism, and have often proffered an unsustainable claim of triumph over evil and suffering. Historically, historical-critical interpretation has rendered a straightforward reading of the First Testament as pointing toward the coming of Jesus problematic. This article proposes that seeing the relationship between the Testaments in light of the literary and theological rubric of God's endangered and reaffirmed promises overcomes many of these problems. It yields a fruitful basis for a biblical theology that acknowledges that both the story of Jesus and the church and the story of Israel and Judaism involve a mix of faithful response to God's promises, fundamental struggle with their endangerment, and common hope for their reaffirmation.

SHERMAN (Amy L.), The Soul of Development. Biblical Christianity and Economic Transformation in Guatemala

SHERMAN (Amy L.), The Soul of Development. Biblical Christianity and Economic Transformation in Guatemala

The Use of the New Testament in the American Slave Controversy: A Case History in the Hermeneutical Tension between Biblical Criticism and Christian Moral Debate

The study of nineteenth-century U.S. biblical exegesis on the slavery question illumines a fundamental paradox in American religious culture. The relationship between the moral imperative of anti-slavery and the evolution of biblical criticism resulted in a major paradigm shift away from literalism. This moral imperative fostered an interpretive approach that found conscience to be a more reliable guide to Christian morality than biblical authority. Yet, the political imperative of proslavery nourished a biblicism that long antedated the proslavery argumentation and remains prevalent in American moral preaching. The nineteenth-century desire to resolve this paradox led to important innovations in American interpretations of the Bible.

When Did the Gospels Become Scripture?

Bell & Howell Information and Learning Foreign text omitted ... In teaching NT Introduction, I am fond of saying that authors of NT books would have had no inkling that their writings would become part of something called New Testament or Christian Bible, which did not reach exactly its present form until fourth century. Matthew did not know that his Gospel would begin NT, although he would be happy to discover that it does. It is well suited for that position and purpose. John did not know that his Gospel would stand in NT alongside three other, Synoptic Gospels, and that it would be fourth, presumably to be read after others. Some exegetes believe that John was actually written with others in view, but that premise creates as many problems of interpretation as it resolves.l However that may be, presumption of a historical distance, and consequent difference of purpose, between composition of NT writings and their incorporation into a of is representative of our discipline. The question When did Gospels become scripture? is certainly not a new one. Understandably, it is ordinarily construed as a question about formation of canon, in this case particularly four-Gospel canon. The latter question is important, interesting, and subject of recent, relevant discussions. For example, in his 1996 S.N.T.S. presidential address Graham Stanton argued that four-Gospel was formed sooner rather than later in second century.2 More radically, David Trobisch has proposed that entire NT as we know it was actually assembled, redacted, and published in latter half of second century.3 John Barton has argued that by that time principal elements of NT were already functioning as if not referred to as such.4 Needless to say, any discussion of or stands on shoulders of such contemporary figures as James Barr, Brevard S. Childs, and James A. Sanders, not to mention Bruce M. Metzger.s Their contributions and such proposals as I have just mentioned are significant as well as fascinating to me, but I want to pursue a somewhat different tack. For purposes of our discussion I accept distinction between and (as set out, for example, by William A. Graham and now widely accepted).6 Obviously canon presumes scripture, that is, recognition of certain writings as possessing peculiar status or importance. Scripture means texts that are revered as especially sacred and authoritative.7 Canon refers to delimitation of such texts. Significantly, canon (...) is not used of sacred writings in NT, but scripture (...) of course is. In most, but not all, cases, scripture clearly refers to what Christians call Old Testament. The existence of as well as implies existence of a religious community that accords status and authority to certain texts. It goes without saying that community in question believes that such status and authority actually belong to, adhere in, text because of its subject matter, God in relation to human beings. The authors of NT books refer to but we have assumeddo not think of themselves as writing scripture. We are accustomed to thinking of Gospels as well as Epistles as occasional documents generated in specific times and places to address issues of such times and places.a Of course, one generally acknowledges that letters of apostle Paul were means of his apostolic presence among his churches, in which they would have been read aloud (1 Thess 5:27; Col 4:16; cf. 2 Cor 10:9-10). 2 Peter 3:15-16 suggests that they were regarded as before there was a NT. The same may also be true of Gospels, although that is more difficult to document. From Justin Martyr (First Apology 67) we learn that at least by mid-second century the memoirs of apostles (i. …

COMPARING CHRIST AND QUR'AN

International Review of MissionVolume 88, Issue 351 p. 414-424 COMPARING CHRIST AND QUR'AN A BRIEF THEOLOGICAL HISTORY AND ASSESSMENT OF LIABILITIES JAMES A. TEBBE, JAMES A. TEBBE Rev. James A. Tebbe is the International Director for ‘Interserve’, an international interdenominational mission agency, based in Cyprus.Search for more papers by this author JAMES A. TEBBE, JAMES A. TEBBE Rev. James A. Tebbe is the International Director for ‘Interserve’, an international interdenominational mission agency, based in Cyprus.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1999.tb00169.x Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume88, Issue351October 1999Pages 414-424 RelatedInformation

The Christian gospel as a basis for escape from poverty in Africa

Economically sub-Saharan Africa seems to be in a hopeless state. There are many reasons for this situation. The thesis of this article is that one important factor contributing to this state of affairs is the basic philosophical presuppositions of the traditional African world view. This world view includes inter alia the following aspects: the idea of the limited good (which discourages initiative because those who prosper expose themselves to suspicions of having appropriated more than their due portion of the good), belief in magic (which makes it difficult for people to see the real connection between input and result), ancestor veneration (which perpetuates traditionalism and resistance to family planning), and the remoteness of God (which gives rise to a humanistic ethic). This article indicates how in every case the Gospel provides an avenue of escape from the chains which bind Africa to this fate, especially where it can inculcate a Puritan work ethic. The conclusion is that, even apart from considerations of eternal salvation, it is very important that there will be a genuine revival of biblical Christian faith in Africa, if in the short term this continent is to make economic progress.

A Christian perspective on Neoclassical rational choice theory

The Neoclassical approach to analysing personal choice is compared with an approach contained in a Biblical Christian mode of analysis. This paper compares the Neoclassical and Christian positions via analysis of characteristics of the Neoclassical rational choice model. The main characteristic examined is a basic assumption of the rational choice model that human choice is explained as the optimisation of utility via rational self‐interest. The two positions are compared in terms of how they treat self‐interest and rationality, the degree to which basic assumptions about human behaviour are specified, the importance they attach to the realism of assumptions underlying their models, and the explanatory and predictive purposes for which the models are used. The conclusion of the comparison is that the Biblical Christian perspective encompasses the variables regarded as important in Neoclassical explanation, but presents them in the context of a more embracing worldview perspective than the Neoclassical. This Christian belief perspective is applicable to human behaviour in both “economic” and “non‐economic” domains.

Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:Justin J. Meggitt, Paul, Poverty and Survival.J. Trebolle Barrera, The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible: an Introduction to the History of the Bible.Bonnie Thurston, Women in the New Testament: Questions and Commentary.Lewis Ayres and Gareth Jones (eds), Christian Origins: Theology, Rhetoric and Community.Malcolm Lambert, The Cathars.Jan Bonda, The One Purpose of God: An Answer to the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment.H. Richard Niebuhr, Theology, History, and Culture: Major Unpublished Writings.Michael Northcott (ed.), Urban Theology: A Reader.C. Dale White, Making a Just Peace: Human Rights & Domination Systems.Colin Buchanan, Is the Church of England Biblical? An Anglican Ecclesiology.Darrell L. Guder (ed.), Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.Bert Hoedemaker, Secularization and Mission: A Theological Essay.Walter Klaiber, Call and Response: Biblical Foundations of a Theology of Evangelism.Walter Brueggemann & George Stroup (eds), Many Voices, One God: Being Faithful in a Pluralistic World.Michael Root & Risto Saarinen (eds), Baptism and the Unity of the Church.S.M. Heim (ed.), Grounds for Understanding: Ecumenical Resources for Responses to Religious Pluralism.Yirmiyahu Yovel, Dark Riddle: Hegel, Nietzsche, and the Jews.Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner, Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness.M. A. Ryan & T. D. Whitmore (eds), The Challenge of Global Stewardship: Roman Catholic Responses.Rodger Charles SJ, Social Witness and Teaching: The Catholic Tradition from Genesis to Centesimus Annus.Rowena Robinson, Conversion, Continuity and Change: Lived Christianity in Southern Goa.James Luther Adams and Wilson Yates (eds), The Grotesque in Art and Literature: Theological Reflections.C. Gestrich, The Return of Splendor in the World: The Christian Doctrine of Sin and Forgiveness.D. Watts, Religion in Late Roman Britain: Forces of Change.Peter Byrne, The Moral Interpretation of Religion.

Leben in des Menschen Hand?

Abstract This article deals with theological criterions of medical ethics which depends on biblical anthropology and Christian doctrine for the Creation. It criticizes the assertion that life is not disposible as an example of wrong deduction from is to ought. The article also deals with the concept of person and the moral status of embryos and discusses the consequences for medical genetics and prenatal diagnostics

Nuwe Testament-geskrifte as kanon: Die vraag na ' n uitgebreide databasis vir historiese-Jesus ondersoek

New Testament witings as canon: The quest for an extended database for historical Jesus research. The aim of this article is to re-establish the disparate traditions concerning the origins and growth of documents that developed into the New Testament canon. The article reflects the insights of Lee McDonald's book The formation of the Christian Biblical canon. Some of the accepted notions concerning the canon come under scrutiny, for instance that the New Tesament canon was completed before the end of the second century. The aricle concludes with the question whether the New Testament canon should be revised in the light of recent histoical Jesus studies. History and tradition plead against an incisive revision. The only option seems to be a scholar's edition of a revised list for ecclesiastical use.

The Soul of Development: Biblical Christianity and Economic Transformation in Guatemala. Amy L. Sherman

<i>The Soul of Development: Biblical Christianity and Economic Transformation in Guatemala</i>. Amy L. Sherman

The Twelve Steps: A Biblical Foundation for Recovery

ABSTRACT The Twelve Steps have deep roots in the Christian Biblical tradition. As Christian people work the Twelve Steps for recovery from all kinds of addictions, the Bible is a rich resource for spiritual understanding and growth. Step by step, Scripture reinforces and echoes the power and meaning of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Bible is relevant to the program of recovery for Christian people.

The Genealogy of Civilization

Building on insights from Freud, Nietzsche, and Norbert Elias, the author addresses the question of the construction of guilt in Judeo‐Christian civilization. The author begins with a consideration of biological versus cultural reproduction, as these are figured in the Torah and in the Christian Bible, and in tha moves on to some social‐structural, historical, and psychodynamic considerations of how and why civilization manages to sustain itself.

A Rivalry of Genius: Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation in Late Antiquity (review)

Reviewed by: A Rivalry of Genius: Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation in Late Antiquity Philip A. Homan Marc Hirshman. A Rivalry of Genius: Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation in Late Antiquity. Trans. Batya Stein SUNY Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996 Pp. ix + 179. $16.95. Marc Hirshman, professor of midrash and Rabbinics at the University of Haifa and specialist in the study of the Midrash on the book of Ecclesiastes, has written a book which will serve the growing appreciation of scholars for the pre-critical biblical interpretation of the Rabbis and Church Fathers. In this book of fewer than two hundred pages, Hirshman raises the question of “mutual influences and patterns of cross-fertilization” between the Rabbis and Fathers on their interpretations of scripture as well as on the literary forms those interpretations took. Hirshman argues that, although the literary forms in which they communicated their exegeses and the reasons they studied scripture to begin with, differed, the Rabbis and Fathers were not only aware of each other but influenced the ways in which the other read certain biblical texts. Before demonstrating mutual influences in specific rabbinic and patristic texts, Hirshman claims that polemics contributed to the Jewish and Christian study of scripture and asks why the Rabbis and Fathers were polemical and how they were polemical. In chapter one, Hirshman claims that the Rabbis and Church Fathers had not only to contend with pagans as well as with gnostics in their midst but had also to defend against each other their own understanding of the Old Testament. Furthermore, they did so in different forms. The Rabbis confined themselves to the midrashic form of commentary, while the Fathers took advantage of all the forms of Greco-Roman culture available to them. In chapter two, Hirshman describes the reasons for the complexity of the hermeneutical controversy between the Rabbis and the Fathers, who fought over the inheritance of biblical Israel and the Old Testament, including Christianity’s rapid spread among the nations and consequent adoption of numerous languages and literary forms. In chapter three, he briefly treats the implications of the rhetorical characteristics of patristic interpretation in contrast to the midrashic form of rabbinic exegesis, and he sets the methodological parameters for his investigation of specific texts in the rest of the book. Hirshman limits his study of patristic texts to those by the Fathers writing in or near Palestine during the writing of the Mishnah and the Palestinian Talmud. In chapter four, he raises two issues in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, which explicitly quotes Jewish interpretations of scripture. Justin criticizes the Jews’ observance of the commandments; since the elements of nature do not cease on the Sabbath, he claims, God does not observe the commandments. In chapter five, the author examines the rabbinic response in Genesis Rabbah to the kind of questions raised by Justin Martyr. The Rabbis claimed that even God ruled nature within the guidelines set by the Jewish law. In chapter six, Hirshman takes up the second issue in the Dialogue, Justin’s reading the Old Testament as [End Page 316] a prophecy of Christ, by comparing the interpretation of Exodus 17:11, Moses’s guarantee of Israel’s victory over the Amalekites, in the Dialogue to its interpretation in the Mekhilta, a legal midrash on the book of Exodus. The respective interests of the Fathers and Rabbis can be seen clearly in these interpretations, since Justin attributes Israel’s victory to Moses’ making the sign of the cross of Christ, while the Rabbis attribute it to Moses’ pointing to the God who gave Israel the commandments of the Torah. In chapters seven and eight, Hirshman turns to Origen, the compiler of the Hexapla, who also cites Jewish biblical interpretations, but without the polemical overtones of Justin. Origen’s knowledge of Hebrew allows him to perceive deeper meanings in the scripture as well as more easily to interpret one verse in light of another, a method common to the Rabbis. In his homilies on the book of Exodus, he equates the bitterness of the water at Mara in Exodus 15:23–25 with the...

Splitting, the Self, and God

ABSTRACT Until this decade the field of psychotherapy, perhaps following Freud, has been at least skeptical, if not debunking of religion. All the more amazing, then, is the recent inclusion of a V-code for religious or spiritual problems in the DSM IV. In order. that this development not be just another trend in which psychotherapy and religion are layered one over the other, serious efforts are being made to show the real integration of the two (Anderson & Worthen, 1997). This paper will make such an effort by addressing issues common to both fields and by showing how these issues grow out of a common human experience. On the psychotherapeutic side, the paper works out of the psychoanalytic tradition of Object Relations and Self Psychology, which has integral connections with a systems approach; and on the religious side, it works from a Biblical Christian theology, Christianity being predominant in this culture.

The Soul of Development: Biblical Christianity and Economic Transformation in Guatemala

Ever since Max Weber started an argument about the role of Protestantism in jump-starting northern Europe's economic development, scholars have clashed over the influence of religion and culture on a society's (or an individual's) economic prospects. Today, many wonder whether the explosion of Protestantism in Latin America will effect a similar wave of growth and democratization. In this book, Sherman compiles the results of her field study and national survey of 1000 rural Guatemalan households. She offers persuasive evidence that, in Guatemala and throughout the region, religious world-views significantly influence economic life. Sherman explains how the change in attitude and behaviour that accompanies conversion from animism to a Biblically orthodox world-view has improved the domestic welfare and economic status of many families. Further, she asserts that this new attitude, sympathetic to democratic-capitalism, has created a moral cultural soil in which freedom, personal empowerment, an enhanced status for women, and a desire to get ahead can be nurtured.