Sayings Of Jesus Research Articles

Jesus and Prophets like Jonah: A Message for Womanists and White Christian Nationalists

This essay explores the prophetic vocation vis-a-vis the challenge of contemporary Christian nationalism by reading the book of Jonah in the Hebrew Bible in conversation with what Jesus says about the sign of Jonah in Matthew 12. This essay puts two readings of Jonah into dialog—one for womanist prophets and one addressed to White Christian nationalists. These texts reveal God's relentless mercy for the outsider and God's unwavering love for the prophet of the oppressed. The essay considers what the sign of Jonah means for race relations and the troubling rise of White Christian nationalism in the United States today.

What Did Jesus Say on the Cross? A Sixteenth-Century Quest after a Biblical Transliteration

ABSTRACT Opening Matthew or Mark’s Gospels in one of the countless modern editions and translations of the Bible, one normally finds that moments before his death Jesus cried, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, and with minor changes in Mark 15:34). But what appears to be an unequivocal rendition of Jesus’s Aramaic vernacular was in fact an undecided question from the early Greek manuscripts up until the second half of the sixteenth century. This article follows the spelling of this transliteration in a number of consecutive editions of the Bible which appeared in the first half of the sixteenth century, thus revealing an often tacit but persistent debate regarding the representation of Jesus’s original language, the authority of the Greek ancient manuscripts, the relations between writing and oral speech, and the legitimacy of translation of the Bible.

Luke 9:57–62: Ὁδός to Marcion’s God?

Abstract The first few centuries of the Common Era saw great theological fluidity in emerging Christian doctrine. A figure looming large in many early controversies is Marcion of Pontus. Not considered truly gnostic by modern scholars, Marcion fueled the ire of early Church Fathers—Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and others—by spreading his apparently biblically-based, ditheistic theology of a superior Unknown Good God and an inferior Just Creator God. Additionally, Marcion’s gospel, generally considered a version of canonical Luke, witnesses the three Jesus sayings in Luke 9:57–62 (cf. Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem 4,23,9–11; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3,4,25). This article examines these sayings—in light of both ancient and modern commentary—as representing a collective theological way or ὁδός to ideate Marcion’s Unknown Good God. Today Marcion’s voice is faint, but in ancient Christianity it was exceedingly strong. This article attempts to find a hint of its former strength.

PEREMPUAN KANAAN DAN DAYA JUANGNYA: SEBUAH TINJAUAN NARATIF ATAS MATIUS 15:21-28 DAN RELEVANSI TEOLOGISNYA BAGI PENDIDIKAN KARAKTER KRISTIANI

This article aims at examining a fighting spirit that characterizes the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 as a source of inspiration for Christian education addressed to the youth. It focuses on her choice of actions and of words, especially shown in verses 25 and 27. In order to do so, it employs a narrative method that takes seriously every detail related to her performance. It tries to understand how her struggle emerges and why Jesus says that she has a great faith. After discussing the subject matter in several points, this article comes to a conclusion that the element of faith first of all lies on the human side, namely a fighting spirit, a spiritual entrance to receive God's mercy. Pope Francis states that a fighting spirit is visible when Christian believers, especially young people "always try to find their true identity, be themselves, and be creative in pursuing holiness in living life in the world. (CV, art. 161)”. The second theological message is that God understands and cares for everyone, especially those who ask for His help. The third theological message is that God's grace gives changing for everyone. It means that God's grace makes our identity in life more pleasing to Him

The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World

The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World

Historical Jesus vs Chalcedonian definition: The problem of Christ’s ignorance

Some of the sayings of Jesus show that he did not possess omniscience. But this is incompatible with the Chalcedonian definition according to which in Christ the divine and human natures are united in one person. Traditional theology has therefore concluded that Christ’s ignorance was only apparent. However, the studies of the historical Jesus proved that Christ as man did not really know the time of the end of the world and his Second Coming. Moreover, he expected these events to come in the very near future. The article shows that the arguments of scholars are so conclusive that the incompatibility of the gospel testimonies with the Chalcedonian definition can be considered a well-established fact. These results of New Testament studies fundamentally change the situation in modern Christian theology: a literal understanding of the Chalcedonian formula became now not only difficult, but impossible. However, the Chalcedonian definition is only one possible way to describe the unity of the divine and the human in Christ. Alternative ways are not only theoretically possible, but have already been proposed and actually exist in Christian theology. The final section of the article briefly describes three such ways proposed by Karl Barth, Albert Schweitzer, and Paul Tillich.

Dai presbiteri d’Asia agli episcopi di Roma secondo Ireneo di Lione – Parte I

The present contribution is the first half of a two-part study. It deals with a group of so-called «presbyters» (presbyteroi) to whom Irenaeus of Lyons refers as sources in his exstant works. He introduces them as pupils of John, «the disciple of the Lord», whose teaching they were deemed to transmit orally. This is an ideal image of a generation of believers in Jesus intermediate between Jesus’s direct disciples and the believers of further generations who would have no personal connection to Jesus nor to those who had been with him. For one specific saying, Irenaeus mentions as his sources the presbyters as well as Papias of Hierapolis, who had written a work including sayings of Jesus with their interpretation. Papias also claimed that he had received such sayings through «the presbyters», so we have to determine whether Irenaeus knew the presbyter’s traditions only through Papias’s work or also independently from it. Finally, the article compares Irenaeus’s appeal to the presbyters with some passages where Clement of Alexandria referred to presbyters’ teachings in a similar way ten to twenty years after Irenaeus in a different milieu. The second part of this study will examine how Irenaeus used the notion of presbyters in order to support the process that led to establishing a «monepiscopate» in the Roman Church.

The Place of Abba in Mark’s Christology

Abstract Noting the liturgical/confessional origin and nature of the αββα ὁ πατήρ (Abba Father) saying in Gal 4:6 and Rom 8:15, this article brings into focus questions about the function of αββα ὁ πατήρ (Mark 14:36) in a narrative (non- liturgical) context. The article investigates the “Abba” saying in Mark’s portrayal of Jesus’s Gethsemane prayer in light of the narrative structure of Mark’s “Son of God” Christology as it develops three major interrelated themes: Jesus as (more than) a prophet, the “open heavens,” and Jesus as Son of God. Aββα ὁ πατήρ is the third of Mark’s four main Aramaic sayings of Jesus, all of which illustrate in their own way Mark’s theme of “open heaven” as well as Jesus as “Son of God.” The four sayings are considered in light of the structure of Mark’s narrative, as well as his use of Scripture, especially Pss 2, 22, 89, and Gen 22. Mark’s Scripture interpretation is set both in the context of Paul’s allusions to some of the same Scriptures (Ps 2; 89) and in light of Roman propaganda promoting Vespasian as the fulfillment of Jewish messianic prophecy. This manipulation sought to deny to Jews (and de facto to Christ followers) the hope of a messianic deliverer as promised in their scriptures. Mark’s use of Scripture in his narrative Christology, including his use of αββα ὁ πατήρ, provided the remedy.

Robert Duncan and Norman O. Brown: Correspondence

Robert Duncan and Norman O. Brown: Correspondence

Was Joseph Smith a Monarchotheist? An Engagement with Blake Ostler's Theological Position on the Nature of God

Was Joseph Smith a Monarchotheist? An Engagement with Blake Ostler's Theological Position on the Nature of God

A Gnostic Understanding of Coping for the Cardiothoracic Surgeon.

A Gnostic Understanding of Coping for the Cardiothoracic Surgeon.

The Annotated Passover Haggadah ed. by Zev Garber and Kenneth Hanson

Reviewed by: The Annotated Passover Haggadah ed. by Zev Garber and Kenneth Hanson Joshua Schwartz zev garber and kenneth hanson (eds.), The Annotated Passover Haggadah (Denver, CO: Global Center for Religious Research, 2021). Pp. xiv + 350. Paper $14.99. Both Judaism and Christianity have roots in Passover, but Jews and Christians think about and relate to the festival differently. For Jews it is usually a festival of freedom from slavery, recalling the Exodus from Egypt as well as a time of introspection about that freedom. It was and is a family festival but also recalls its pilgrimage nature in the past. For Christians, it is associated with the last week in the life of Jesus in Jerusalem. In spite of these differences, there are some points of possible intersection between Jewish and Christian Passover beliefs and practices. One of these, for example, was the Passover seder and recitation of the haggadah, and the Last Supper of Jesus, whether the Last Supper was or was not actually a Passover seder. Seder and Last Supper was the topic of a session of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew at the SBL conference in 2018 and this served as the impetus for this book. The editors, Zev Garber, an Orthodox Jew by birth and practice and Kenneth Hanson, an Evangelical Christian by birth and a Conservative Jew by conversion, have long been involved in ecumenical academic dialogue, making Judaism and Christianity comprehensible to Jews and Christians, pointing out the elements and beliefs common to both religions as well as those that are different. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is the actual Passover haggadah with a Hebrew text, English translation, and a short paragraph commentary. In spite of the fact that there have been numerous translations and commentaries in the last few years, the editors provide in their brief commentary important analytical, philosophical, and theological [End Page 521] perspectives, especially on long overlooked sections of the haggadah. Explanatory notes stress Jewish values and concepts but also those that are intrinsically universal, uniting an assortment of religious traditions and practices. The backdrop in this part is basically in keeping with traditional Jewish law and custom. Interspersed between text and commentary are a number of excursuses by the editors on matters directly relevant to the haggadah, such as the moral sense of the ten plagues (G.), the redemption of the firstborn (G.) and the image of Elijah (H.) the prophet, invited into the seder. The final excursus by an editor (H.) is a brief (pp. 134–43) but brilliant discussion of the Last Supper of Jesus, as to whether it existed or had a connection to the Passover meal, and whether eucharistic elements were components of the Passover meal. Was the Last Supper a seder or a Pauline-inspired messianic banquet? The second part of the book is composed of seventeen "stand-alone" essays on biblical, historical, historical-philosophical, theological, liturgical, anthropological, and aesthetic elements of Passover and the haggadah impacting Judaism and Christianity. The essays on Judaism are from representatives of different branches of Judaism and from different gender frames of reference, touching on sometimes similar topics from a vast array of perspectives. The essays are the following: "Eucharist and Seder: What Should the Simple Scholar Say?," by Peter Zaas; "Inserting Shoah at the Traditional Passover Seder: Interpreting Anew the Five Cups, and What Would Jesus Say?," by Zev Garber; "Sample Haggadot and Sedarim," by Nathan Harpaz; "Romaniote and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Passover Haggadah: Excerpts and Related Customs," by Yitzchak Kerem; "A Chassidisher Pesach: Passover Traditions and Insights from Chassidic Perspectives," by Diane Mizrahi; "Why Is This Haggadah Different? Haggadot in the Non-orthodox Movements," by Annette Boeckler; "Re-arranging Things at the Table for an Isolated and Peculiar Jewish Community at the Bottom of the World," by Norman Simms; "Select Haggadah and Exodus Topics," by William Krieger; "Exodus to Leviticus to Haggadah: The Dynamism of Torahistic Law," by Jonathan Arnold, Esq.; "The Memory of God and the Blindness of Humanity: The Four Children," by Leonard Greenspoon; "The Dawn of the Jewish Woman: Marginalization, Liberation, and the Exodus," by Roberta Sabbath; "Haggadah, Shoah, and the Exigency of the Holy...

Review Article

Review Article

The Landscape of the Gospels: A Deeper Meaning by Donald Senior

Reviewed by: The Landscape of the Gospels: A Deeper Meaning by Donald Senior Michael Trainor donald senior, The Landscape of the Gospels: A Deeper Meaning (Biblical Studies from the Catholic Biblical Association of America 3; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2021). Pp. vii + 135. Paper $19.95. Donald Senior writes in his usual clear style a book that those who have studied (or would like to study) the Gospels and have traveled to the Holy Land will find enjoyable, summary, and insightful. While the focus, as suggested in the book's subtitle, is the landscape, what S. captures is the way the landscape of Palestine/Israel is integral to history and to an appreciation of the Gospels, which presume the landscape. For those who have traveled to the Holy Land, walking the landscape of the Gospel narratives deepens their understanding and, as S. indicates, in time this grows into a spiritual connection. This is the "spiritual landscape" (p. 3) that emerges as part of the biblical interpretation. Highlighting this is the book's goal (p. 21) as the landscape becomes more than the physical and geographical [End Page 336] backdrop for the Gospel narratives. It becomes a metaphor in which the Gospel reader both "lands" and "scopes" what is essential. This land has been constant in Israel's history, is the context for Jesus's ministry, and provides the context for each of the Gospel writers. "And it is evident," writes S., "that the Gospels do not simply record Jesus's sayings and describe his actions, but have set their narrative in a varied landscape, a landscape that in many instances is drenched in a long history of biblical events preceding the time of Jesus and carrying meaning from those past events" (p. 4). In the book's Introduction, S. introduces the guiding aim of his writing, his exploration of the "spiritual landscape." He then provides an overview of the physical geography that finds its echo in the Gospels: the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Valley, Samaria, the desert, Judea, and Jerusalem. A brief note on the climate and rainfall concludes this overview. S. then turns his attention to the landscape of each of the Gospels (including Acts) in a predictable order: Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, and John. These chapters do two things. They scope the spiritual terrain defined by each Gospel and summarize the narrative terrain and key themes of each. Chapter 1 deals with Mark's landscape. The unfolding of Mark's narrative also reveals a landscape in successive fashion: the Judean wilderness, Galilee, the movement from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jerusalem and its temple, and, finally, the return to Galilee as indicated in the Gospel's final chapters. In each geographical arena and through the Gospel's narrative movement important theological resonances emerge that underscore the action of God revealed through the empowered Jesus in his wilderness encounter and his mission in Galilee, to Jerusalem, and an empty tomb "that paradoxically becomes the place where the power of unending life is affirmed" (p. 48). In chap. 2, S. explores the landscape of Matthew's Gospel. He acknowledges Matthew's dependence on Mark and the hypothetical Q source as he identifies the Gospel's unique literary, historical, and geographical features. Matthew moves its focus from east to west and adopts a universalizing movement as the shift in its audience turns toward the gentiles. The landscape of Luke-Acts is the heart of chap. 3. It centers on Jerusalem and its temple initially, then follows the Marcan landscape. But it is in the Acts of the Apostles that Luke's landscape embraces the Greco-Roman world, beginning again in Jerusalem and then moving beyond, eventually to Rome. In chap. 4, S. highlights the cosmic landscape of John, the role that Galilee plays in the Gospel and the unique addition of Samaria, moving to Jerusalem with John concluding at the Sea of Tiberias. Senior believes that the Gospel landscapes are a reminder that the central truth of Christian faith is incarnational. He concludes his book with a reflection on the gift of land as a revelation of the transcendent God and the invitation to live in justice and peace. For those wanting...

Jesus Died to Guide the Prophet in the Moon's Blue Chunk: After Mahershala Ali

Jesus Died to Guide the Prophet in the Moon's Blue Chunk: <i>After Mahershala Ali</i>

The Eyewitnesses in their Own Words: Testing Richard Bauckham’s Model Using Verifiable Quotations

In his influential Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Richard Bauckham claims that eyewitnesses to events in Jesus’ life minimized changes to Jesus sayings by establishing a culture of formal control in oral performance, a culture reflected in the gospels and Acts. This study tests Bauckham’s hypothesis using verifiable internal quotations, cases where a single text narrates the original speech act and its later direct quotation by the speaker or by another character. Most quotations modify the original statement, and eyewitnesses paraphrase roughly as often as others. Whatever the historical character of the eyewitnesses actually was, they are not portrayed as the careful reciters of Jesus’ words that Bauckham’s model requires.

The Question of Divorce Based on Matthew 19:1-12: Did Jesus legalize divorce on grounds for sexual immorality?

The paper was guided by the question of divorce based on Matthew 19:1-12, on whether Jesus legalized divorce on grounds for sexual immorality. After evaluating the Jewish setting, historical and geographical background, and the immediate context of Matthew 19:1-12 suggests that by the exception clause ("except for porneia") Jesus permitted divorce only in the case of an unlawful marriage to a near relative and betrothal period. By means of the porneia exception, Jesus did not intend to impose the Levitical norms for legitimate marriage, but simply to declare that when such norms were violated, there was a valid reason for the dissolution of marriage. This view is consistent with the absolute value that Mark, Luke, and Paul placed on the saying of Jesus. I can conclude that by the exception phrase about porneia, Jesus did not intend to open the way for divorce and remarriage in the case of sexual misconduct. Rather, he wished to reaffirm the creation account of permanence of the marriage union but allowing divorce in a case of an unlawful marriage specifically during betrothal period and incestuous relationship. The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 19:1-12 can be summarized in two points. First, divorce is forbidden because it violates God’s intention of marriage as a permanent union of two persons. Second, remarriage after divorce is adultery because divorce does not dissolve the marriage union.

요한계시록 3:10의 한글 번역에 대한 제언 - Τηρήσω έκ를 중심으로 ―

In Revelation 3:10, Jesus says that he will keep the Philadelphian Christians, who have kept his word of endurance, from the hour of trial. This article suggests that the Greek clause κἀγώ σε τηρήσω ἐκ τῆς ὥρας τοῦ πειρασμοῦ should be translated literally into Korean. The New Korean Revised Version translates this clause somewhat liberally as “I also will keep you exempt from the hour of trial.” In so doing, the New Korean Revised Version inserts exempt which does not appear in the Greek text. Instead, this article argues for a literal translation: “I also will keep you from the hour of trial,” which is faithful to the Greek text.<BR> The Greek preposition ἐκ may mean either source or separation in the Greek New Testament. When the ἐκ of Revelation 3:10 is taken to mean source, then Jesus promises to take the Philadelphian Christians out of the trial. But this reading is weakened by the fact that the meaning of τηρεῖν - to cause a state to continue - scarcely means out of, which presupposes a change of situation. When the ἐκ of Revelation 3:10 is taken to mean physical separation, then Jesus is promising to keep the Philadelphian Christians exempt from the hour of trial. This translation, however, is undermined by the fact that Revelation views the eschatological tribulation as something through which the followers of the Lamb must pass.<BR> The easiest and best translation is to construe the ἐκ of Revelation 3:10 as meaning spiritual separation or protection, in which case Jesus promises to keep the Philadelphian Christians from being negatively affected by the eschatological trial. The followers of the Lamb will have to pass through the trial but will come out victorious with his special help. This view is supported by the fact that Revelation encourages the readers to overcome the eschatological tribulation.<BR> The strength of the suggested literal translation of Revelation 3:10 lies in maintaining the ambiguity of the Greek, which can be taken to mean either that Jesus will keep the Philadelphian Christians from experiencing the trial, or that Jesus will protect them so that they can overcome the trial. In contrast, the liberal translation of the New Korean Revised Version fails to preserve this ambiguity, insofar as it excludes the second meaning. This study pays special attention to the possibility that the translation of the New Korean Revised Version is used as a proof text for dispensational premillennialism, especially the pre-tribulation rapture theory, though my suggested literal translation does not exclude the idea of pretribulational rapture advocated by dispensational premillennialists.

What Is That To You?

What Is That To You?

The 8-Point Sermon: How Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount defines us, empowers us, and fulfills God’s Ten Commandments

The first argument of this book is that the Sermon on the Mount is an eight point sermon with an almost perfectly chiastic structure. Each beatitude is one of the eight points, and the remainder of the sermon elaborates on those eight points. This book’s second argument is that the Sermon on the Mount fulfills six of the Ten Commandments. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says he came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. Jesus was not exaggerating. His Sermon reveals the true intention of six of the Ten Commandments. In points three through seven, Jesus issues pairs of negative and positive commands that help us avoid breaking the Ten Commandments. The third and final argument is that Jesus calls us to practice and teach the commands in his Sermon. Other New Testament writers mentioned the same eight points, often in the same order as Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. The eight points underpinned their teaching and guidance to the church. The writers were intimately familiar with these eight points, naturally weaving them into their writing. We would be wise to know Jesus’ eight point sermon equally well.