Testament Gospels Research Articles

Lamb and Lion, Eyes and Horns: Spirit Christology in the Apocalypse of John

Abstract What contribution may the Apocalypse of John make to Spirit Christology? This article focuses on Rev 5:5–6, progressively unveiling these verses’ promise for the project of Spirit Christology through the examination of seven theses. The aim of this exercise is mutual enrichment: Spirit Christology gains an expanded biblical basis beyond its traditional concentration on the New Testament gospels, while the theological interpretation of the Apocalypse of John benefits from a Spirit-christological reading heretofore lacking in major works on the theological interpretation of Revelation.

A Short Account of that Part of Africa Inhabited by the Negroes

Anthony Benezet scoured the available English literature of colonial exploitation for evidence of the humanity of the trafficked Africans and the inhumanity of the European traders in human beings. He compiled and published this Short Account in 1762 to present the case for termination of the trans-Atlantic transportation of kidnapped Africans, for abolition of slavery and the slave trade, and for emancipation of the enslaved persons held in bondage in North America and elsewhere. Drawing on Scottish moral philosophy, British Whig ideology, and, most importantly, on New Testament gospel teachings, Benezet presented both reasoned and impassioned appeals for the recognition that Africans had rights to life and liberty that were being abrogated on an industrial scale in violation of the most basic Christian beliefs. The mid-eighteenth century witnessed the height of the English and North American participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and this early abolitionist tract raised an important and ultimately influential outcry in favor of its termination and the remediation of its manifold abuses.

Transformative Choices for Wise Spiritual Renewal in the Inner Chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ and the New Testament Gospels

Abstract By highlighting two genres of literature found within the Inner Chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ and the Four Gospels of the New Testament, I compare creatively and meaningfully these two classical collections of texts from Daoist and Chrstian traditions in a manner never previously pursued. In those two genres are “instruction plura-logues” and “hard sayings”: the former involves a master/teacher interacting with at least two others (disciples, questioners, seekers, or opponents), and so always involves a conflict in values and worldviews; the second involve poignant sayings that point toward an alternative expression of lived wisdom and the worldview advocated by the master/teacher. Many illustrations of both genres within these two classical collections of texts are presented and analyzed. What is learned by this study is that instruction plura-logues and hard sayings challenge interlocutors to consider alternatives to mundane wisdom, provoking transformative choices for wiser spiritual sources of renewal.

Memory and Hermeneutics – Concluding Reflections

This response presents the reason for studying memory and hermeneutics in depth and employs hermeneutical categories of memory to discuss the contributions of four prominent New Testament scholars. The motive for selecting memory and hermeneutics as the topic of more profound study has to do both with the different phases of my academic life and environment, moving from historical research as an activity of distanced reconstruction of the past to approaching it as a more subtle negotiation with the past in the present, as well as with an increasing awareness of the inherently hermeneutical dimension of memory. The three categories of memory that are necessary in order for memory to be memory are referentiality, narrativity, and temporality. Memory without referentiality turns into pure imagination; memory without narrativity turns into a static archive; memory without temporality turns into achronic fantasy. From this hermeneutical perspective, I comment on the four articles proposing ways to use theories of memory in the study of the New Testament Gospels and indicate new avenues emerging from working with Paul's letter to the Romans.

The Story of Jesus: A Mosaic by Roy A. Harrisville

Reviewed by: The Story of Jesus: A Mosaic by Roy A. Harrisville Troy M. Troftgruben The Story of Jesus: A Mosaic. By Roy A. Harrisville. Foreword by Mark C. Mattes. Eugene, Oregon: Resource, 2020. xx + 229 pp. To Lutheran scholars, Roy A. Harrisville needs no introduction. Professor Emeritus at Luther Seminary and author of many books, Harrisville's scholarly career has been devoted not only to New Testament interpretation in general, but also to the significance of Jesus more specifically. He has particularly reflected on the advantages and limitations of scientific methods such as the historical-critical method for arriving at clearer understandings of Jesus of Nazareth. He culminates a lifetime of work in a concise portrait of Jesus—a "mosaic"—in a book that is at once biographical, theological, confessional, and poetic. Harrisville writes this book because "despite the decline … of mainline Christian denominations, the fascination with Jesus of Nazareth is still existent, particularly among the youth" (xvii). The book takes its cues from the four New Testament Gospels, since Harrisville finds their witness credible, despite the challenges of skeptics. After the Introduction, the book has five parts, four of which progress chronologically through Jesus' life: Beginnings, Beginnings of Jesus' Ministry, Schooling the Disciples, The Passion, and Summary. In each section, Harrisville discusses the significance of Jesus' ministry as it is collectively portrayed in the New Testament Gospels. In these discussions, Harrisville routinely begins with traditions deemed [End Page 193] the earliest, making Mark's Gospel the most consistent starting point. But the book considers traditions from other Evangelists no less, and without diminishing their contributions. Throughout, Harrisville demonstrates broad awareness of parallels from Jewish and Greco-Roman literature, enriching the discussion. Although he surveys the gamut of Jesus material in the Gospels, the areas most substantively discussed are miracles (35–52), parables (53–73), conflict with religious leaders and others (79–110), discipleship matters (117–39), and the Passion narrative (149–89). The book reads like a hybrid that is part New Testament commentary, part historical-critical reconstruction, and part theological assessment or confession of faith. A regular dialogue partner, it seems, are historical-critical assessments that are more confident in scientific reconstruction and skeptical of the miraculous. An example is the section on miracles (35–52), which concludes: "We are left with the alternative that the exorcisms are to be set down to the legendary or mythical, or are to be believed as having actually occurred" (34). The book is more positivist regarding what may be known about the "inner life" or "psychic states" of Jesus, for which Harrisville finds Mark's Gospel the richest in material (143–48). The book ends with "A Final Reflection on the Resurrection of Jesus" (200–03), in which Harrisville incorporates insights from authors as varied as Martin Luther, William Blake, and C.S. Lewis. Regarding the resurrection, Harrisville confesses: "Human thought is a mendicant, a beggar. Its object does not need me to be, to be there; it is a given, a gift, an act of grace" (202). This book envisions an audience of college or seminary readers (xiii). Certainly, the more familiar readers are with New Testament scholarship from the last century, the richer the book will be. Even so, invested novices will find this book enlightening and thought-provoking, as well as enjoyable due to the turns of phrases playfully inserted throughout (for example, "The narrative of Jesus' stilling the storm… may appear to some as absurd as a purple cow" 45). Although minor misspellings occur, they do not diminish the clarity and profundity of the book's substance. The Story of Jesus is a concise compendium of Harrisville's teaching, historical-critical reflection, and theological discernment about the significance of Jesus [End Page 194] for today. It is at once enjoyable and profoundly instructive, from someone who has greatly influenced the conversations of New Testament theology to this day. Troy M. Troftgruben Wartburg Theological Seminary Dubuque, Iowa Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

ζωή in Johannine Gospel and Its Implications for Gender Relation in African Christianity

This paper focuses on ζωή in the Johannine Gospel and its implications for gender relations in African Christianity. The Gospel of John is outstanding among the four New Testament gospels. Its emphasis differs significantly from those of the Synoptic Gospels. The perception of life is a recurrent issue in every human community. It is existential that attracts the interests of every gender in society. The sensitivity of gender issues, especially inequality, is a global concern. Differences between people based on gender are known as gender inequality, and it has been characterized differently in various researches. Gender inequality is an accumulation of various interrelated social issues. The researcher argues that God’s life in people is inclusive and encompasses. This implies that life is inclusive and that God owns it. Gender inequality must not be allowed to disrupt the African church’s unity and God's purpose for her. The researcher used the historical-grammatical method to analyze John 5:24; 10:10 and 1 John 5:12. The findings reveal that the Johannine perspective of life is genderless, for, in Christ, there is no Greek or Gentile, no male or female. Again, it presents eschatological dimensions of life, which differ from the Synoptic, and are not mainly to a specific gender. Therefore, the life Christ gives is for all, whether great or small and male or female, and none should be hindered from hearing and receiving the gospel of first importance (ICor.15:3-4).

Debutanten Jesus

This article analyzes an important but overlooked topos in the study of ancient Greco-Roman biographies and New Testament gospels: the main character’s debut. In the bioi/vitae, the debut or first public appearance often functioned as a display window of the main character’s persona, as a programmatic episode, and as an ideological and literary miniature of the whole biography in which it occurred. The article employs these insights to identify and analyze the debut summaries and debut scenes in the New Testament gospels (Mark 1:14–15, 21–28; Matt 4:17–25; 5–7; Luke 2:40–52; 4:16–30; John 2:1–11, 12–23). As biographers of a kind, the evangelists accommodated the debut of Jesus to their own ideological, literary, and theological agendas with the consequence that each of the four gospels contains a distinct debut of Jesus.

Being Emmanuel: Matthew's Ever-Present Jesus?

AbstractAmong the New Testament Gospels, Matthew most emphatically stresses the continued presence of Jesus throughout his ministry and with his disciples after Easter. This is despite sensitivity to the challenge of the cross and experiences of absence or deprivation. Structurally, the Gospel develops this affirmation in relation to the narrative of Jesus’ birth and incarnation, to his ministry, to the governance of the Christian community in its apostolic mission to Israel and the nations. Matthew never quite articulates how this continued presence actually works, whether in spatial or sacramental or pneumatological terms. And yet the emphatic correlation of ‘Jesus’ and ‘Emmanuel’ confirms that each is constituted by the other: being ‘God with us’ (Matt 1.23) means precisely to ‘save his people’ (1.21), and vice versa.

Поэтическая «Мариология» Семёна Липкина

The article considers the image of the Virgin, presented in the poetic world of one of the greatest poets of the second half of the 20th century, Semyon Lipkin. The organic religious commitment inherent in his poetry is realized, first of all, in the cultural space of the Holy Scripture. Being, in a way, in between the two Testaments, the poet in his worldview is rather inclined to favor the New Testament understanding of suffering and sorrow, life and death. The image of the Virgin becomes one of the bearers of the New Testament gospel.

Presentation of the Dossier

The Pentateuch is a cultural heritage of Humanity. The world narrated in it belongs to the second millennium B.C., and the narratives, poems, and sets of laws contained therein were composed during the first six centuries of the first millennium B.C. On the one hand, by bringing together epic, lyrical, and legal poetry, the one hundred and eighty-seven chapters constitute, in the form of five books, a masterpiece in the history of literature. On the other hand, it is literature that proposes to cultivate memory, either in relation to the narrated world, or in view of the period of its composer, sometimes narrating, sometimes legislating, sometimes singing. Moreover, as literature aimed at history, the texts of the Pentateuch promote enormous theological reflection. The main goal seems to be to think God. Thus the first five books of the Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible, with their narrated models of faith and behavior, turned into poems and defined by legal formulations, became the foundational reference for the religion of ancient Israel, of which Judaism was born and, from the latter, Christianity. Also Jesus of Nazareth, in the four New Testament Gospels, is presented in relation to Abraham and Moses, and stands out as a unique teacher with regard to the laws contained in the Pentateuch.

“‘You Shall Love the Alien as Yourself’: Hope, Hospitality, and Love of the Stranger in the Teachings of Jesus”

The Trump administration’s controversial immigration policy has provoked significant opposition, including against a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government over Trump’s insistence on a “wall,” but the most outrage was generated by the “zero-tolerance policy” for refugees and asylum seekers that resulted in the forced separation of thousands of children from their parents. This essay evaluates the current U.S. policy in light of the life and teachings of Jesus as portrayed in the New Testament Gospels, beginning with the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13–15; cf. Deuteronomy 10:19–20) but focusing primarily on Jesus’s teachings on hospitality—including the love of neighbor and the stranger—for those people with their “backs against the wall,” in the words of Howard Thurman. Key passages include the parables of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:26–37), the Sheep and Goats (Matthew 25:31–46), and the Great Dinner (Luke 14:15–24).

Washing Away Sin: An Analysis of the Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and Its Influence by Lesley R. DiFransico

Reviewed by: Washing Away Sin: An Analysis of the Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and Its Influence by Lesley R. DiFransico Joseph Lam Lesley R. DiFransico. Washing Away Sin: An Analysis of the Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and Its Influence. Leuven: Peeters, 2016. xiii + 256 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000096 This new contribution by Lesley DiFransico to the growing field of the study of biblical metaphor considers the theme of washing away sin, with the goal of "trac[ing] the trajectory of the metaphor's development in the Hebrew Bible" and relating that "to the later practice of washing away sin attested in the sectarian literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the New Testament gospels" (3). Observing that "immersion or rinsing in water is not attested in the Hebrew Bible as an actual practice performed to solve the problem of sin" (19), the book examines the [End Page 195] interrelationships between the relevant metaphors in the Hebrew Bible and explores the potential impact of these Hebrew Bible texts on later communities in which practices involving water as a solution to sin are known. After an initial chapter that introduces the topic and describes DiFransico's approach, which involves applying the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, the core of the book consists of a series of close readings of passages in which language relating to the washing away of sin is found. Chapter 2 treats texts in Isaiah and Jeremiah (specifically, Isaiah 1:2–20; 4:2–6; Jeremiah 2:20–25; 4:11–18) containing novel metaphorical expressions envisioning sin as something that can be washed; chapter 3 discusses Psalm 51, Ezekiel 36:22–36, and Zechariah 13:1, arguing that these are based on "the more specific dimension of ritual washing and/or cleansing" (79; emphasis mine); and chapter 4 explains passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls (especially 1QS II, 25–III, 12; and IV, 15–26) and the New Testament (focusing mostly on the figure of John the Baptist) as representing "an additional stage in the development of the concept of washing away sin in which the metaphorical concept is put into ritual practice" (144). A brief concluding chapter recapitulates the main arguments. The textual analyses in the book are, for the most part, competently done. Each passage is presented in the author's translation along with numerous exegetical notes, followed by a more extensive "comment and analysis" section that treats various interpretive issues. A strength of the book lies in its consideration of the precise contours of each metaphor in question: from the source and target domains of the metaphor, to the theological implications of the expression in context, to possible resonances with other biblical texts. The format allows for more in-depth discussion of the metaphorical dimension of these texts than one finds in a standard commentary. That said, despite the textual focus that this format makes possible, DiFransico occasionally overlooks details that have broader implications for the overall argument. Two examples are worth mentioning. In Jeremiah 2:22, DiFransico renders the phrase as "the stain your iniquity is before me" (63, 65), ostensibly taking the first two words as a construct phrase (following such established translations as the NRSV and NIV). However, despite devoting a footnote (63 n. 125) specifically to the word , DiFransico does not observe that its masoretic pointing precludes the possibility of a construct form, which would have had patakh and not qamets as the second vowel. If one construes this participle as a substantive, denoting an object that is stained, then this would be consistent with an understanding of the metaphor as referring to stained clothing (cf. DiFransico's discussion in 65–68). But whether or not such an interpretation is to be preferred, the grammatical issue deserves at least some attention in view of its importance to the discussion. A second example is the handling of the phrase in 1QS 3, 9. Here DiFransico offers divergent renderings of the phrase throughout the discussion, alternatively opting for "waters of repentance" (179, 185 [bottom]) or "running waters" (181, 185 [top], 186), with a footnote (181 n. 12) arguing for the "running waters" interpretation over...

Greek-Chinese Interlinear of the New Testament Gospels and its Applications

This article describes a Greek-Chinese interlinear glossed text consisting of the four gospels in the New Testament. Each word in the original Koine Greek text is annotated with several layers of linguistic information, including its Chinese gloss; word alignments to its Chinese counterparts in the Revised Chinese Union Version, a modern Chinese translation of the Bible; and its morphological and syntactic information, adapted from the PROIEL project. We evaluate the precision and consistency of the Chinese gloss. We report a pilot study on using this interlinear to teach Greek to beginner students, illustrating how it can facilitate data-driven learning for aspects of grammar and lexical usage.

Introducing Jesus: A Short Guide to the Gospels' History and Message by Mark I. Strauss

Reviewed by: Introducing Jesus: A Short Guide to the Gospels' History and Message by Mark I. Strauss Anthony O. Ewherido mark i. strauss, Introducing Jesus: A Short Guide to the Gospels' History and Message (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018). Pp. 185. $16.99. I always look out for simply written introductions to Scripture, for my personal edification and for the needs of my students. Mark I. Strauss's Introducing Jesus is by far one of the most reader-and-study-friendly volumes that I have found. This volume takes up the challenges of introducing Jesus and introducing the Gospels as well as the task of explaining the methods that aid our understanding of the Gospel narratives simultaneously, a feat that is difficult to accomplish in a book that is so simply written, without being simplistic in the presentation of the subject matter. The volume is well arranged, going through five main issues regarding Jesus and the Gospels in its twenty chapters and two appendixes. Based on his premise that "to understand Jesus, we have to understand the New Testament Gospels . . . the primary source documents for his life and ministry," the author offers his response to the question, "What Are the Gospels?" (chap. 1), with very insightful and understandable introductory materials regarding the sociohistorical and religious background of the Gospels (chaps. 2 and 3). This is followed by a two-part treatment of each of the Gospels that deals with the introduction to the Gospel, and the themes and theology of each Gospel (chaps. 4‒11). He continues with a treatment of the historical reliability of the Gospels (chap. 12) as the foundation for the presentation of the life, teachings, and works of Jesus (chaps. 13‒19). He concludes with two appendixes that focus on the transmission and reading of the Gospels, with an exposé on historical and narrative critical methodologies for studying the text. Strauss's work comprehensively covers the different aspects that should be considered [End Page 557] in any study of the Gospels as narratives about Jesus, with wonderful résumés that help the reader understand who Jesus is and how the Gospel narratives work, either together or individually, to paint his portrait. Each chapter is properly introduced with the right connectives and links to what came before and what follows. At the end of each chapter, the author gives an apt summary of the chapter, review questions as study guides, and a simple bibliography of about three or four books. There are no footnotes or endnotes. While at first sight, this seems to shortchange the academic quality of the work, the reader finds out very quickly that the author has turned out a well-researched work that is presented in a readerfriendly and inviting manner—easy to read and understand because S. writes with the main purpose of creatively communicating Jesus to the reader, using the same tools of biblical scholarship that are employed by others but in a different way. His use of real-life stories as introductions and illustrations in many areas functions as an effective attention-catching and pedagogic device. The same is true of his use of questions as preamble to his treatment of themes and topics (almost an FAQ format). He definitely answers the questions satisfactorily in what follows. Convinced that the Gospels validly function as foundations for people's faith, S. makes bold statements that assert the "unitive and distinctive character of the gospels and the evangelist," while describing them as "historical narratives motivated by theological concerns" (p. 13), writings that are at the same time inspired (p. 14). His writing is devoid of burdensome and unnecessary details as he presents chapters and subsections in a concise and relevant manner. He habitually explains technical words to facilitate and encourage the reader, while throwing in exegetical illuminations as often as they are needed. He also engages the other NT books and the OT fruitfully as corroborative evidence in his portrait of Jesus. More importantly, he reads the Gospels not just as historical documents about past events but also as a living message for today's world. One special contribution of S.'s work is the emphasis on the grace element in the...

Memories of Moses: A Survey Through Genres

The last few decades have seen an increase in the use of memory studies in biblical scholarship, yet so far studies on biblical characters have not sufficiently considered the genre of the texts that encode the memories. This article explores the relation between genre and the ways in which Moses is remembered or forgotten in historiographical genres such as national histories and historiographical novellas; in wisdom genres; in prophetic genres such as oracles, biographies and apocalypticism; in genres within the Psalms; and in more recent genres such as treatises, letters and New Testament Gospels. The article demonstrates how the authors create and recreate the memory of Moses in order to serve their own ideological means in accordance with their chosen genres.

Jesus Novel

Jesus Novel Christopher A. P. Nelson (bio) The Gospel of the Twin Ron Cooper Bancroft Press www.bancroftpress.com/the-gospel-of-the-twin/ 310 Pages; Print, $27.50 Fans of Cooper's earlier novels (Hume's Fork [2007]; Purple Jesus [2010]) may be disappointed to learn that his latest work is not the third offering from the world of Legare Hume, Purvis Driggers, et al. What it is, however, is a far from disappointing, and deceptively facile, "Jesus novel" that, if it suffers from anything, will perhaps suffer from an inability to find the wide readership that it arguably merits. The title is sufficiently indicative: The Gospel of the Twin is a gospel narrative, purportedly written, in the first person, five decades after the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, by one Judas Didymos Thomas—Jesus's twin brother. Unfolding in a "prologue" and thirty-four "chapters," consisting of between one and five "verses" each, the novel is an account the life of Jesus, as understood—or misunderstood—by his brother, interspersed with accounts of Thomas's successive wanderings and musings in the years following his brother's execution, as he attempts to figure out what, if anything, it all meant. Comparisons with other "Jesus novels" are perhaps inevitable, as this particular sub-genre already includes well-known contributions by the likes of Lew Wallace (Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ [1880]), George Moore (The Brook Kerith: A Syrian Story [1916]), Sholem Asch (The Nazarene [1939]), and Nikos Kazantzakis (The Last Temptation of Christ [1955]). Contrasts, however, are perhaps more instructive in situating this novel for a contemporary readership. For, whatever else it might be deemed, The Gospel of the Twin is decidedly neither an irreverent, revisionist send-up played for laughs, à la Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal [2002]), nor a devotional, fundamentalist tract provided to secure the faithful in the particulars of their faith, à la Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (The Jesus Chronicles [2006, 2007, 2009, 2010]). Or, to situate it on a different but comparable axis, The Gospel of the Twin is neither an outsider's attempt to render the story of Jesus in the form of a novel while keeping to the official version of the story as recounted in the Gospels, à la Norman Mailer (The Gospel According to the Son [1997]), nor a wildly inventive venture in speculative iconoclasm, à la Michael Moorcock (Behold the Man [1966, 1969]). Like most of these works, Cooper's Gospel is what Theodore Ziolkowski (Fictional Transfigurations of Jesus [1972]) would easily identify as a "fictionalizing biography." What sets Cooper's novel most obviously apart from the rest of the crowd, however, is the one liberty that Cooper allows himself, namely, the conceit of having the story ostensibly narrated by Jesus's twin brother. Such a conceit is almost certain to alienate readers who lean toward the LaHaye/Jenkins and/or Mailer positions, for whom any tinkering with the accepted narrative tradition as unfolded in the New Testament Gospels is anathema. But the conceit is far more tenable, and far more intelligent, than the kind favored by those who lean toward the Moore and/or Moorcock positions, as there is in fact a tradition in Christian theology, albeit a minority one, per which the "Thomas" named and numbered among the original disciples of Jesus was, in fact, his twin brother. What Cooper appears to be after here is a telling that is, at least philosophically, more plausible and more compelling than offerings from any of the afore-mentioned extremes. As the narrator explains in the Prologue to his Gospel, "[he] would rather Jesus be completely forgotten than transformed into something he was not. Since I cannot erase the lies, I must try to combat them by offering truth." Writing some five decades after the crucifixion of his brother, however, Thomas also concedes that his own understanding of his brother was far from complete, or clear, and that his own re-telling of these events, so long after the fact, is as likely as any other to be or contain distortions of what philosophical realists would unproblematically refer to as "the...

Salvific Dissolution: The Mystery of the Betrayal between the New Testament and theGospel of Judas

The recently discoveredGospel of Judashas created much controversy among scholars. While it is clear that Judas is liable for Jesus' crucifixion in this text, it is much debated whether his actions should be understood positively or negatively. This article suggests that focusing on how theGospel of Judasevaluates the salvific meaning of Jesus' crucifixion alongside the New Testament gospels and other early Christian writings may provide a key for solving this problem. In this way, theGospel of Judascan be seen as a rare attempt to unravel what Irenaeus aptly termed ‘the mystery of the betrayal’.

Understanding Origen: The Genre(s) of the Gospels in Light of Ancient Greek Philology and Modern Genre Theory

The reflections of Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185–254 CE) concerning the nature of the New Testament Gospels may be better understood if viewed in relation to a scheme of standard introductory questions used by ancient Greek philologists in their commentaries on classical Greek literature. While this scheme did not include questions about the form or genre of the writings to be analyzed, Origen repeatedly added such reflections when he adapted the scheme in his commentaries on biblical writings. These reflections inform us of his expectations of the Gospels. Using a modern concept of genre as a system of expectations shared between author and reader, and frequently intended to shape the worldview of the readers, Origen’s views of the nature of the Gospels can be expressed as their simultaneous participation in two genres: Christian teaching and ancient historiography.

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Insight into Traditioning Processes and the Growth of Gospel Traditions

This article proposes that parallel traditions among the Dead Sea Scrolls offer a comparative data-set by which to reassess “the Synoptic problem” in the New Testament gospels. The Dead Sea materials, not only shared traditions but also differences between them, whether in the manuscripts of the same work or overlapping portions of different works, show similarities to the ways in which the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and the putative “Q” overlap and depart from one another. The multiple degrees in which some Dead Sea texts evolved underscore the plausibility that, with or without the influence of oral tradition, texts could change and develop rapidly through literary activity in a relatively short period of time.

Ancient Christian care for prisoners: first and second centuries

This study deals with the question as to whether first- and second-century sources reflect ancient Christian practices of care for prisoners and in how far these sources help clarify the reasons why Christians cared for prisoners in different contexts. The study explores material not only from the New Testament Gospels (Matt. 25; Luke 4) and Acts, but also from the Pauline Corpus and extra-canonical literature such as Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistles , later Acts of the Apostles , Martyrdom literature and even a passage from Lucian of Samosata’s Life of Peregrinus . The article concludes that the evidence for Christian care for prisoners is earlier and more widespread than usually assumed. While some sources do not reflect on reasons for this practice, others put it into wider horizons: Matthew links care for prisoners with the notion that actions toward people in need are actions toward Christ, the judge himself – an innovative view that is certainly tied to the special circumstances of early Christians. Luke, however, borrows Isaianic motifs, linking freedom for captives with the Messianic Age.