Testament Scholarship Research Articles

Ascension of Jesus: Drawing from the thoughts of Andries van Aarde

This article stems from the author’s dialogue with New Testament scholar Andries van Aarde about the divinity of Jesus, during which the topic of Jesus’ ascension also arose. The author aims to focus on Van Aarde’s thinking about the ascension of Jesus. The article does not intend to provide a reflection on the exegetical and hermeneutical analysis of the biblical texts alluding to the ascension of Jesus Christ. Instead, it argues that these texts existentially emphasise a believer’s new life, theologically expressed as ‘personal ascension’, implying participation with God. In the New Testament, language expressing Jesus’ ascension was borrowed particularly from royal psalms in the Old Testament. The concept of ‘ascent to heaven’ to access the divine presence is central not only to Jewish Christian apocalyptic symbolism but it also became part of the church’s liturgy. Van Aarde contends that the modern church should preserve the reference to Jesus’ ascension in ecclesial confessional language, despite no longer affirming a three-tiered universe or adhering to the mythical language of ‘descended into hell’ and ‘ascended to heaven’.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article makes the case that Jesus Christ’s ascension serves as a liturgical celebration of victory over trauma. It demonstrates the need for a metaphorical interpretation of the ancient references to ascension. These mythological descriptions become anachronistic in our time if they are interpreted in a realistic, historical and literal sense. However, rich and meaningful victory poetry can still be communicated if the ‘ascension’ is interpreted metaphorically.

Rethinking a fundamentalist literalist reading of Mark 16:18 by some new prophetic churches

Some of the New Prophetic Churches apply the fundamentalist literalist reading of the biblical text in their sermons and theology because of a lack of knowledge and application of proper reading and interpretation of scripture. The fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture particularly Mark 16:18 is linked here to the abuses by some of the pastors in New Prophetic Churches. In addressing these challenges, this article proposes a proper exegetical study of Mark 16:18 that pays attention to the context of the text, the historical background and the grammar of the text. This will be achieved by giving a background to a fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture in Pentecostalism particularly as practised by New Prophetic Churches in South Africa. The article will also highlight some of the challenges posed by the fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture. The final section is an exegetical study of Mark 16:18, which is interpreted by recognising the whole passage of Mark 16:9–20 even though some New Testament scholars do not recognise this longer ending. This article reflected on this passage in response to the fundamentalist literalist reading among New Prophetic Churches not necessarily to enter the debate between the short ending and longer ending.Contribution: This article challenges fundamentalist literalist reading of scripture in New Prophetic Churches. The article proposes a thorough exegetical reading of Mark 16:18 that recognises the exegetical tools such as history, grammar and the context of the text.

Black Readings of Exodus

Most academic study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in North America has been done from a White European or North American perspective. Post-graduate schools have predominantly required students to read works written by White authors, and the vast majority of professors are White. However, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament also has a long history of interpretation by non-White and Majority World thinkers, and their contributions need to be more widely acknowledged and employed in studying the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. This article surveys the contributions of Black Hebrew Bible/Old Testament scholars on the book of Exodus. Black scholars employ a variety of methods and approaches as they engage with the biblical text. We consider these approaches by category, beginning with textual criticism and translation before exploring works that focus on Africa in the Bible, those that draw on African or African American context, and those that highlight issues of gender or the perspectives of liberation theology. We conclude with those employing multi-faceted or integrative approaches.

A Reformation in Progress: The Path toward the Reform of Johannes Oecolampadius

This article examines the life, theological career, exegetical development, and posthumous biographies of Johannes Oecolampadius as illustrative examples of the fact that the Swiss Reformation, with all its religious movements, was far from a uniform concept in terms of its origins, purposes, and methodologies. The article explains through Oecolampadius’s example an approach to reform that was ‘in progress’, traversing the nexuses of disparate methods and exegetical priorities. Oecolampadius’s experience occupied a position at the intersection between the authority of Patristics and the principle of sola scriptura, exemplifying a balance between the past and the present of Christian tradition. The path that led Oecolampadius to become a Protestant Reformer is characterised by a gradual transition, not abrupt, not radical. His example demonstrates the methodological and ideological diversity of the Reformation, which can be observed through the prism of a single life and its intellectual periods. His conversion offers insight into how these varied approaches shaped personal engagements with Scripture, and challenges the notion of an immediate or singular evangelical ‘calling’ or ‘conviction’. This article examines a specific phase within the broader and varied trajectory of the Swiss Reformation by analysing the transformation of Oecolampadius from a biblical scholar to a preacher, and eventually to a Reformer. This case study illustrates how disparate methodologies, whether rooted in humanism or Patristics, contributed to gradual and personal evolution, ultimately giving rise to distinctive individual stances on reform. This article presents a synthesis of three distinct perspectives on the question. The first part approaches the question through the lens of church history and intellectual history; the second one utilises the history of exegesis and New Testament scholarship; and the third draws upon the perspectives of Protestant historiography, from the standpoint of social history and the history of biographies in Early Modern times.

Reflections on Peter Nagel’s article

This is a response to an article written by South African New Testament scholar, Peter Nagel. The article draws on the thoughts of another South African New Testament scholar Andries van Aarde and of German theologian Bernhard Lohse, on the history of the doctrine of the Trinity. Concluding observations include inquiring as to how the church will effectively address this type of study in its deliberations and decisions.

Reconstructing the Original New Testament: A Critical Analysis of Bart D. Ehrman's Arguments on Textual Errors and Manuscript Transmission

This study aimed to discuss the thought of Bart D. Ehrman, an American New Testament Scholar, regarding this idea of the contradiction in his research into the New Testament in many of his books, which was considered controversial and initiated a heated debate among theologians and other scholars. This research employed a library research method by analyzing various written sources such as books, articles, and scientific journals that discuss Bart D. Ehrman's thoughts on the contradictions in the New Testament. The nature of this research is qualitative, where the researcher analyzes and interprets textual data to understand Ehrman's thoughts and their implications for New Testament studies. Ehrman affirmed that since its initial copying process, the Bible had been using the hand-copying method, resulting in many errors in the manuscript. Up to the number of copyists who copy back the wrong copy and make new mistakes; eventually, many copies of the New Testament exist today, but none of these copies are known to be copies of the original book, nor copies of the first copies. Instead, they are copies of copies of other copies that have been scattered long after the original writing period. Which undoubtedly contains very many errors and differences in each copy. Mistakes that arise because they are intentional or unintentional. This study concluded that, according to Ehrman, it has been very tough to reconstruct the original text of the New Testament. Nevertheless, even so, he still stated that it was a big mistake deciding to stop learning the texts of the New Testament.

Double Turning and Other Duplicities. A Performative Reading of John 20:11–18

Abstract In John 20:11–18, Mary Magdalene meets Jesus after his death. She turns around twice, a double gesture that has puzzled New Testament scholars. In this article, I offer a performative reading of Mary Magdalene’s turns based on Judith Butler’s theory of gesture and the literary inventory of ancient recognition scenes. I argue that the double gesture does not emphasize the difference between a physical and an inner status of recognition. Instead, it is conceived as a non-identical repetition or quotation. It points to other turnings and other duplicities. Both turns are part of a performative process that unfolds the new identities of the main characters after their separation. Mary is not portrayed as a misunderstanding disciple who needs two turns to recognize Jesus, but as part of a reciprocal process that mirrors Jesus’ double appearance and the text’s double layers of meaning.

Penyelidikan Motif Penulis dan Pesan Teologis Melalui Analisis Komposisi Narasi Kitab Hakim-Hakim 6-8

This research presents a combination of two approaches, historical criticism and narrative criticism, in analyzing the motifs of the author of the book of Judges through the narrative of Israel's deliverance by Gideon. The debate among Old Testament scholars regarding historicity and theological historiography has divided opinions into two camps that are difficult to reconcile. Although each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses, the combination of both can enrich an approach to the analysis of a narrative text. Judges 6-8 are rarely interpreted using both of these approaches. For historical critical interpreters, emphasis on historicity and the documentary sources forming the narrative is crucial. However, they often overlook the literary devices that bind these historical fragments. On the other hand, narrative criticism, which focuses on literary devices, tends to trap interpreters in the subjectivity of interpretation. Some interpretations with ethical, moral, and practical theological nuances have also made leaps too far without considering the author's motifs. Through the combination of historical criticism and narrative criticism, this research has identified the author's motifs as fundamental theological values that can serve as a foundation for developing theology. This research has found that the author of the book encourages the generations of Israel to maintain their identity through theological messages about God's interaction in Israel's history during the era of Gideon.

Critical Reflections on the Role of the Canon in New Testament Scholarship

AbstractThe modern discipline of New Testament Studies has subjected the various components of the New Testament to close scrutiny, yet it persistently fails to ask critical questions about the New Testament considered as a whole. In its familiar twenty-seven book form, the New Testament may be seen as a fourth-century anthology of early Christian writings based on earlier collections or sub-collections (the fourfold gospel, the Pauline letter collection), yet innovative in establishing a sharply defined boundary between included and excluded texts. An analysis of contributions to this journal over a recent five-year period demonstrates the pervasive influence of this fourth-century construct in determining the scope and priorities of (so-called) ‘mainstream’ scholarship. Greater attention to the contingencies of canon-formation will enable us to locate the texts that came to form the New Testament within a wider early Christian literary landscape.

Pauline ethics in the context of the socio-political problems in Zimbabwe

The ethics of Paul has been a subject of research for decades, and they have been applied in various contexts globally. Paul was a founder and nurturer of various early Christian assemblies. He addressed moral matters in these assemblies of groups of concerned people. Recent New Testament scholars have indicated that Paul’s ethical teachings were meant to fit the particular needs of the congregations he had established. However, the principles drawn from Paul’s moral teachings can be applied to any context, such as the Zimbabwean socio-political environment. Therefore, this article seeks to interrogate the suitability of Pauline ethics as a solution to the socio-political challenges facing Zimbabwe. The article argues that Pauline ethics can be applied as a solution to these challenges. The social conflict theory informs the analysis and arguments proffered in this article and enables one to understand the complex relationship between the ethics of Paul and the contemporary Zimbabwean context. The article concludes that there should be an equilibrium among rights, interests, and goods in the volatile Zimbabwean socio-political environment in order to promote human flourishing.Contribution: The article significantly contributes by bringing to the fore the interface between New Testament studies and the Zimbabwean socio-political context.

African biblical studies and the question of methodology: A focus on New Testament scholarship in Nigeria

African biblical studies (ABS) focus on biblical interpretation in Africa. Although new, it has gained massive recognition among African biblical scholars as the biblical interpretation focus that best suits the peculiar challenges that face African Christians. Its emergence, of course, was reactionary to the Western approach to the interpretation of the Bible in Africa and the practice of Christianity as well, which failed to take into cognisance the peculiar needs of African Christians. In New Testament scholarship in Nigeria, ABS has come to dominate biblical interpretation, being the most preferred by New Testament scholars. However, this article notices a persistent problem with regard to methodological rigour in ABS in Nigeria. This article aims to call the attention of New Testament scholars in Nigeria to methodological rigour while engaging in ABS as this is also part of the reasons breaking into mainstream New Testament scholarship has become a problem for many of these scholars. This equally leads to poor global visibility and competitiveness on the part of many Nigerian New Testament scholars. The approach to the discussion in the work is analytical and descriptive with a touch of personal observation.Contribution: This article calls attention to the need for ABS scholars in Nigeria to emphasise methodological rigour in their research. While this will lead to recognition of the works of ABS practitioners in Nigeria and beyond, this article makes a case for academic excellence which is the hallmark of good biblical scholarship.

That all shall be saved

Central to the question of evangelism in the Southern African context is to “begin again at the beginning” of what exactly the gospel is and what it entails. This article contends that any formulation of the gospel of “the living Lord Jesus Christ …” that envisions even the possibility of the notion of hell as eternal separation from God, annihilation, or punishment for anyone is not “good” news at all, but is in fact, as one writer in the South African context puts it: “the bad news of the Gospel.” Moreover, holistic, or missional conceptions of eschatology, such as that of the influential New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright, inasmuch as they reject or do not explicitly accept universal salvation, lack theological coherence, and cannot be inculcated and shared as good news in the Southern African context. The Dutch Reformed Church and the ecumenical church urgently need to (re)discover the doctrine of ??????????????? for its rediscovery of evangelism not to be in vain.

Where Scripture and Tradition First Meet: How the Field of the Early Reception of the New Testament May (Re)Shape the Academic Dialogue between Evangelicals and Orthodox—Romania as a Case Study

In recent years, Evangelical scholars in Romania have shown a growing interest in studying the early reception of the New Testament, particularly in the writings of the Pre-Nicene Fathers (c. 90–300 CE). In parallel, a new generation of Romanian Orthodox scholars has come to appreciate the importance of a critical approach to both Scripture and Christian Tradition. As a result, fresh common ground is currently taking shape in academia: a critical approach to the early reception of the New Testament. This presents an opportunity for both Evangelical and Orthodox scholars in Romania to come together and explore certain issues of faith that have not been previously explored in this way. Since there are already several hints that the early reception of the New Testament could lead to a more meaningful dialogue, an innovative project has been initiated to further the hypothesis. The ongoing project involves five Evangelical New Testament scholars and five Orthodox New Testament scholars independently researching the same five obscure passages in the New Testament (Matthew 27.51–53, Romans 9–11, 1 Corinthians 15.29, Hebrews 6.4–6 and 1 Peter 3.18–22). Each passage is analyzed independently by one scholar from each denomination using the same methodology, i.e., a critical dialogue between exegesis and reception history. The forthcoming volume aims to assess not only the value of this approach for academic dialogue between Evangelicals and Orthodox in Romania, but also to estimate other potential gains should this method be applied on a larger scale, such as in various international ecumenical projects. There is one overarching question behind this project that still awaits a response: if the early reception of the New Testament is where Christian Scripture and Christian Tradition first meet, could it also be where Evangelicals and Orthodox finally meet?

The Amanuensis Hypothesis in New Testament Scholarship: Its Origin, Evidential Basis, and Application

For centuries, the authorship claims of certain New Testament epistles have been defended by postulating the use of a secretary. According to the amanuensis hypothesis, secretaries in the Greco-Roman world were afforded varying degrees of compositional freedom during the letter-writing process. Proponents of this view maintain that such a consideration invalidates the practice of making authenticity judgments based on the style or even content of a given letter. To better understand the merits and limitations of the amanuensis hypothesis, this article outlines its earliest formulations, traces the development of its evidential basis, and examines the various ways it has been applied within modern authorship debates.

Orthodox New Testament Scholarship: Antoniades, Lectionaries, and the Catholic Epistles. By Jovan Stanojević

Orthodox New Testament Scholarship: Antoniades, Lectionaries, and the Catholic Epistles. By Jovan Stanojević

“The Yoke Before the Oil” (Isa 10:27d) in the Light of Neo-Assyrian Covenant-Making Rituals

Abstract Following a study by Robertson (1885), Old Testament scholars have attempted to resolve the difficult reference to oil in Isa 10:27d by means of emendations, generally of a geographical nature. In this way, the verse becomes the opening line of the following war oracle (10:28–32). The study of royal inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian period reveals instead the existence of covenant-making rituals in which oil was employed, especially as an image of the curse associated with covenant transgressions. Since in Assyrian propaganda, the yoke was an image of the king’s lordship over the conquered peoples, with the prophecy that “the yoke before the oil will be destroyed,” the prophet alludes to the termination of the treaty obligations stipulated through the ritual, as well as any form of curse associated with it.

Old Testament Scholarship and the Religious-Philosophical Sense of "Life" in Ordinary Languagel

The word "life" appears in a variety of contexts in Old Testament (OT) scholarship. Included are the use of non-technical senses from ordinary language and the associated folk-philosophical assumptions implicit therein. This article investigates whether and to what extent the recent history of interpretation reflects what the philosopher of religion Don Cupitt refers to as the "turn to life " in everyday speech. To test the hypothesis, samples of the relevant data are selected from the related second-order discourses of popular Bible translations and prominent theologies of the OT. The analysis shows strong correlations in terms of quantitative and qualitative conceptual-historical diachronic variability. Thus, it is concluded that the emergent quasi-religious sense of "life" in ordinary language is also a supervening folk-philosophical concept, concern and category in contemporary OT scholarship.

A Woman with Multiple Identities: Reading the Ruth Character in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Our varied identities as Old Testament scholars located on the African continent need to shape our reading processes as well as our scholarship. The Ruth character in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible carries multiple identities. If the character is engaged within the intersection of foreignness, migration, gender, and economic survival, which reading may emerge? How would such a reading impact the theory and praxis of South African Old Testament scholarship in present-day South Africa?

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.

Jesus the Jew: Survey on the Cliché in Its Context

This essay pursues the studies pertaining to the Quest for the Historical Jesus, which began in the Enlightenment era, and focuses on the dominant discourse of this quest in the present-day scholarly works on Jesus the Jew. The late-coming acceptance of the Jewishness of Jesus is now a scholarly cliché. In the context of the Gospels, to say “Jesus was a Jew” is not a really shocking or unexpected idea. The problem with the Jewishness of Jesus is why it took until the 1970s for this idea to develop. The second problem is how the assertion of the Jewishness of Jesus could develop so tremendously in the contemporary academy. That is a difficult question to answer within the borders of mere theology. Therefore, in this essay, I will have recourse to the help of politics and anthropology, and ultimately will claim that the changing of the main discourse in the New Testament scholarship on Jesus the Jew has happened for several reasons, but the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars and the Prague Spring of 1968 have played more important roles than others, such as multiculturalism, the Second Vatican Council, and neoliberalism. These two events might show us the motivation for the sudden but widely accepted alteration. With the rise of the Jesus the Jew emphasis in Historical Jesus Studies, the intensity of Holocaust studies has also increased. Whereas until the 1970s there was no significant concentration of work on the Holocaust, since the 1970s this trend has been reversed and has taken a dominant place in modern academia. The Holocaust narrative has also been valorised by the changing geopolitics of the world, which has also influenced Historical Jesus Studies. With the rise of Israel in the region as a result of the Arab-Israeli wars, which made Israel one of the countries that could serve the world system, the emphasis on the Holocaust and Jesus the Jew became a kind of propaganda in the academy. However, it is not these movements that have ensured the success of this wind change. The event that led to the thawing of the Cold War was the Prague Spring of 1968. The ideal of a Socialism outside the example of the Soviet Union, which was trying to be created in Czechoslovakia, was crushed by Soviet tanks. Since the Soviet Union itself destroyed this attempt to heal the corruption within itself, the Soviet reaction must be seen as the suicide of Socialism. It is for this reason that the second power of the Cold War period ideologically withdrew from the scene. The crushing of the Prague Spring led to a spring in a different field of modern academia: the Quest for the Historical Jesus and Holocaust Studies.