Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993x231210004
Travis B. Williams
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.
{"title":"The Amanuensis Hypothesis in New Testament Scholarship: Its Origin, Evidential Basis, and Application","authors":"Travis B. Williams","doi":"10.1177/1476993x231210004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993x231210004","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"7 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139327250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993x231200067
Ekaputra Tupamahu, Kelly J. Murphy, C. E. Bonesho
{"title":"Editorial Foreword","authors":"Ekaputra Tupamahu, Kelly J. Murphy, C. E. Bonesho","doi":"10.1177/1476993x231200067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993x231200067","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"24 1","pages":"3 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139327532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993X231202041
Michael M. C. Reardon
In the past five decades, the doctrine of deification has experienced a renaissance within the Protestant West. While biblical scholars have exhibited greater reticence to ascribe explicitly deiform intentions to Scripture than their theologian counterparts, this article traces the recent emergence of interest in interpreting Pauline soteriology as deification. Intriguingly, scholars within this burgeoning line of inquiry of scholarship represent a host of interpretative schools (e.g. apocalyptic, new perspective on Paul) and methodological approaches (exegetical, history-of-religion, reception history, theological interpretation), yet nevertheless affirm broadly similar portrayals of the deiform contours and content of Paul’s doctrine of salvation.
{"title":"Becoming god: Interpreting Pauline soteriology as deification","authors":"Michael M. C. Reardon","doi":"10.1177/1476993X231202041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X231202041","url":null,"abstract":"In the past five decades, the doctrine of deification has experienced a renaissance within the Protestant West. While biblical scholars have exhibited greater reticence to ascribe explicitly deiform intentions to Scripture than their theologian counterparts, this article traces the recent emergence of interest in interpreting Pauline soteriology as deification. Intriguingly, scholars within this burgeoning line of inquiry of scholarship represent a host of interpretative schools (e.g. apocalyptic, new perspective on Paul) and methodological approaches (exegetical, history-of-religion, reception history, theological interpretation), yet nevertheless affirm broadly similar portrayals of the deiform contours and content of Paul’s doctrine of salvation.","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"83 - 107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139329392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993X231185789
Robert E. Jones
The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls have attracted increasing scholarly attention since their official publication was completed in 2009. These manuscripts, representing about thirty distinct compositions, attest to the existence of a previously unknown Jewish Aramaic scribal culture that flourished in the early Hellenistic period (ca. late fourth to mid-second centuries BCE). The Aramaic Scrolls thus have the potential to illuminate an otherwise poorly understood period of Jewish history. In this article, I discuss the various scholarly approaches to their language, literary content, and social location, with a special emphasis on trends in the secondary literature since the late 2000s. This article will also provide interested students and scholars with an overview of the major themes and concerns found throughout the Aramaic Scrolls.
{"title":"A History of Research on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls","authors":"Robert E. Jones","doi":"10.1177/1476993X231185789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X231185789","url":null,"abstract":"The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls have attracted increasing scholarly attention since their official publication was completed in 2009. These manuscripts, representing about thirty distinct compositions, attest to the existence of a previously unknown Jewish Aramaic scribal culture that flourished in the early Hellenistic period (ca. late fourth to mid-second centuries BCE). The Aramaic Scrolls thus have the potential to illuminate an otherwise poorly understood period of Jewish history. In this article, I discuss the various scholarly approaches to their language, literary content, and social location, with a special emphasis on trends in the secondary literature since the late 2000s. This article will also provide interested students and scholars with an overview of the major themes and concerns found throughout the Aramaic Scrolls.","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"21 1","pages":"242 - 294"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49620481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993X231174628
Roberto Mata
For centuries the idea that John wrote the Book of Revelation to comfort Christians suffering Roman imperial persecution dominated the interpretation of the text's social setting. Due to the lack of archaeological and literary evidence, scholars have abandoned such a view and offered alternatives ranging from prophetic rivalries to Christian complacency to account for the Revelation's crisis rhetoric. However, these depoliticizing views assume that an absence of persecution amounts to a lack of systemic oppression and reflect the limitations and strengths of competing interpretation paradigms in biblical studies as well as the guild's Eurocentric ethos. Framing Revelation's rhetorical situation as a colonial situation, new approaches explore how John and his interlocutors turned idol food into a site for negotiating power, identity, and wealth.
{"title":"From Imperial Persecution to Colonial Situation: Alternatives to Persecution Theories in Revelation Studies","authors":"Roberto Mata","doi":"10.1177/1476993X231174628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X231174628","url":null,"abstract":"For centuries the idea that John wrote the Book of Revelation to comfort Christians suffering Roman imperial persecution dominated the interpretation of the text's social setting. Due to the lack of archaeological and literary evidence, scholars have abandoned such a view and offered alternatives ranging from prophetic rivalries to Christian complacency to account for the Revelation's crisis rhetoric. However, these depoliticizing views assume that an absence of persecution amounts to a lack of systemic oppression and reflect the limitations and strengths of competing interpretation paradigms in biblical studies as well as the guild's Eurocentric ethos. Framing Revelation's rhetorical situation as a colonial situation, new approaches explore how John and his interlocutors turned idol food into a site for negotiating power, identity, and wealth.","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"21 1","pages":"225 - 241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48648875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993x231184749
Ekaputra Tupamahu, Kelly J. Murphy, Catherine E. Bonesho
{"title":"Editorial Foreword","authors":"Ekaputra Tupamahu, Kelly J. Murphy, Catherine E. Bonesho","doi":"10.1177/1476993x231184749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993x231184749","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136350425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01DOI: 10.1177/1476993x231151492
Ekaputra Tupamahu, Kelly J. Murphy, Catherine E. Bonesho
{"title":"Editorial Foreword","authors":"Ekaputra Tupamahu, Kelly J. Murphy, Catherine E. Bonesho","doi":"10.1177/1476993x231151492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993x231151492","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43066,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Biblical Research","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136252471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}