Pub Date : 2023-02-03DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221150484
J. Meggitt
The claim that the historical Jesus was a violent revolutionary has seen a revival in recent years with the work of Dale Martin and Fernando Bermejo-Rubio. Central to their case is the datum that Jesus’s disciples were armed at the time of his arrest in anticipation of their active participation in an end-time battle. However, whilst it can be established that it is likely that the disciples did carry bladed implements that could be used as weapons, when the literary and material-cultural evidence is scrutinised more closely, it is unreasonable to infer that these were intended to be used for apocalyptic ends or that the disciples or anyone else would see them as evidence of military intent.
{"title":"Putting the Apocalyptic Jesus to the Sword: Why Were Jesus’s Disciples Armed?","authors":"J. Meggitt","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221150484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221150484","url":null,"abstract":"The claim that the historical Jesus was a violent revolutionary has seen a revival in recent years with the work of Dale Martin and Fernando Bermejo-Rubio. Central to their case is the datum that Jesus’s disciples were armed at the time of his arrest in anticipation of their active participation in an end-time battle. However, whilst it can be established that it is likely that the disciples did carry bladed implements that could be used as weapons, when the literary and material-cultural evidence is scrutinised more closely, it is unreasonable to infer that these were intended to be used for apocalyptic ends or that the disciples or anyone else would see them as evidence of military intent.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"371 - 404"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46402191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-26DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221146219
R. Copeland
Because fig trees were agriculturally important, residents of Palestine during Jesus’s and Matthew’s times would be much more familiar with figs than are most academic biblical interpreters. This article engages the cultural, economic, and ecological significance of fig trees in first-century Syrio-Palestine in conversation with the cursing of the fig tree in Mt 21.18–22. This engagement reveals parallels between this passage and the parable of the wedding banquet (Mt 22.1–14), rendering all of Mt 21.12–22:14 as one literary unit centered on the theme of judgment and its timing. Specifically, these two pericopae portray those who render swift judgment as both unreasonable and self-defeating. In contrast, the parables of the two sons (Mt 21.28–31) and the wicked tenants (Mt 21.33–41) show that deferring judgment creates room for repentance, making the literary unit a nuanced explanation of the deferral of divine judgment and an invitation to repentance.
{"title":"The Perils of Premature Judgment: Reading Matthew 21.18–22.14 with the Fig Tree","authors":"R. Copeland","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221146219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221146219","url":null,"abstract":"Because fig trees were agriculturally important, residents of Palestine during Jesus’s and Matthew’s times would be much more familiar with figs than are most academic biblical interpreters. This article engages the cultural, economic, and ecological significance of fig trees in first-century Syrio-Palestine in conversation with the cursing of the fig tree in Mt 21.18–22. This engagement reveals parallels between this passage and the parable of the wedding banquet (Mt 22.1–14), rendering all of Mt 21.12–22:14 as one literary unit centered on the theme of judgment and its timing. Specifically, these two pericopae portray those who render swift judgment as both unreasonable and self-defeating. In contrast, the parables of the two sons (Mt 21.28–31) and the wicked tenants (Mt 21.33–41) show that deferring judgment creates room for repentance, making the literary unit a nuanced explanation of the deferral of divine judgment and an invitation to repentance.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"264 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47476840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-24DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221150103
A. Garrow
A striking feature of the current state of Synoptic Problem studies is the almost universal acceptance of Markan Priority. If Mark was indeed used by both Matthew and Luke, this reduces the number of simple solutions to the Synoptic Problem to just two: Luke used Matthew or Matthew used Luke. Studies promoting the latter option, the Matthean Posteriority Hypothesis (MPH), have recently begun to attract wider critical attention. This article examines the three critical responses published sivnce 2017 and asks which of the problems so far identified presents the most serious problem for the MPH.
{"title":"Gnats, Camels, and Matthew’s Use of Luke","authors":"A. Garrow","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221150103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221150103","url":null,"abstract":"A striking feature of the current state of Synoptic Problem studies is the almost universal acceptance of Markan Priority. If Mark was indeed used by both Matthew and Luke, this reduces the number of simple solutions to the Synoptic Problem to just two: Luke used Matthew or Matthew used Luke. Studies promoting the latter option, the Matthean Posteriority Hypothesis (MPH), have recently begun to attract wider critical attention. This article examines the three critical responses published sivnce 2017 and asks which of the problems so far identified presents the most serious problem for the MPH.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"284 - 303"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42498053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-17DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221141888
Kenneth Trax
Scholars are rediscovering how early Christian texts addressed questions of human flourishing and exploring how textualization may have affected interpretation. These two trends intersect in the beatitudes or macarisms of Lk 11.28, Gos. Thom. 79.2, and Rev. 1.3, which attribute “flourishing” to obedient hearers of a divine word mediated by Jesus. I argue that early Christ followers may have understood these macarisms to promise flourishing to those who receive Luke, Thomas, or Revelation as a written divine word from Jesus. Many early “readers” would have encountered these texts aurally, creating a link between “hearing the word of God” and hearing the written text read aloud. Moreover, these works exhibit “textual self-consciousness” in which they acknowledge their own existence as written documents, present themselves as messages from or about Jesus, and suggest that they should carry authority. Because the “word(s)” extolled in the macarisms are Jesus’s words, and the works are presented as Jesus’s words, hearers could have connected the works themselves with the divine word(s) that enable flourishing. Such a connection may have reinforced the practice of reading and hearing these texts, encouraged further textual transmission of the works, and affected how Christ followers perceived God spoke to them through written works.
{"title":"Happy Reading: Textual Self-Consciousness and Human Flourishing in the Macarisms of Lk 11.28, Gos. Thom. 79.2, and Rev. 1.3","authors":"Kenneth Trax","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221141888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221141888","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars are rediscovering how early Christian texts addressed questions of human flourishing and exploring how textualization may have affected interpretation. These two trends intersect in the beatitudes or macarisms of Lk 11.28, Gos. Thom. 79.2, and Rev. 1.3, which attribute “flourishing” to obedient hearers of a divine word mediated by Jesus. I argue that early Christ followers may have understood these macarisms to promise flourishing to those who receive Luke, Thomas, or Revelation as a written divine word from Jesus. Many early “readers” would have encountered these texts aurally, creating a link between “hearing the word of God” and hearing the written text read aloud. Moreover, these works exhibit “textual self-consciousness” in which they acknowledge their own existence as written documents, present themselves as messages from or about Jesus, and suggest that they should carry authority. Because the “word(s)” extolled in the macarisms are Jesus’s words, and the works are presented as Jesus’s words, hearers could have connected the works themselves with the divine word(s) that enable flourishing. Such a connection may have reinforced the practice of reading and hearing these texts, encouraged further textual transmission of the works, and affected how Christ followers perceived God spoke to them through written works.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"304 - 329"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45305956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-24DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221136248
Connor Purcell Wood
The Johannine epistles contain two concepts of parrhêsia. One, which they call by name, is a boldness before God, foreign to Gentile philosophy but explored by Jewish writers. The second, which is implicit, reflects the Hellenistic philosophical traditions of frank criticism and rebuke. Johannine parrhêsia—public and oriented toward group cohesion—most closely matches that of Epicureans in its methods and goals. However, Johannine metaphorical language, though obscure, suggests Jewish roots in its preconditions for a critical community.
{"title":"Epicurean Critical Praxis and Philonian Metaphor in Johannine Parrhêsia","authors":"Connor Purcell Wood","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221136248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221136248","url":null,"abstract":"The Johannine epistles contain two concepts of parrhêsia. One, which they call by name, is a boldness before God, foreign to Gentile philosophy but explored by Jewish writers. The second, which is implicit, reflects the Hellenistic philosophical traditions of frank criticism and rebuke. Johannine parrhêsia—public and oriented toward group cohesion—most closely matches that of Epicureans in its methods and goals. However, Johannine metaphorical language, though obscure, suggests Jewish roots in its preconditions for a critical community.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"330 - 347"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43077085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-24DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221136265
John Rowlands
‘Theological interpretation of Scripture’ (TIS) has undergone a resurgence within Christian theology. This has been matched in some quarters of ‘mainstream’ New Testament studies by a renewed insistence on the illegitimacy of such an approach in the context of academic readings of the New Testament. In this article the author mounts a defence for the academic credibility of ‘theological’ readings of the New Testament, while simultaneously articulating the manner in which such readings have frequently overstepped the boundaries of their hermeneutical framework. He notes the two reading strategies emerge implicitly out of mutually exclusive hermeneutical traditions and suggests that explicating the hermeneutical foundations of both reading strategies might explain the conflict and help to move beyond it.
{"title":"In Defence of ‘Theological’ Readings of the New Testament","authors":"John Rowlands","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221136265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221136265","url":null,"abstract":"‘Theological interpretation of Scripture’ (TIS) has undergone a resurgence within Christian theology. This has been matched in some quarters of ‘mainstream’ New Testament studies by a renewed insistence on the illegitimacy of such an approach in the context of academic readings of the New Testament. In this article the author mounts a defence for the academic credibility of ‘theological’ readings of the New Testament, while simultaneously articulating the manner in which such readings have frequently overstepped the boundaries of their hermeneutical framework. He notes the two reading strategies emerge implicitly out of mutually exclusive hermeneutical traditions and suggests that explicating the hermeneutical foundations of both reading strategies might explain the conflict and help to move beyond it.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"243 - 263"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43335096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-12DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221127931
Z. Cole
This article draws attention to a neglected extrabiblical use of the verb προσλαμβάνω in a documentary text, a Jewish deed of marriage from the early second century CE (P.Mur. 2.115), and suggests its significance for understanding Paul’s appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. Προσλαμβάνω is Paul’s first imperative in his letter to Philemon (Phlm. 17), and many commentators understand it as part of a commercial idiom (‘to take as a business partner’), whether literally or metaphorically. It is argued here that such a reading is unlikely given three factors: the newly attested context of προσλαμβάνω, the predominance of kinship language in Philemon, and the underlying theme of reconciliation.
{"title":"Illustrating a Pauline Imperative (Phlm. 17): Προσλαμβάνω in P.Mur. 2.115","authors":"Z. Cole","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221127931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221127931","url":null,"abstract":"This article draws attention to a neglected extrabiblical use of the verb προσλαμβάνω in a documentary text, a Jewish deed of marriage from the early second century CE (P.Mur. 2.115), and suggests its significance for understanding Paul’s appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. Προσλαμβάνω is Paul’s first imperative in his letter to Philemon (Phlm. 17), and many commentators understand it as part of a commercial idiom (‘to take as a business partner’), whether literally or metaphorically. It is argued here that such a reading is unlikely given three factors: the newly attested context of προσλαμβάνω, the predominance of kinship language in Philemon, and the underlying theme of reconciliation.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"177 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65027280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-10DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221114342
Susan E. Hylen
Scholarly appraisals of Paul’s masculinity differ widely. Some conclude that Paul is presented (by himself or another author) as an ideal man. Others argue that Paul rejects dominant norms of manliness or that he offers a countercultural alternative. This article draws on the work of Valerius Maximus, whose writing has been neglected in this conversation, to argue that Roman imperial culture offered a variety of measures of elite masculinity. Scholars often mention control of self and others as norms of manliness, and of these Valerius emphasizes practices of self-control. Even with this knowledge, however, evaluating masculinity requires discernment. An individual’s motivations and circumstances are essential factors in Valerius’s application of the social norms. The article encourages scholars to consider this more complex set of cultural norms in assessing the manliness of Paul or other New Testament figures.
{"title":"Malleable Masculinity: Rethinking Paul’s Masculinity in Light of Valerius Maximus","authors":"Susan E. Hylen","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221114342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221114342","url":null,"abstract":"Scholarly appraisals of Paul’s masculinity differ widely. Some conclude that Paul is presented (by himself or another author) as an ideal man. Others argue that Paul rejects dominant norms of manliness or that he offers a countercultural alternative. This article draws on the work of Valerius Maximus, whose writing has been neglected in this conversation, to argue that Roman imperial culture offered a variety of measures of elite masculinity. Scholars often mention control of self and others as norms of manliness, and of these Valerius emphasizes practices of self-control. Even with this knowledge, however, evaluating masculinity requires discernment. An individual’s motivations and circumstances are essential factors in Valerius’s application of the social norms. The article encourages scholars to consider this more complex set of cultural norms in assessing the manliness of Paul or other New Testament figures.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"157 - 176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46111042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-29DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221110686
P. Fredriksen
An invited response to Denys McDonald’s JSNT essay: ‘“Ex-Pagan Pagans”? Paul, Philo, and Gentile Ethnic Reconfiguration’.
对丹尼斯·麦克唐纳的JSNT文章“前异教徒”的受邀回应?保罗，菲罗和外邦人的种族重组。
{"title":"Paul, Pagans and Eschatological Ethnicities: A Response to Denys McDonald","authors":"P. Fredriksen","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221110686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221110686","url":null,"abstract":"An invited response to Denys McDonald’s JSNT essay: ‘“Ex-Pagan Pagans”? Paul, Philo, and Gentile Ethnic Reconfiguration’.","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"51 - 65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42290496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-09DOI: 10.1177/0142064X221113926
Chris Seglenieks
Thomas in John’s gospel has often been understood as the prototypical doubter based on Jn 20.27. Jesus’ words are taken as condemning a failure of intellectual belief, despite the shift in 20.27 from the frequent use of πιστεύω to the adjective πιστός. Yet the use of πιστός in other texts denotes faithfulness and often the actions which display faithfulness. The prominent theme of witness in Jn 20, along with contrasts to Synoptic accounts of post-resurrection doubt, point towards Thomas’s failure as a failure to take up Jesus’ commission and become a faithful witness. This is confirmed by Thomas’s response to Jesus, where he becomes an active witness to Jesus as God (20.28).
{"title":"Thomas the (Un)Faithful: Πιστός in John 20.27","authors":"Chris Seglenieks","doi":"10.1177/0142064X221113926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X221113926","url":null,"abstract":"Thomas in John’s gospel has often been understood as the prototypical doubter based on Jn 20.27. Jesus’ words are taken as condemning a failure of intellectual belief, despite the shift in 20.27 from the frequent use of πιστεύω to the adjective πιστός. Yet the use of πιστός in other texts denotes faithfulness and often the actions which display faithfulness. The prominent theme of witness in Jn 20, along with contrasts to Synoptic accounts of post-resurrection doubt, point towards Thomas’s failure as a failure to take up Jesus’ commission and become a faithful witness. This is confirmed by Thomas’s response to Jesus, where he becomes an active witness to Jesus as God (20.28).","PeriodicalId":44754,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the New Testament","volume":"45 1","pages":"135 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43506783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：