In a response to Biggar in another issue of Studies in Christian Ethics , Hays claims that “Jesus never told stories in which the good guys kill the bad guys.” Really? What will the owner of the vineyard do to the vine-growers, Jesus asks, and they say, “He will bring those . . . . Continue Reading »
What motivated the Jewish persecution of Christians? Paul Fredriksen ( From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ ) suggests this plausible explanation: “News of an impending Messsianic kingdom, originating from Palestine, might trickle out via the . . . . Continue Reading »
The New Testament frequently turns prophetic texts inside out. In Revelation 3, for instance, Jesus applies prophecies that originally promised that Gentiles would bow to Jews to Jews bowing to the (largely Gentile) church of Philadelphia (3:9; cf. Isaiah 60:14). In one respect, the import is . . . . Continue Reading »
James Jordan noted in a lecture on Zechariah that the date of Zechariah’s night visions is specified as day, month, and year. This stands in contrast to the introductory verses (1:1-6), which date only by the month and year. Jordan’s conclusion was that biblical datings are more precise . . . . Continue Reading »
Israel is a tree, and the people are branches. On Palm Sunday, the people cut branches from trees and wave them before Jesus. They are cutting themselves from the tree of Israel, and grafting in as branches of the true Israelite tree, the stump of Jesse. But that tree is going to Jerusalem to be . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus kept all the laws. He never broke the Sabbath. He fulfilled the purity rules, I blurted out in class a few days ago. How? a student want to know. How does Jesus keep purity rules? Here’s my best, belated shot: Levitical purity rules are rules of cleansing. Just as the force of the . . . . Continue Reading »
Perrin again: He argues that Jesus announced and envisioned a Jubilee, not a spiritualized Jubilee but an actual restoration of property, tangible property, to the dispossessed poor. One mechanism, Perrin argues, was hospitality: “Jesus enjoins a collective but voluntary trickle-down or . . . . Continue Reading »
In his highly stimulating Jesus the Temple , Nick Perrin examines Jesus’ statements about “heavenly treasure” in the light of the “counter-temple” agenda that Perrin argues is central to Jesus’ work. The contrast that Jesus draws is not between a treasure room in . . . . Continue Reading »
As you’ll notice on the right of the page, my survey of the gospels, a sequel of sorts to House for My Name , will be available in November. You can check out the Amazon page by clicking on the cover icon. . . . . Continue Reading »
As Markus Barth saw it, Bultmann was Protestant accommodation gone to seed: “Bultmann’s conception rests on the thesis that visible miracles (signs) are only a concession to man’s weakness, and that the appearances of the risen Christ are, likewise, a concession to the weakness of . . . . Continue Reading »
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