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The prefixed verb superaedificare , which is a calque of ἐποικοδοµέω , governs prepositional phrases and plain cases in the Latin New Testament Epistles. The Vulgate and Old Latin manuscripts feature constructions of superaedificare in agreement with the Greek source text. However, alternative translations are attested when the biblical text is cited by early Christian writers. In citations where the biblical passage is included in the author's text, aedificare is frequently used instead of superaedificare. By contrast, when the biblical text is quoted for the first time and its source is acknowledged, superaedificare is employed and its construction matches that of the Greek text. These citation habits show that the construction of superaedificare is a syntactical calque of the Greek source text, which is attested when the citations are marked as such but is not used when the biblical text is embedded in the patristic text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Dialogue 4, Justin changes his mind on two specific tenets of Platonic philosophy: the idea that the soul can see God, and the doctrine of transmigration. The Platonic anthropology rejected by Justin happens to be foundational to the theological systems of his Christian demiurgical opponents: Simon and Helen, Basilides, and Carpocrates (who are likely discussed and refuted in Justin's now-lost Syntagma Against all the Heresies). In this paper, I argue that this is not coincidental, and that Justin's problem with Platonic anthropology is bound up with his broader heresiological concerns. By rejecting these two doctrines, Justin was able to define Christianity on his own terms while effectively undermining the teachings of his religious rivals. This further explains the specificity of Justin's problem with Platonism, which should not be read as a wholesale rejection of Platonic philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I will examine the functions of oaths in narratives of encounter, confrontation and polemic between religious communities in late antiquity, especially Jews and Christians. Through an analysis of these narratives, I hope to show that oaths had several functions: specific oath formulae were strongly associated with specific religious identities, and as such could be used to highlight distance between religious groups. However, oaths could be used to demonstrate the permeability of religious boundaries, or even be deployed cunningly to conceal one's identity or subvert expectations of its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a longstanding debate on whether the Heidelberg Catechism favors the imputation of the active obedience of Christ (IAOC). In this article, I argue that the IAOC is not present in the Catechism, not even latently. The main authors of the Catechism, Olevianus and Ursinus, denied the IAOC. Additionally, what the Catechism teaches about the interrelations between obedience, punishment and merit, makes clear that the IAOC does not fit in its theological structure. Therefore, a historically sensitive interpretation of the Catechism leads to the recognition that the Catechism leaves no room for the IAOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Gospels, Jesus compares himself to a chicken when he seeks to gather the children of Jerusalem "as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings" (Matt. 23:37b / Luke 13:34b). In adopting this metaphor, he is engaging in nonhuman gender-bending, equating himself with a female bird that has more success than he does. An Animal Studies perspective of the journey of the domesticated chicken from the rainforests of south-east Asia to the households of the Roman empire and the various roles that the chicken played in ancient society provides insight into humanity's relationship with the chicken and supplies a new metaphor for the "domestication" of Jesus. Finally, a selection of creative uses of the image in later reception history shows how many have attempted to make the most of the winged Jesus' lament at his own failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naming is a personal and powerful action, often tied to the identity of an individual. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' name is chosen with great care, only to be almost immediately cast aside in favor of the generic form "the child" throughout his childhood in exile. This article reads Matthew 2:13-23 through a childist lens, combining migration theory with attention to the obfuscation of the child Jesus' identity to elucidate both the experiences represented in the Gospel account, as well as its enduring significance for generations of migrant communities living into their identities today. Seeking to read Matthew 2 together with refugee communities today, this reading highlights the limits of constructed identities such as borders, nation states, and even names, while tracing the child Jesus' development in the infancy narrative of Matthew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contingency of the encounter between Jesus of Nazareth as representative of YHWH and Mary Magdalene that occurs at Jesus's tomb. It interprets two important passages from the Gospel of Mark (Mk 16:1–8) and the Gospel of John (Jn 20:11–18) in order to reflect upon the Absolute which arises from this encounter. In Mark's Gospel, the result of the encounter is the reference to a never-derivable and unrepresentable beginning, on which the text of Mark is built. The Gospel of John, which refers to Mark, concretizes this as the beginning of love and the covenant partnership between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It is a contingent encounter because there is no external necessity for it. The crucial point is that the event of God only manifests itself in unforeseen encounters. Therefore the experience of an encounter which sets a new beginning in motion and the existence of God are inextricably linked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers a theological reflection on sanctification and holiness within the Pentecostal tradition, while presenting the argument that a Pentecostal understanding of holiness best proceeds by viewing it as the means and goal of participation in God's life. Holiness is understood as the sum total of divine perfection, being eternally realized through the dynamic triune communion of loving relationality. As the plenitude of divine perfection, holiness expresses an ontology. Glory is the radiance of holiness while righteousness and justice are the enactment of holiness. Rather than confining holiness to the doctrine of sanctification, then, it should be understood as the divine purpose for creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greek New Testament manuscripts frequently format the genealogy of Jesus in Luke in multiple columns. This format has led copyists to introduce errors in the sequence of names by reading the text in the wrong direction. This article presents five manuscripts of the Gospels with catenae which transmit a disordered genealogy of Jesus. The analysis of the disruptions to the sequence of Jesus's ancestors allows the reconstruction of their exemplar. The article further identifies two codices without commentaries attesting the same pattern of disorder. The other codices with this form of Luke 3:23–38 and the contents of the five catena manuscripts substantiate that they have a common archetype and form a new family of Greek New Testament manuscripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently published P.Oxy. 5577 bears such striking similarities to the Gospel of Mary that this article argues that it may be from the missing pages in which Mary recalls her vision of Jesus and their private conversation. By examining the shared themes of cosmology and eschatology, incarnation and divine goodness, baptism and salvation, Jesus appearing as and through the νοῦς , and the privileged role of Mary, this article argues that we see a continuous teaching from the beginning of the extant Coptic Gos. Mary, through the Greek fragments including P.Oxy. 5577, to the end of the gospel. Although P.Oxy. 5577 cannot definitively be identified as Gos. Mary, the correlations are enough to take the suggestion of its likelihood seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text of Jude 22–23 is notoriously difficult and continually disputed. While many now acknowledge the antiquity and external evidence in favor of the shortest, two-clause reading found in ⁷² and other sources, it is often argued that a longer reading with three clauses (printed in the NA/UBS) has greater intrinsic probability owing to Jude's triadic style. Recent proponents of the longer reading also argue its plausibility within Jude's argumentation and the "groups" addressed therein. The present article defends and aims to enhance the probability of the shortest reading on internal grounds. In particular, this article shows that this reading fits Jude's triadic style and Jude's call for the "beloved" to exercise mercy on the "disputers" with particular caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will analyze an under-studied aspect of the Epistle to the Hebrews: human speech. In so doing, the author will show how the letter-writer creates an implicit comparison between the audience of the epistle and Moses, placing the audience in a position more privileged than Moses himself. The argument will proceed by justifying the scope of the material to be considered, Heb 12–13, then examining the few but significant instances of human discourse in the letter. The author will argue that the letter-writer's use of explicitly human discourse serves the epistle's overall argumentative purpose of encouraging the audience to continued adherence to Jesus through a comparison of the Mosaic and new covenants, particularly in reference to the events immediately after the exodus from Egypt. Then the author will conclude with reflections on the rhetorical use of human discourse and the potential implications for the structure and literary unity of Hebrews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis according to which Jesus and his group were somehow involved in anti-Roman resistance has been systematically opposed by some quarters through the centuries. One of the most recent examples is Jesse P. Nickel's The Things that Make for Peace: Jesus and Eschatological Violence , a book whose author boldly claims to have 'refuted' that hypothesis. The present article surveys this volume, concluding that it contains several misunderstandings of the field and method, as well as serious misrepresentations of the hypothesis under discussion, to the extent that everything indicates that it is influenced by theological presuppositions. These conclusions are not limited because Nickel's book is representative of a much wider trend within the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dialectical-theological origins of the politically- and ethically-charged concept of alterity are well-known within the philosophy of religion. Intellectual histories of this concept tie it too exclusively to the notion of distance or διάστασις in Karl Barth's early Römerbrief , however, and so miss Barth's Trinitarian reinterpretation of God's otherness in his later work. Taking as my hermeneutical key a cipher, the 'sign of Jonah,' that emerges in Church Dogmatics IV/1, I show that Barth's mature doctrines of temporality and filiation understand alterity as a moment of divine life. Jesus' agony in the garden of Gethsemane marks the climax of Barth's self-reinterpretation: world history inheres within the Christological situation of paternal abandonment. The political-theological conclusions Barth draws from the 'sign of Jonah' dovetail with alterity discourses' antitotalitarian aspirations but suggest that these aspirations' structural coherence rest on the magisterial Reformers' Christological and ecclesiological commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first letter to Timothy includes a reference to a primitive hymnic formula that grants a central role to the Holy Spirit in Jesus's resurrection. This reference coheres with other primitive (pre-Pauline) references such as Rom 1:3–4 and with Paul's earlier teaching on the Spirit (as in Rom 8:11). In a letter that seems otherwise sparse in its pneumatology, 1 Tim 3:16 is important for understanding the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus's identity, and I suggest that the mention of the Spirit here informs the way that the statements in 4:1–5 should be read, and the way that the letter's overall portrayal of truth and falsehood should be understood. I will discuss the interpretation of 1 Tim 3:16—4:5, proposing a pentecostal reading of this section of the letter, one that takes seriously the vindicating role of the Spirit in Jesus's resurrection as a model for believer's future resurrection, one that coheres with the pneumatology of earlier Pauline epistles, and one that coheres with the treatment of false teachers and demonic spirits in other New Testament texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay unearths the metaphor from the Epistle to the Ephesians of 'all things summed up into Christ' as a critical component of Lesslie Newbigin's Christology. First, it shows that references to this image form an as yet undetected but consistent line of thought in Newbigin's work. Second, it argues that the logic of Newbigin's theological imaginary follows the logic embedded in the Ephesians metaphor. Third, it shows that detecting the particular shape of Newbigin's Christology allows one to map his project onto wider Christological conversations, and it suggests that one most fruitfully reads him in the context of a supralapsarian Christological approach. Finally, it argues that read in this way, Newbigin's work can once again make a fresh contribution to the conversation as contemporary practitioners are looking for a new narrative to support their work in this missional era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostal mission activity was initially motivated by a commitment to the premillennial return of Christ. This eschatological basis for mission was driven by a number of factors, not least being interpretations of Matthew 24:14, in which the gospel needed to reach every nation before the end would come. But a focus on the next world also led Pentecostal mission strategy away from this world concerns, and Pentecostals have long been criticized for a history of mission that involved proclamation of a future hope without any form of present-day relief. In an increasingly wounded world, such an approach becomes less and less palatable, which is why there has now been a significant shift towards social justice and welfare aspects of mission within Pentecostal efforts. However, it has been argued that the relegation of eschatological motivation to the periphery of mission has detrimental consequences for Pentecostal mission as a whole and therefore needs to be rethought (Ma and Ma 2010:280). This article endeavors to contribute to this discussion by drawing together theological and missiological reflections on the Pentecostal full gospel to reflect on whether such relegation is inevitable, or whether an amended eschatological vision is still helpful for mission efforts in a wounded world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues for missional masculinities from an incarnational framework as the foundation for imitatio Christi among Pentecostal men in Africa. It suggests that since masculinities are defined by societal ideals that men are expected to embody, Pentecostal men should reclaim the divine vision of the new 'manity' in Christ. Here, Christ serves not only as the epitome of new humanity but also as the exemplar, setting the standard and modeling what it means to be human. Jesus is the primordial model, the definition, the determination, the illustration, and most importantly, the beginning and the end of what it means to be human. Therefore, missional masculinities, modeled after Christ, are primed to exhibit kenotic, relational, agapeic , redemptive characteristics, and are everyday prophetic performances of abundant life for humanity and creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will question the conventional view according to which 1 Thess 4:13–18 shows evidence of Paul's Naherwartung. Although Paul's expectation of an imminent end is usually assumed to be the default interpretation of 1 Thess 4:15, 17, it actually rests on certain presuppositions about the Greek syntax of these verses in two respects. First, the usual interpretation assumes εἰς τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ κυρίου as functioning a certain way, although an alternative is equally possible. Secondly, a family of related alternative interpretations understands "who are left (to the Lord's parousia)" as modifying "we, the living" in some sort of limiting way. After disentangling the proposed alternatives and evaluating the component interpretations, the article will show that there are in fact several plausible interpretations of 1 Thess 4:15, 17, of which the Naherwartung view is only one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concerns the likelihoods of competing textual reconstructions in the Chester Beatty Papyrus ⁴⁶ based on the available space in its lacunose lines. To quantify these relative probabilities, the author uses statistical models of line lengths in ⁴⁶ and a recently described technique for calculating the likelihood of a reconstructed lacunose text. He first demonstrates the power and versatility of this approach with examples in Gal 4:17 and 3:1. He then revisits two more contested textual reconstructions proposed for ⁴⁶: the absence of τῷ θεῷ in Heb 11:4, suggested by G.D. Kilpatrick in 1941, and the absence of σὺν ἐπισκόποις καὶ διακόνοις in Phil 1:1, suggested by T.C. Skeat in 1995. He shows that Kilpatrick's proposed shorter reading in ⁴⁶ is six times more likely than the longer reading in Heb 11:4, while the evidence is not decisive between the readings in Phil 1:1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1 Thess 4:14 Paul has often been understood to teach that dead believers, who have been in heaven, will return to earth with Christ at the parousia. Others understand it of believers being transported to heaven. This article proposes a fresh understanding of the passage, informed by the OT and Second Temple background of God leading his people out of the realm of death and into life in his presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a "royal official" (βασιλικός) urges Jesus to help his dying son, Jesus surprisingly retorts (John 4:48): "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe!" Researchers find this outburst out of place in response to a desperate father, but this article argues that it can be explained by use of an isodiegetic perspective, where the Johannine storyworld is informed by a larger narrative tradition in which the tetrarch Herod Antipas (ca. 4 BCE–39 CE) is a known adversary of Jesus, whose adherents strive to entrap him and get him killed. In view of the official's expected patronal loyalty to "king" (βασιλεύς) Herod, his healing request can reasonably be presumed to be a trap until his appeal "Sir, come down before my child dies!" (John 4:49) clarifies that the man is not acting as a client, but as a father. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent appropriation of social memory theory in Jesus studies has brought us to a fork in the road in relation to what is meant by a continuity of remembrances about Jesus. Currently, the common claim among many Jesus scholars is that the past of Jesus is knowable through or is contained within the memory process, not behind it or apart from it. Mnemonic processes and their text-products are regarded as a means to an historical end as opposed to being an end in and of themselves. The main problem presented in this article is that the pervading references to, and assumptions about, the mediated past as a potential link between the evangelists' present and the actual past of Jesus lack the clarification and critical support that is needed for advancing historical Jesus research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Daniel 7 the 'Son of Man coming with the clouds' appears to move toward (or within) heaven. In the apocalyptic discourses Jesus has the Son of Man moving in the opposite direction to earth, traditionally understood as the Second Coming. Resolutions of the discrepancy include arguing that Daniel 7 refers to Jesus's ascension, that the Synoptics use Daniel's language to refer to a coming in judgement against Jerusalem in A.D. 70, others suggest evolutionary developments in the early church or a mistaken Jesus. This article suggests Jesus's use of Daniel reflects a close exegetical reading of the text. There is no discrepancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tells the story of the Egypt General Mission, which originated in 1898, up to 1907. It uses the relatively few published accounts, and various documents held in the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. It looks in some detail at the coming together, to a large extent in Belfast, Ireland, of those who were to form the initial group. They had experienced evangelical conversion and the holiness spirituality of the annual Keswick Convention was a powerful influence on this group. Seven young men, forming the Egypt Mission Band (as it was called at first), embarked on the mission venture in Egypt. There they worked with others and established small but significant communities of witness. This study looks at their varied experiences and argues, from evidence presented, for the crucial influence of Keswick as a motivator for mission of an interdenominational nature in the case of the Egypt General Mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resurrection and the hope of Israel have been acknowledged as the raison d'être of Paul's trial in Acts. However, what has intrigued scholars is why Luke seems to portray Paul as focusing on general Jewish expectations regarding the resurrection of the dead in his defense speeches when the point of contention appears to be Jesus's resurrection. This article argues that the narrative of Acts seeks to vindicate Paul not only through the rhetorical strategy of claiming continuity between Paul and Jewish resurrection traditions, but also by portraying Paul as a faithful Jew who exemplifies the hope of Israel in his own life, thereby adding a personal dimension to the role of Jesus's resurrection as vindication for Paul's claims of faithfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In relation to the discussion on the concept of perfection in Hebrews, the author's emphasis on Jesus's solidarity with human mortality has been considered as simple reference to the precondition of his Christological role and his sympathetic character, which shares human weaknesses. However, the substantial connection between the discussions on sonship in Heb 12 and on the Son in Heb 1–2 suggests a fresh reading of the text's emphasis on Jesus's mortality along with his role as ἀρχηγός of other sons. The author of Hebrews presents the notion that human mortality is a divinely designed opportunity for the sons of God to acquire the discipline necessary to be prepared to become the heirs of the eternal inheritance. The one who totally entrusts his own life to the Father is the genuinely obedient son, and this true obedience is cultivated when the sons choose obedience on the occasion of the test, i.e., "fear of death," which is unaffectedly derived from the status of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pauline scholarship has often struggled with the question of who is included when Paul uses the first-person plural, "we," in Romans, but so far an overall analysis of this language in Paul's letter has been lacking. This article provides a general overview of the first-person plural in Romans, proposes a methodological approach to the problem, and applies that approach in order to solve several intricate and controversial cases, including ἐλάβομεν in 1:5, προεχόμεθα in 3:9a, and the notable crux interpretum , προῃτιασάμεθα in 3:9b. It is argued that "we" in Romans can be classified into three basic categories in this respect: (1) "we" including Paul and his addressees and/or Jesus believers in general, (2) "we" including Paul and his co-workers, and (3) "we" including the diatribal addressees (not including Paul himself). While the last category applies to προεχόμεθα , both ἐλάβομεν and προῃτιασάμεθα include Paul and his co-workers (category 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Mark 10:1–12, Jesus and the Pharisees discuss whether divorce is permissible. The Pharisees' question and Jesus's answer seem artificial against the background of ancient discourses on divorce. Particularly Jesus's answer in Mark 10:9, which forbids divorce without exception, still gives rise to discussion today. It appears uncompromising and unyielding compared to other NT texts dealing with divorce (Matt 19:1–12; 1 Cor 7:10–16). I show that the prohibition of divorce in Mark 10:9 is the result of a conflict of authority between Jesus and the Pharisees that develops in the Streitgespräche in Mark's Gospel up to Mark 10:1–12. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to classical Christology, Christ's human will was always in conformity with and never contrary to the divine will. Call this notion 'volitional non-contrariety' (VNC). But theologians disagree over how to explain VNC. In this article, I consider four models of VNC: the Parameter Model, the Beatific Vision Model, the Molinist Model, and the Causal Model. I argue that the Causal Model, coupled with a compatibilist account of freedom, is the best way to understand VNC because libertarian accounts of Christ's human freedom inevitably fail to preserve some other element of classical Christology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ibn Kamāl Pāshā (d. 940/1534) played a key role in defending key doctrinal positions in his capacity as Ottoman Shaykh al-Islām, the most famous of which is undoubtedly his refutation of Mullā Qābiḍ (d. 933/1527). Qābiḍ (tr. Kabız), whose credentials are as unknown as Ibn Kamāl's are known, is said to have propagated the superiority of Jesus over Muhammad, an obscure notion rarely found in the intellectual history of Islam. His ideas were eventually brought to the attention of scholarly circles, leading to him being tried before the Imperial Council by Caliph Suleymān I (d. 973/1566). Noting the inability of some scholars to defend the orthodox position regarding the superiority of Muhammad, Suleymān I called upon Ibn Kamāl to provide a robust defence on behalf of the Empire. Although unable to respond to Ibn Kamāl's reasoning, Qābiḍ nevertheless maintained his position and thus sealed his fate for good. Only a handful of studies have been carried out on Qābiḍ. This article intends to contribute to the discussion he and his trial have sparked by translating a key epistle written by Ibn Kamāl after the trial and entitled: Risāla fī ʾAfḍaliyyat Muḥammad. Knowing that the details of the controversy between him and Mullā Qābiḍ escape us, this treatise by Ibn Kamāl gives an insight into his thinking on prophetology and his implementation of scriptural, canonical and exegetical sources. It also provides a convenient overview of the exchange he probably had with Qābiḍ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early Pentecostals believed their experience of Spirit baptism represented the latter rain of prophecy that introduced Christ's return. Therefore, their goal was to preach the Pentecostal gospel to all, expecting their success to hasten Christ's return. They read the Bible through the lens of their charismatic experiences and left room for the Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures to explain its meaning. The next generations adopted a fundamentalist hermeneutical angle and included premillennialist dispensationalism to understand biblical prophecies. The doctrines of rapture, premillennialism, and a distinction between Israel and the church imply that the church belongs to the 'parenthetical age', indicating a delay in the prophetic timeline when Jews rejected Jesus. It took the emphasis away from the urgent need to evangelise the world, focusing on explaining the biblical 'last events' and setting timetables. It is argued that Pentecostals' dispensationalism betrayed their unique ethos, values, and hermeneutical angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crossley and Myles's Jesus: A Life in Class Struggle offers an innovative and accessible reading of the movement around Jesus in terms of class struggle. The authors combine a breadth of knowledge about first-century realities, acumen in exegesis of the Gospel texts, and contemporary crowd theory to reach new conclusions regarding Jesus and his disciples, especially in his last days, and regarding the 'failure' of their movement. This review examines their understanding of the 'Jesus movement' and its relationship to the Galilean peasantry and their methodology in extrapolating from the Gospels; and proposes a more thorough Marxist theorization of the Gospels' role in producing the 'failure' they describe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a review article of James Crossley's and Robert Myle's, Jesus in Class Conflict (2023). After a chapter by chapter summary, the review provides some assorted critical reflections on among other issues the 'biographical' approach still apparent here, despite a critical effort to distance from 'great man' approaches to history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text introduces a special issue of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, focusing on the book "Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict" by James Crossley and Robert J. Myles. The book examines Jesus and his movement through the lens of class conflict, interpreting elements of the Jesus tradition in relation to socio-economic conditions. The special issue includes review essays by scholars who provide diverse perspectives on the book's arguments. The book challenges conventional approaches to historical Jesus scholarship and presents a Jesus who targeted the rich and advocated for a hierarchical society that benefited his class. It also situates Jesus firmly within Second Temple Judaism and explores how Christianity became the dominant discourse of the Roman Empire. [Extracted from the article]

This essay is a review of Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict by James Crossley and Robert J. Myles, a historical materialist exploration of what we know about the life of Jesus and the Jesus movement in first-century Roman Palestine. This review focuses particularly on the ways in which Crossley and Myles engage with considerations of gender and masculinity as part of their engagement with the historical materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A close examination of early twentieth-century literature written in Hebrew and Yiddish reveals that many of its first representations of Christianity put a central emphasis on Mary. This fact has been overlooked in previous scholarship fixated on the role of Jesus. Our article aims to fill this lacuna by focusing on Mary's appearance in a short, controversial story published in 1909 by Sholem Asch. Through a close reading of Mary's encounter with the matriarch Rachel, we define Asch's 'maternal model,' an alternative paradigm for Jewish-Christian relations. We argue that the marginalization of Mary from the scholarly conversation is not a slipup. Rather, it is part of a gendered scheme that prioritized Jesus over his mother and narratives of persecution and victimhood over care and obligation. We show how Asch's artfully constructed fictional formation offers a political position founded on empathy and interconnectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to present a Christian mission of hunger and poverty alleviation through a life in communion with the trinity and in the context of the Ga celebration of homowo in Ghana. It is in the hope of the renewal of all things at the end of the world. It is to appreciate the essence of homowo in order to appropriate it for a Christian mission. The paper seeks to achieve this goal of mission by connecting the hunger and poverty alleviation and life-giving essence as well as the sense of unity embedded in the homowo feast to the mission of the triune God in the cosmos and with the "give us this day our daily bread" statement of Jesus Christ. Although the Kpelelogical method seems to be easily understood because it is mutually critical and connects seamlessly with the praxis of Christianity among Ga Christians, it has previously not been adopted as a theological method, as it is in this article. It is the paradoxical Ga Christian articulation of the Christian faith whereby the Christian faith is enlightened by the Kpele homowo and yet transforms the Kpele homowo after rejecting it. At the end of the engagement, Jesus in the homowo celebration is seen as the Okpelejen Wulormor Homoyiwolor ker Naanowalahalor (the cosmic priest, king, prophet who jeers at hunger, and giver of eternal life). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the relationship between eschatological and present issues in Christian soteriological debates of the mid-twentieth century, particularly in post- colonial India. It focuses on the writings of Dhanjibhai Fakirbhai. As mystical views of Christian salvation can be criticized for their irrelevancy to secular society, Dhanjibhai presents a contrast to this in a type of mystical soteriology that breaks such critiques and complicates the usual categories of South Asian understandings. According to Dhanjibhai, "salvation" means to be in union with Jesus Christ, a spiritual faith-based relationship that extends into eternity but is also practically experienced in the world today. This article proceeds according to four key features of Dhanjibhai's writings that demonstrate the holistic effects of union with Christ in his soteriology. I argue that Dhanjibhai alleviates the perceived problems of mystical approaches by presenting a soteriology that envelopes personal, social, and even ecological ramifications of salvation within a contextual evangelical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, I argue that a passage from the Damascus Document (CD 4:12–16 + 5:15–19) and an opaque saying attributed to Jesus (Luke 11:20) mutually illuminate each other. The starting point of both is the conception that a conflict between God and the evil power(s) took place before the Exodus. An analogy is drawn between this period and the present liminal period considered as the beginning of the eschatological period prior to the eschaton. The expectations for healing and resurrection in the eschaton in 4Q521 2 ii 8, 11–12 shed light on Matt 11:3 // Luke 7:19. When viewed through the lens of the conception that the eschatological period has already commenced, these expectations were transformed to Jesus's activity in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locke refrained from engaging explicitly with Hobbes in any of his writings. Locke's policy of non-engagement should be interpreted, we argue, neither as evidence of his lack of interest in (or ignorance of) Hobbes's arguments, nor as an attempt to conceal from the uninitiated Locke's covert Hobbesian commitments. Locke's silence reveals rather than conceals. What it reveals is an absolute determination to "distinguish between the business of civil government and that of religion, and to mark the true bounds between them". Approached in this way, precisely because Locke's account of the "business of civil government" says nothing about ecclesiastical government, the second of Two Treatises can be read, in its entirety, as a powerful critical response to Hobbes. To see why, it is necessary to grasp that Part III of Leviathan ("Of a Christian Common-wealth") is integral to Hobbes's positive argumentative purposes in the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is one of Africa's most intractable problems. Decades of deliberate and strategic socioeconomic policies have not yielded considerable concrete results to eradicate it. Upon succeeding the brutal colonial administration, the burgeoning African governments promised their citizens material well-being through socioeconomic development. A half century later the continent is perpetually witnessing a blatant betrayal of dreams. Just like the African governments that succeeded colonial governments, religious organizations continue to promise poverty eradication by divine means to their adherents, whose numbers keep exploding across the continent. The Pentecostal variant of African Christianity is particularly renowned for its promises of wealth, health, and prosperity through supernatural divine power: in the Bible, God has promised to deliver immense material goods to those who believe in Jesus Christ. The expediency of these promises to alleviate poverty and bring about social transformation is debatable. Some scholars argue that African Pentecostalism is an elaborately complex increase in religious activities devoid of social structural transformation, while others opine that it contributes positively to development. In asking whether African Pentecostal Christianity is a move toward or a distraction from development, this article broadly explores discourses on Pentecostalism and development in Africa. Arguably, in the endeavor to preach and live out the experiential power of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostal Christianity in Africa inadvertently plays a role in the broader ongoing development discourse. Although they do not view themselves as 'religious' or 'religion', Pentecostal churches' attempts to make the teachings of Jesus Christ relevant to the mundane help individual believers cope with life's stresses and vulnerabilities. However, it does not transform the social conditions that create problems for individuals. The liberating hope of African Pentecostal Christianity lies in theologically nuancing its discourses to meaningfully engage in global development discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancient correspondence allegedly between the Toparch Abgar V of Edessa and Jesus of Nazareth is usually treated in modern scholarship as legendary, though possession of it was important for the legitimation of Armenia as the first Christian kingdom in ca. 314 A.D. (prior to Constantine's 'Christian' rule of a united Roman Empire from 324, and well before Theodosius I's Edict of Thessalonica in 380). This paper attempts to create a demythologized space in which to reconsider the historical probability that Jesus, widely reputed as a healer in the chief (Near Eastern) Jewish centre of influence, was asked for help by an ailing eminent and replied to his request. Along the way, questions will be raised for further research (italicized) and so in this sense the article takes the form of an Agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I present an interpretation of violent episodes in the pastoral poetry of the third-century Latin author, Nemesianus. Drawing on comparison to depictions of sexual violence on apotropaic amulets and art, I argue that Nemesianus intended his own poetry to showcase the apotropaic power of pastoral songs and pastoral books. In so doing, Nemesianus continues a tradition of ancient pastoral authors who expended considerable effort to compare their hexameters and themselves to magical spells and practitioners of magic. I conclude with some thoughts on the Good Shepherd motif on sarcophagi roughly contemporary with Nemesianus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victorinus of Pettau is often read either as one of many binitarian Latin theologians in the ante-Nicene era or as a simple exegete whose imprecise comments on the relationship between the Word and Spirit are characteristic of his time. This study argues that recent research on "angelomorphic" theology in sources like Revelation and Clement of Alexandria and the reinterpretation of those traditions in Origen offers a new context in which to situate Victorinus. Read in this context, Victorinus' comments on the Spirit of sevenfold power and the Word imply a more sophisticated and coherent understanding of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's relationship with the Word than is usually thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent studies on Justin's Dialogue with Trypho the Jew have argued that the Dialogue should not be read as a witness to the state of theological debate between Jews and Christ-followers in the second century. Such arguments conclude that Justin does not engage with actual Jewish perspectives, but rather reconstructs a hypothetical Judaism from second-hand, polemical sources, or merely uses Trypho's "Judaism" as a stand-in for what are actually (in Justin's view) heterodox Christian interpretations. This article challenges this claim by returning to an older debate in Justin scholarship: the question of his relationship with Philo of Alexandria. By attending particularly to the role of the Logos in each author's exegesis of Pentateuchal theophanic texts, the article argues that Justin's interpretations in the Dialogue carefully avoid a kind of Logos theology that is well represented in the writings of Philo. This rhetorical distancing supports the conclusion that, in the Dialogue , Justin is in fact responding to exegetical traditions which he knows from the writings of Hellenized Judaism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coming of the Spirit of God at Pentecost (Acts 2.1-4) is described in dense imagery, involving auditory, visual, and somatic elements. This study outlines the recent scholarship on these theophanic elements, and in particular, the parallels with the temple inauguration theophanies in the Old Testament. While these parallels are increasingly becoming accepted, the implications of the temple inauguration imagery in Acts 2.1-4 remains unresolved. The core issue revolves around whether it is the Spirit or Jesus who now embodies the theophanic presence of God which once resided in the Jerusalem temple. This study concludes that it is the Spirit of God that now embodies the glory of God which resided in the temple, with the early Jesus community being the new eschatological temple of God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to emphasize the importance of the unity of the doctrines of Christology and Pneumatology that can be used to support the struggle for justice for women's leadership in the context of the Church. One-sided or unbalanced emphasis on Christology alone or Pneumatology alone in theology can lead to injustice in the context of women's leadership in the Church. If the teaching of Christology is dominant, but Pneumatology is a deficit – in relation to ecclesiology – then the concept to be emphasized is the Church was founded solely on the work of Jesus Christ, who was male. On the other hand, a dominant Pneumatology and a Christological deficit will obscure the support for justice for the emergence of female leaders in the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]