This article responds to Jonathan Rowlands’s remarks (in the current issue of JSNT) on my critique of his earlier article on the theological interpretation of the New Testament.
John C. Poirier has recently criticised some aspects of my earlier article outlining a defence of so-called ‘theological’ readings of biblical literature. In this article, I respond to Poirier’s work, demonstrating how he has misunderstood the aims and content of my argument. I also raise some broader concerns about the ways in which aspects of Poirier’s work seeks to dismiss large sections of scholarship both within biblical scholarship and across the humanities more broadly.
The themes of faith and salvation are evident in the literary, historical, and grammatical context of Mk 5.25–34. St. Veronica, or ‘the woman with the issue of blood’, was not seeking physical healing, but holistic salvation, salvation that she received through faith in Jesus. Her story is a classic story of conversion, not only physical healing. Mark’s grammatical use of σῴζω places holistic salvation on center stage in the passage. Veronica was a woman of faith and a daughter in the Kingdom of God, before and after she was physically healed. This paper uses a feminist, disability hermeneutic to argue that the main theme of Mk 5.25–34 is faith and salvation, shown by St. Veronica’s faith and active search for holistic salvation, against the traditional interpretation of the passage being solely about healing.
In Matthew and Mark, Jesus’s death on the cross is immediately preceded by the offer of a drink (Mt. 27.48//Mk 15.36). While many have argued that Jesus never receives the drink, this paper makes the case that Matthew and Mark both intend the reader to think that he did. This article demonstrates that Matthew and Mark have deliberately set up the scene of Jesus drinking from the cross with his pledge not to drink until the kingdom (Mt. 26.29//Mk 14.25), as well with as other scenes that link the kingdom to drinking imagery (e.g., Mt. 20.22–23//Mk 10.38–39). Luke’s account of Jesus’s death omits many of these details and relocates Jesus’s pledge not to drink until the kingdom. Matthew and Mark, then, emphasize the cross as a proleptic event of the kingdom, an emphasis muted by Luke.
The Apocalypse of John is knit together with an onomastic thread, woven around nodes of names and name-centred actions. This article analyses John’s use of names—including human, angelic, divine, and demonic ones—along with essential name-based activities, like writing, inscribing, branding, and blaspheming. Through this analysis, the article illuminates the key roles played by names and onomastic actions in Revelation and shows how names function as a central, though underappreciated, motif in John’s text. After analysing human names, divine and angelic names, and the names of divine enemies in Revelation, the article examines the actions done to, by, with, and because of names. Finally, it concludes by exploring the implications of John’s ‘onomastic thread’, including how names function as a symbolic currency in Revelation.
In late 2024, over 150 people participated in an online survey that collected their opinions on a variety of issues pertaining to the apostle Paul and the corpus of New Testament texts that bear his name. This essay recounts aspects of that survey’s origins, its intended pedagogical purposes, and the demographics of its participants. It offers overviews of five issues that illustrate the utility of the survey’s data. Noting some of the weaknesses of the project, this essay also imagines what might be needed to take initiatives of this kind to the next level for purposes of pedagogy and in assessing the sociology of knowledge within the guild of Pauline studies.
Enigmatic passages in Jerome’s Letter to Algasia and the 12th century Book of Saint James have led scholars to attribute a Gospel harmony to Theophilus of Antioch. This lost harmony has played an increasingly important role in recent attempts to date the four-Gospel canon to the first half of the second century. Scholars have cited Theophilus’s putative harmony not only as evidence that Theophilus himself held to a four-Gospel canon but also, through an argument from analogy, that Tatian’s Diatessaron reflects the same already-established canon. The evidence for Theophilus’s harmony, however, cannot bear this argumentative weight. The alleged reference in Jerome, interpreted in light of the other evidence for Theophilus’s oeuvre , almost certainly refers to a philological treatise On the Gospel , while the Book of Saint James refers to something else entirely. The evaporation of Theophilus’s illusory harmony has important implications for the history of the New Testament canon. If the Ebionite Gospel According to the Hebrews is, instead, considered the closest analog to Tatian’s Diatessaron , the same argument from analogy suggests that Tatian did not accept his sources as sacrosanct authorities.
Elemental imagery, Stoic physics, and Jewish cosmogony converge in 2 Peter 3 to create a rhetorically sophisticated vision of apocalyptic renewal. The repeated invocation of elemental terms in 2 Pet. 3 serves both as vivid imagery and as synecdoche, inviting the audience to visualize the dissolution and recreation of the cosmos. Applying conceptual blending theory to 2 Pet. 3 can describe how the author of 2 Peter brings together widespread Stoic ideas about elemental physics (fire, water, earth, air) with biblical motifs of creation and divine intervention, which allows the author to make a distinctive apocalyptic argument to a broad audience, not merely those familiar with Jewish cosmogony. Ultimately, 2 Peter’s rhetorical sophistication challenges the audience to contemplate the implications of the coming ‘day of the Lord’ for ethical living, bridging diverse cosmological traditions within early Christian thought.
Paul includes Apphia as a recipient in his letter to Philemon. He addresses her as ‘the sister’ but gives no further indication of her role. While scholars have often assumed that Apphia is Philemon’s wife, a close reading of the text points away from this designation. This article explores other roles Apphia might have had by examining the roles and occupations women had in the first-century Mediterranean world. It then uses historical imagination to describe three roles Apphia could have had within her cultural context. These roles help to demonstrate why Paul would include her as a recipient and find in her a valuable ally in his appeal on behalf of Onesimus.
This article examines the possibility of a common reading of Gen. 2.7 (LXX) between Philo, Paul, and the Gospel of John. Although some streams in scholarship suggest such a shared reading, previous comparisons have tended to focus narrowly on citations or shared vocabulary. This study adopts a different approach by considering the role of Gen. 2.7 within the respective anthropologies of these authors, on the assumption that anthropological claims more broadly may reflect their construal of the verse. The article argues that Philo, Paul, and John present a common reading of Gen. 2.7 characterized by a dualistic understanding of the human being, the possibility of a loss of the divine inbreathing, and spiritualization as becoming like God. Following an analysis of each author, the concluding section summarizes the convergences and briefly considers how the common reading might be explained.
In 1 Cor. 7.15 the believer is not bound when the non-Christ-believer insists on divorce. What is often overlooked is that Paul neither employs delta epsilon omega/'bound' as in 1 Cor. 7.39 nor claims a spouse's 'freedom'/'permission' to remarry, a defining feature of contemporary divorce certificates. Also overlooked is the discussion of slavery and freedom that follows. The most suitable backdrop for 7.15's 'not enslaved' (delta epsilon delta omicron upsilon lambda omega tau alpha iota) is not likely the slave wife of Exod. 21.2-11 or a slavery under the Mosaic Law but rather Greco-Roman sentiments lamenting marriage as an encumbering form of slavery. Verse 15's delta epsilon delta omicron upsilon lambda omega tau alpha iota thus prepares for the ensuing discussion of slavery/freedom in vv. 21-23, which entails-for the status-conscious Corinthians-status reversals and ranking in Christ. Paul encourages the unencumbered divorced, i.e., not enslaved (delta epsilon delta omicron upsilon lambda omega tau alpha iota) in v. 15, by saying that they enjoy higher status in the Lord.
The authenticity and genuineness of seven Pauline letters is rarely questioned in modern scholarship. Yet by scratching beneath the surface of arguments made in support of this perspective, one finds porous ground. Scholars do not substantiate the perspective with adequate evidence and employ dubious arguments for authenticity that do not withstand modern critical scrutiny. Rarely considered is the lack of secure evidence of Pauline letters prior to the second century. While Pauline letters fail to meet modern standards warranting their status as authentic, genuine, and historically reliable, they demonstrate, by contrast, exactly the features we would expect of a pseudonymous letter collection.
Matthew's divorce clause remains one of the most vexed questions in NT studies. The generality of the keyword pi omicron rho nu epsilon iota alpha stumps commentators, while little help appears forthcoming from the clause's immediate context, the wider statements of Mt. 5.32 and 19.9. Against the widespread view that pi omicron rho nu epsilon iota alpha per the divorce clause is badly underdetermined, however, this paper argues that the clause as set in immediate context does indeed signal a specific meaning to pi omicron rho nu epsilon iota alpha which redounds to the unique correctness of a particular clausal interpretation: the 'betrothal view'. After outlining the semantic scope of pi omicron rho nu epsilon iota alpha it critiques attempts by proponents of the 'adultery view', the dominant scholarly interpretation of the clause, to explain why the clause employs pi omicron rho nu epsilon iota alpha but not mu omicron iota chi epsilon iota alpha. It then argues that the juxtaposition of the two terms within the parameters set by the ancient Jewish meaning of 'wife' and 'divorce' specifies a wife's pre-nissuin unchastity as the referent of the divorce clause's pi omicron rho nu epsilon iota alpha.
How is the apostle Peter's wife portrayed in early Christian writings? Within the first century CE, texts like 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels seemingly take for granted that Peter was married, but do not explicitly mention his wife. In the second to fourth centuries, however, we see a variety of depictions, from Clement of Alexandria's anecdote concerning her martyrdom to Jerome's suggestion that Peter forsook the office of marriage after following Jesus. I demonstrate that these views are often shaped by theological controversies such as Encratism or Jovinianism, with the idealisation of celibacy significantly influencing the portrayal of Peter's wife by the late fourth century.
For far too long, many interpreters of Hebrews have held the view that the author wrote to dissuade the audience from a return to Judaism-the so-called 'relapse theory'. This article demonstrates the ways in which this theory does not cohere with current scholarship on Hebrews or on the New Testament more broadly. The 'relapse theory' assumes a clear 'parting of the ways' or separation between Judaism and Christianity in the first century as well as a rather negative outlook on Jewish rituals by the author of Hebrews. But as this article shows, evidence that this is the primary concern of the author is scarce, and the interpretations of various passages used to illustrate the author's supposed supersessionism or replacement ideologies are at best overstated or hyperbolic and at worst misguided caricatures of Judaism in the first century. I begin with brief histories of interpretation regarding both the purpose of Hebrews and then put forward alternative readings for six texts often used to substantiate the idea that the author of Hebrews writes to critique Jewish religion (Heb 3.12; 7.11, 18-19; 8.13; 10.1-10; 9.9-10; 13.9-10).
This article examines the messianic secret in the Gospel of Mark, considering the paradigm shift within New Testament Studies, according to which the New Testament is to be regarded as part of Second Temple Judaism's textual corpus, while viewing it against the backdrop of the First Jewish-Roman war. It draws on Georg Simmel's Sociology of Secrecy, which remains a cornerstone text for theorizing secrecy, and ties in with Gerd Thei ss en's thirty-year-old socio-epistemic attempt at an overall interpretation of the messianic secret in the Gospel of Mark. This article shows that a (messianic) secret must be explosive, as it certainly was in the context of Josephus's war report, and seeks to reconstruct it for the Markan text in a historically plausible way, incorporating particularly Simmel's distinction between relative and absolute secret. An introduction (sec. 1) is followed by methodological considerations (sec. 2) and a presentation of the historical events with particular focus on the topic of secrecy (sec. 3); together, these form the basis for a systematic analysis of the Markan secret (sec. 4). The investigation is rounded off with a summary and conclusion (sec. 5).
This article introduces new evidence that sheds light on Paul's use of alpha rho pi alpha gamma mu omicron & varsigma; in Phil. 2.6b. This word has been much discussed, and it is sometimes claimed that Paul intends it to evoke a contrast between Christ and Greco-Roman gods and rulers, yet the evidence offered in service of this claim is limited. After surveying relevant approaches to alpha rho pi alpha gamma mu omicron & varsigma;, I examine texts in which words related to alpha rho pi alpha gamma mu omicron & varsigma; are used to describe divine figures important in Philippi. I argue, utilizing concepts from cognitive science, that the abundance of texts describing divine figures involved in violent and consumptive behaviour represent a cognitive script that Paul invokes in Phil. 2.6b. Paul's use of alpha rho pi alpha gamma mu omicron & varsigma; invokes this script, which addresses his audience's previous experience with divine figures and contrasts them with Christ. This contrast has significant implications for how members of the community view power dynamics within the church and vis-& agrave;-vis Christ.
The disciples leave everything and follow Jesus. This claim is often assumed to be self-evident. While this assertion finds support in Luke's Gospel, in Mark's Gospel this is not the case. In contrast, after being called by Jesus the first disciples go home for dinner, and they invite Jesus to come with them (Mk 1.16-20, 29-31). This sequencing of events is not incidental. Instead, this pattern is repeated throughout Mark's Gospel and is indicative of a different understanding of discipleship. The evidence within Mark's Gospel destabilizes patriarchal constructions of Christian discipleship in which home and family responsibilities are relegated to encumbrance. However, simultaneously, the Markan evidence also scrambles the patriarchal tendency to insist upon loyalty to the biological family. When Mark's understanding of faithfulness is untangled from Luke's Gospel, a complex and potentially liberative vision of discipleship and the family emerges.
Did Jesus have a house in Capernaum? In this article I revisit the proposal that the earliest Gospel tradition knew of Jesus being ‘at home’, and suggest that only a particular exegetical inference from the narratives of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew lead to the view that Jesus is staying in Simon Peter’s house. The Gospel tradition developed ideas of Jesus as itinerant and ‘homeless’, or as the constant dinner guest or otherworldly visitor to earth. Jesus was by no means a wealthy property-owner, but he did have a place to live in Capernaum, where he brought people and where others came to see him. The beginnings of the Jesus ‘movement’ were actually stationary, based for the most part in Jesus’s house in Capernaum.
