The Bible and Culture

The following is a helpful intro by Larry Hurtado on a new monograph about Jesus and the scribal elites, which suggests there really is a historical basis for the controversy stories about such a conflict. BW3 Jesus and the “Scribal Elite”: Chris Keith’s Latest by larryhurtadoIn the latest tome from one of our most prolific recent PhDs, Chris Keith offers an argument about the initial causes of tensions/conflicts between Jesus of Nazareth and what Keith terms "the scribal elite," i.e … [Read more...]

The below is a helpful little post by Larry Hurtado about the Jewishness of Paul. I have a couple of caveats with it, namely Paul says he as a Jew has a choice about being the Jew to the Jew (1 Cor. 9). He no longer sees Torah observation as an obligation even for Jewish Christian like himself. He can either do it, or not do. He is no longer under the yoke of Torah, and what Paul does say is that the Mosaic covenant was temporary, and was eclipsed by the new covenant which is viewed as a … [Read more...]

by larryhurtadoIn preparation for an invitational conference on early papyri coming up late next week in the USA, I read William Johnson's excellent contribution, "The Ancient Book," in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (ed. R. S. Bagnall). I first "encountered" Johnson in reading his PhD thesis, "The Literary Papyrus Roll" (Yale, 1992), and later his essential book, Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004). I regard anything by him as worth my … [Read more...]

The following is a blog post by Timothy George. See what you think--- BW3 --------His real name was George Pease Williams, but to ward off insensitive school-yard taunts as a young boy he constructed a more elegant middle name for himself, and this is how he was known for the rest of his life: George Huntston Williams (1914-2000). When I arrived at Harvard University in 1972, he was already a legend in that place and widely known elsewhere as one of the leading church historians of his … [Read more...]

Here is an interesting analysis of a recent article by Peter Malik, courtesy of my friend Larry Hurtado.... BW3 Earliest Corrections in Codex Sinaiticus by larryhurtadoThe latest issue of The Bulletin of the American Society of Payrologists includes a valuable study (by Peter Malik) of the earliest corrections in Codex Sinaiticus, as evidenced in the Gospel of Mark: Peter Malik, "The Earliest Corrections in Codex Sinaiticus: A Test Case From the Gospel of Mark," Bulletin of … [Read more...]

If you've been wondering why there has been a regular spate of guest posts on this blog as well as some unanswered questions, it is because--- I be gone. Since May 12th I've been to Israel and Turkey for a week each, and now I'm cruising on the Gulet boat down the coast of Turkey heading for Rhodes and various other islands. Yes the island life for me.... very temporarily. Never fear, I shall return to tell many tales about this adventure. The first two weeks I was leading a tour group... now … [Read more...]

Certainly one of the more important topics to be discussed when it comes to eschatology is 'the day of the Lord' or 'the day of Jesus' and on pp. 1079-80 Tom provides a helpful listing of references to 'that day' ranging from 1 Cor. 1.8;5.5;2 Cor. 1.14; 1 Thess. 5.2; 2 Thess. 2.2; Phil. 1.6,10; Phil. 2.16; Rom. 2.5,16; Rom. 13.12; 1 Cor. 3.13; Ephes. 4.30; 2 Tim. 1.18; 2 Tim. 4.8. In every case this is a reference to the future coming of Christ to judge the world, including judging the works … [Read more...]

Eschatology is a tricky subject in various ways. On the one end of the spectrum one can make the mistakes we see Dispensationalism making again and again when it tries to co-ordinate contemporary events with generic or more universal Biblical prophecies about the future. On the other end of the spectrum there are those who want to subsume all the NT discourse under the general label of apocalyptic and suggest there really is no continuous narrative, as Wright keeps asserting, that is being … [Read more...]