p. 422- Romans says little about Christ’s return or res. Of the dead. But see Rom. 6.5; 8.18-30; 13.11-12— the latter clearly envisions decisive events lie in the near future. He thinks Rom. 6.5 refers to participation in Christ’s death through the ritual of water baptism. But ‘baptism into his death’ probably refers to the work of the Spirit mortifying the old self not what happens in baptism (see 1 Cor. 1). He take Rom. 8.11 to mean that the... Read more

pp. 400ff. A discussion of dualism. p. 405— “divine punishment remained the only real ‘solution’ to evil and suffering that pure monotheism had to offer.” [This is absolutely false, but what is true is that Jews regularly attributed human suffering to the wages of sin, and sometimes to divine punishment as well. Sander’s statement doesn’t even comport with Josephus who affirms both free will and divine sovereignty]. p. 406–Sanders argues that this severe doctrine was ameliorated by the idea that... Read more

I’m very happy to announce the second volume in this series of three volumes on intertexuality, the use of the OT in the NT, and of course doing exegesis forwards and backwards. This volume will emerge in the early summer, and will be followed next year by the third and final volume in the trilogy entitled Law: Old and New, looking at the use of the books of the Pentateuch in the NT. But it’s not to early to pre-order... Read more

p. 389—first analogy— seed-plant, but even plants decay. Second analogy different types of flesh but the same problem, they all decay. He then refers to stars and planets— which seem at least to last and shine forever. Unlike a fire here on earth which consumes what it alights, the stars didn’t seem to consume themselves. In Paul’s world heavenly bodies were different than earthly ones, so a better analogy. p. 390—What is raised is a different body from the one... Read more

p. 377— The passages in which Paul deals with res. in probable chronological order are according to Sanders 1 Thess. 4.13-18; 1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 3.18-5.10; Phil. 1.23-24; 2.16-17;3.10-11; 3.20-21; Rom. 6.5; 8.18-30; 13.11-12. Two verbs are used anistemi and egeirein, usually Jesus is the object of res. i.e. God raised him from the dead, attributing the power to God (Rom.4.24; 8.11 cf. 1 Thess. 1.10; 1 Cor. 6.14 etc). In 2 Cor. 1.9 God is said to raise... Read more

p. 369— “On the basis of first-century evidence, then, there is no reason to regard the soft as male prostitutes or abused young slaves.” He suspects, rightly I think, that the reason for favoring the ‘male prostitute’ translation is so modern Christians can say Paul is condemning male prostitution by the term, not homosexuality in general. p. 370 today we know some people are born this way, and Sanders is opposed to defrocking the gay or limiting their activities in... Read more

p. 336— In Paul’s vice lists, notice how immorality including sexual immorality is listed together with idolatry in a list of the besetting sins of the Greco-Roman world from a Diaspora Jewish point of view [why not just from a Jewish point of view?] In 1 Cor. 6.9-10 he translated malakoi as passive or soft males, and aresenokoitai as sodomites, whereas the NIV and NRSV translate the former term as male prostitutes. p. 337 —Jewish vice lists tended to feature... Read more

p. 325– The key words in Paul’s third argument about idol meat etc is in 10.16-22 and the key terms are participation, and participants, the former is koinonia (10.16 twice) in the Greek the latter koinonoi (10.18,20) And the word ‘one’ plays a role. Paul is drawing on Deut. 32.17 (‘they sacrificed to demons and not to God) table of the Lord (drawing on Mal. 1.7.12) not the table of demons (Is. 65.11) and provoking the Lord to jealousy (Deut.... Read more

Dev Patel is a superb actor, and my may remember him from either of the Best Exotic Hotel movies or Slum Dog Millionaire or even the HBO series Newsroom. In this film he does not show up for about an hour, because the first hour is related to Sheru’s past as a small boy in India before he was adopted by an Australian family from Hobart, Tasmania. Sheru is the Hindi word for Lion, hence the name of this movie,... Read more

p. 309— Paul’s version of the words of institution are closer to Luke’s version than to Mt. and Mk. In Luke and Paul, Jesus ‘gives thanks’ before breaking the bread; and after mentioning his body he says ‘for you’, and Paul and Luke both have ‘in remembrance of me’ Luke once and Paul mentions it twice, and in Paul and Luke the cup is the ‘new covenant in my blood’, rather than ‘my blood of the covenant’ as in Mark... Read more