How the Dead Sea Scrolls Help in Situating the Gospels in Ancient Judaism

Last updated on: August 6, 2020 at 6:09 am By Michael F. Bird

Great article to read by Andrew Perrin, “Greek Gospels and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls: Compositional, Conceptual, and Cultural Intersections,” Open Theology 6.1 (2020): Here’s the Abstract: The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls expanded the scope of authoritative and parascriptural traditions that reimagine the lives and times of ancestral figures. In several cases, these Aramaic writings include birth notices or narratives. The Genesis Apocryphon and Aramaic Levi Document portray the patriarchs receiving divine revelations regarding the genealogy and destiny of their progeny. Parents in... Read more

Paul in Acts within Judaism

Last updated on: August 18, 2020 at 6:37 am By Michael F. Bird

One of the debates about Paul vis-a-vis Judaism and the Law is how Luke’s picture of Paul in Acts relates to the discussion. Some argue that the Lucan Paul is far more positive about the Law than Paul himself is in his letters. Others say, no, Luke is right, and Paul himself was Torah-observant and his default setting even if he did flex a bit to fit with his audience as he says in 1 Cor 9:20-23. See for instance... Read more

Latest Issue of JSHJ (2020)

Last updated on: August 18, 2020 at 6:29 pm By Michael F. Bird

Here’s the latest issue of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 18.2 (2020): Socialscapes and Abstractions: An Appraisal of Richard A. Horsley’s Theorizing of Antiquity By: Sarah E. Rollens Pages: 101–123 Crowds and Power in the Early Palestinian Tradition By: Robert J. Myles Pages: 124–140 Jesus ‘ben Pantera’: An Epigraphic and Military-Historical Note By: Christopher B. Zeichmann Pages: 141–155 The Quest for the Gist of Jesus: The Jesus Seminar, Dale Allison, and Improper Linear Models By: Sean F. Everton and Daniel T. Cunningham Pages:... Read more

The Pastoral Epistles and Latest Issue of JSPL

Last updated on: May 6, 2020 at 8:27 pm By Michael F. Bird

The latest issue of the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 9.1-2 (2019) is based on a 2018 conference held in Belgium about the Pastoral Epistles. It has a very good list of contributions and studies on issues related to authorship, gender, theology, and more. JERMO VAN NES The Pastoral Epistles: Common Themes, Individual Compositions? An Introduction to the Quest for the Origin(s) of the Letters to Timothy and Titus JENS HERZER Narration, Genre, and Pseudonymity: Reconsidering the... Read more

Public Lecture – Jesus among the gods: Early Christology and Divine Ontologies of Antiquity

Last updated on: August 6, 2020 at 5:30 am By Michael F. Bird

Hi everyone, On Tuesday 15 Sept 2020, 1915 (Melbourne Time) I will be delivering Ridley’s Annual Leon Morris Lecture on: Jesus among the gods: Early Christology and Divine Ontologies of Antiquity The early church was unanimous that Jesus was “divine,” the question was and remains, in what sense? Many scholars argue that Jesus was considered divine in the sense imagined by ancient ruler cults, where there was a spectrum of divinity, and divine status was merely awarded based on displays... Read more

What is Biblicism?

Last updated on: August 14, 2020 at 11:18 pm By Michael F. Bird

A while back a friend asked me my definition of “biblicism.” It gave me cause to think things over afresh about Scripture, hermeneutics, sources for theology, and authority. I’d define biblicism like this: Biblicism is an approach that regards the Bible as the exclusive source for formulating Christian belief and practice with explicit rejection of the need for historical background, garnering wisdom from wider tradition, recognizing the influence of one’s cultural location, and attaining insights from out-group perspectives even as... Read more

Luke Timothy Johnson – Constructing Paul

Last updated on: August 12, 2020 at 8:03 am By Michael F. Bird

Luke Timothy Johnson Constructing Paul: The Canonical Paul – Volume 1 Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020. Available at Amazon.com Luke Timothy Johnson’s two-volume The Canonical Paul has its first installation with Constructing Paul. LTJ writes as a critical admirer and advocate of Paul and he regards Paul as “personally the true heart of the New Testament and [giving] the framework for my self-understanding as a Christian” (2). But Paul and his letters are not self-interpreting or self-describing, they must be constructed, and... Read more

Christianity and Greco-Roman Moral Discourse

Last updated on: August 10, 2020 at 7:41 am By Michael F. Bird

Here is a guest post by Max Lee (North Park University) about his book Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind: Mapping the Moral Milieu of the Apostle Paul and His Diaspora Jewish Contemporaries (WUNT 2. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2020). The book will appeal to anyone interested in how early Christianity interacted with its Greco-Roman environment. I attempt something grand and ambitious here: to map the moral universe of the ancient Mediterranean world from which both Diaspora Judaism and early Christianity emerged.... Read more

Exciting New Novels set in the New Testament World

Last updated on: August 5, 2020 at 6:45 pm By Michael F. Bird

The universe of novels about early Christianity that would pass muster with academic scholars is small. Gerd Theissen’s The Shadow of the Galilean (on Jesus and his followers) and Bruce Longenecker’s The Lost Letters of Pergamum (on the church in western Asia Minor) are solid enough to be used in a New Testament course, and Ben Witherington has written a few short novels in the last few years that reflect his lifetime of research as a leading New Testament scholar.... Read more

Theological Anthropology Rejigged

Last updated on: April 15, 2020 at 7:53 pm By Michael F. Bird

HUMANS: CREATURELY AND DIVINE? Traditional Theological Anthropology By Joshua Farris There has and continues to be a discussion about the nature of humans as creaturely and divine in the western canon of great books. I am reminded of the classic work Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with its story about the human creation of a human like creature called the daemon. Motivated as it was by the Darwinian view that humans are higher-order evolutionary products of the animal kingdom—i.e., creatures once again.... Read more