The quotation of Ps. 118:26 forms a perfect inclusion around the Jerusalem ministry. It is part of a schema of revelation of identity and non-acceptance by Jerusalem. Inclusion by the use of the present participle of the verb erxsomai, the coming one, occurs elsewhere in Mt and is part of an ongoing redactional scheme. MT 21:9 and 23:39 come from two different sources, termed Mk and Q respectively. This paper will present the difficulties that the inclusion poses for all the existent theories of Synoptic Gospel formation: Two Source, Two Gospel, Augustinian, and Modified Augustinian.
Scholars have long recognized that Matthew's structure reflects certain books of the Torah. Genesis and Exodus are obvious, so are certain Leviticus images, e.g., the scapegoat. However this paper goes further to show that the entire structure of Matthew is based on the Torah. It shows that Bacon's (1930) five-fold structure only applies to the five-fold structure of Deuteronomy. It identifies the passages which represent Numbers, and shows that the spatial 'deep structure' of Leviticus (identified by Douglas, 1999) is also mirrored in Matthew. This paper reviews the implications and draws analogies with the Temple Scroll.
Mark's account of Jesus teaching on the "most important" commandment has not drawn much scholarly notice outside of commentaries. Moreover, it is a passage in which the best lines are given to a scribal opponent. In context, Jesus faces opposition in a series of "challenge and response" episodes. Jesus begins with the parable of the wicked tenants directed against the chief priests, scribes, and elders (Mk. 11:28; 12:12). They respond with challenges regarding paying taxes to the Emperor (Mk. 2:13-17) and the absurdity of resurrection (Mk. 12:18-26). Jesus ends the section by denouncing the Scribes (12:38-40) and accusing Temple authorities of stealing the money from widows (Mk. 12:41-44). Surprisingly, in the middle of this conflict, one scribe adds a complementary insight (Mk. 2:32-34) to Jesus' teaching (Mk. 12:29-31). Jesus responds in kind (Mk. 2:34). This paper explores these responses, their social location, and the place of this passage within Mark's narrative.
This essay will explore the development of the Gospel of Luke, working with the assumption that canonical Luke is the last stage of its evolution. The proto-Luke hypothesis is certainly relevant but will only be given brief treatment.
Marcion's Gospel -- because the text itself is not extant -- will offer important insights into the emerging traditions that shaped Luke's work. Codex Bezae will provide critical documentary evidence, primarily in the so-called Western non-interpolations, of the Lukan text that predates the known or accepted version of the Gospel.
In a book filled with monarchical language, threats, battles, symbols of war, death, and violence at every turn, readers might be surprised to find that narrative territory filled with male figures has been fertile ground for women commentators. At a time when commentary writing was still the property of male scholars, women were writing commentaries on the Apocalypse. This paper looks at the ways women have read women in the Apocalypse, and the differences those reading have made.
One important aspect of the proverbial 'riddle of the Letter of James' is its understanding of the significance of Jesus. Concepts that form central pillars in the soteriologies and christologies of other Christian literature go without notice in this work. No reference is made to the death and resurrection of Jesus; neither does it have any apparent interest in a 'spirit' made available by that death, nor in the related ideas of rebirth or new creation. This study addresses this issue by examining the 'christ' of James within two contexts: the world as imagined in the text, with special attention to its assumptions in the critical areas of history and soteriology; and the sudden spike of interest in Jewish royal messianism that characterized Judaism in the early Roman period in which the text was produced. It argues that James's christos is more comparable to the royal messiahs found in the Jewish works of this period than to the 'christs' of, e.g., Paul and the Fourth Gospel, in this respect: his central role is not to establish a 'new creation' or 'rebirth' through the infusion of a divine spirit made available by his death and resurrection; rather, it is simply to destroy the wicked and restore Israel's twelve tribe kingdom.
Neither feminist nor historical-critical biblical scholars have sufficiently investigated the tantalizing references to Jesus' sisters in the Gospel of Mark (6:1-6, and 3.31-35). John P. Meier, for example, acknowledges that Jesus had brothers and sisters, but his analysis is androcentric. In this paper I will argue for the value of investigating the historical and literary significance of Jesus' sisters. The image of "sister" in feminist thinking, particularly as utilized by Virginia Woolf in her imaginative, hypothetical character "Judith Shakespeare" provides the hermeneutic and critical key.