Early Christianity is often regarded as an entirely lower-class phenomenon, and thus characterised by a low educational and cultural level. This view is false for several reasons. (1) When dealing with the ancient world, inferences cannot be made from the social class to which one belongs to one's educational and cultural level. (2) We may confidently state that in the early Christian urban congregations more than 50 per cent of the members could read and write at an acceptable level. (3) Socialisation within the early congregations occurred mainly through education and literature. No religious figure before (or after) Jesus Christ became so quickly and comprehensively the subject of written texts! (4) The early Christians emerged as a creative and thoughtful literary movement. They read the Old Testament in a new context, they created new literary genres (gospels) and reformed existing genres (the Pauline letters, miracle stories, parables). (5) From the very beginning, the amazing literary production of early Christianity was based on a historic strategy that both made history and wrote history. (6) Moreover, early Christians were largely bilingual, and able to accept sophisticated texts, read them with understanding, and pass them along to others. (7) Even in its early stages, those who joined the new Christian movement entered an educated world of language and thought. (8) We should thus presuppose a relatively high intellectual level in the early Christian congregations, for a comparison with Greco-Roman religion, local cults, the mystery religions, and the Caesar cult indicates that early Christianity was a religion with a very high literary production that included critical reflection and refraction.

Roman identity and legitimisation of imperial rule were closely connected to the mythological motive of divine descent. In this context, the myth of Romulus with the encounter between the god Mars and the virgin Rhea Silvia developed its own significance that was available for broader circles within the population of the Roman Empire. It is against this background that Luke 1.26–38 may be read as an alternative foundation narrative that assimilates essential features of the Roman myth of origin in order to reinterpret it christologically.

Surprisingly, the Gospel reaches Rome under the sign of the Dioscuri (Acts 28.11). In the first two centuries CE these saviours represent, at a broad cultural level, salvation and secure justice, deliver the message of victory to Rome, and symbolise the Empire's expansive claim on the world. In the rhetoric of ἐνάϱγεια the nautical detail marks a theological transformation: the Mediterranean becomes the mare nostrum of Christians; this transformation is plausible even according to pagan eusebeia; the gospel reveals itself as good news of victory claiming the world. It is within this illustrative logic that the noteworthy detail gains its meaning.

The article reopens the dossier of the sources, parallels and rewritings of 1 Cor 2.9, a saying that Paul attributes to a written source, when other sources put it into Jesus' mouth (e.g. GosThom 17). The state of research shows that the hypothesis of an oral source is generally preferred but an accurate study of 1 Clem 34.8, a parallel too often neglected, supports the presence of a written source that existed before 1 Cor 2.9. GosJud 47.10–13 will help to understand the attribution of the saying to Jesus. Finally, the article takes into account the well-known parallel in Islamic tradition, a ḥadīth qudsī.

Within the narrative of John 4.4–42 (the Samaritan woman at the well) the fact is mentioned that ‘Jacob's well’ had been given to his son Joseph (John 4.5). By calling Jacob ‘our father’ (John 4.12), the woman claims for the Samaritans a direct lineage from Jacob via Joseph. The Samaritans are designated as ‘children of Israel’ and members of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (i.e. the ‘house of Joseph’). The genealogy is embedded in a motif occurring in Scripture (the encounter at the well). Thus, it is questionable whether the passage of the woman at the well can primarily be seen as ‘mission among gentiles’. The narrative focus of the passage seems to point to a mission among the ‘children of Israel’.

Colour is used throughout the NT, although sparingly, with different functions and in conjunction with specific situations. The gospels and the letters do not contain many references to colour, but when they do it is typically to indicate more than a physical quality. On the other hand, the author of the Apocalypse uses the colour in its literal sense to describe a particular object or character. In view of the fact that the book was meant to be read aloud, his repetition of colour adjectives stresses the effectiveness and importance of aural effect as a conveyor of meaning.

At the 69th Annual Meeting of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS), held in Szeged, Hungary, three scholars were invited to debate the theme of the Greek element in Paul's eschatology – a theme proposed by Prof Udo Schnelle, President of SNTS for 2014. The three contrasting presentations, intended primarily for oral delivery, are published here. It is intended that this ‘Quaestiones Disputatae’ format will be a regular feature of the Society's meetings, and that presentations will be published in this journal.