In his Manson Memorial Lecture for 19821 James Dunn credits E. P. Sanders2 with ‘breaking the mould of Pauline studies’ and giving us ‘what amounts to a new perspective on Paul’, not least by showing that the traditional Christian picture of Judaism is ‘fundamentally mistaken’.3 Dunn agrees with Sanders' characterization of ancient Palestinian Judaism as ‘covenantal nomism’, in the framework of which ‘Israel's covenant relation with God was basic’.

The majority of Pauline scholars depict the eschatological orientation of Colossians as ‘realized’. Furthermore, a number of interpreters juxtapose the eschatological ‘already’ which arguably earmarks the epistle with the eschatological ‘not yet’ which ostensibly permeates Paul. This article questions the common contention that Colossians, in contradistinction to Paul, is virtually void of futurist eschatology. It is argued herein that even though the ‘already’ may feature in the letter, the ‘not yet’ is more pervasive than is frequently supposed. Correlatively, this study suggests that there is less variance between the eschatological perspectives of Colossians and Paul than is typically recognized.

Eingangs seien einige grundsätzliche Bemerkungen erlaubt. In der Einleitung meiner 1985 im wesentlichen abgeschlossenen Studie zur Versöhnung habe ich vermerkt, daβ ich mich nicht in eine Auseinandersetzung um eine Biblische Theologie begeben mösondern lediglich die Frage nach der Eignung des paulinischen Versöhnungsbegriffes (καταλλαγή) als Leitmotiv einer Biblischen Theologie aufwerfen möchte. Auch hier möchte ich nichts anderes. Somit beschränke ich mich auf Paulus und gehe nur auf einige Neuerscheinungen ein.

At the primary, narrative level the riddle of Mark's brief account of Jesus' death and its immediate aftermath must still be pronounced unsolved. There has been a steadily growing awareness among scholars that, for all the insights they have afforded us, form and redaction criticism have tended to deprive the Evangelists of reputations for competence as narrators and their story-lines of coherence and integrity and that this tendency does them injustice. Yet though the latest study of Mark 15. 37–39 is sensitive to this issue, it cannot be pronounced successful in making complete sense of Mark's narrative qua narrative. This paper offers a solution to the riddle and argues what I realize is the rather radical thesis that Mark intended a connection between the events of these verses that has never been fully and properly understood.

The Qumrân texts have brought to light a feature of Jewish thought about angels which helps us to interpret the meaning of the phrase διά τούς άγγΈλους in I Cor. xi. 10. This phrase has been the subject of many interpretations from the time of Tertullian on. The evidence from Qumrân, however, does not just add another interpretation to the many that have already been given; rather it adds a detail to one interpretation already rather common, thus supporting it and rendering the other interpretations less probable. It is our purpose in this study to indicate the bearing of the new evidence from Qumrân on this Pauline expression.

Our General Meeting this year is to concern itself with a subject of a highly technical and specialist character. Your President has been expressly absolved from the obligation of selecting a subject related to Qumran. And indeed it may be thought more fitting that a Presidential Address should deal with a subject of a more general interest and with a more immediate bearing upon the life and destiny of mankind.

Exegetical study in the days of liberal theology assumed that Paul spoke on impulse, according to the mood of the moment, deeply moved, and with often changing emotions. Scholars read between the lines, searching for crises in the life of the apostle that might explain his changes of attitude. If we consider Adolf Deissmann's research on Paul it is not difficult to see that an interpretation assuming a far too detailed knowledge of the apostle's spiritual life is an exaggeration. The actual material of our study is the texts, not the man behind them. And Paul is not as spontaneous as was believed by the older generation of exegetes. The letters are those of an experienced missionary, used to preaching and instructing. And it is possible that in the letters he is dealing with subjects he has discussed before, so that the expressions he uses have not necessarily been new minted for this particular occasion.

Many forgeries pass through a cycle of fabrication, acceptance, doubt and final rejection. Consideration of a number of modern forgeries, notably those of Constantinos Simonides, illustrates how forgers exploit prevailing debates, look for persons or institutions on whom to practise their deception, and are often undone by their own errors, especially when manufacturing provenance. This ‘syntax’ of forgery can be applied to the case of the Jesus' Wife papyrus, though the participation of media corporations and the existence of the internet add a new element to the process.

In der Forschung zur Johannesapokalypse ist die Deutung des ersten apokalyptischen Reiters (Apk 6.2) kontrovers. Neben die verbreitete negative Deutung traten in den letzten Jahren verschiedene Ansätze für ein positives christologisches Verständnis. In Auseinandersetzung damit wird ein bisher nicht berücksichtigtes Problem besonders in den Blick genommen, daß nämlich der erste Reiter einerseits positiv interpretiert werden kann, dann aber andererseits als ein Siegel am siebenfach versiegelten Buch zu deuten ist, das nicht als Buch des Gerichtes, sondern als Lebensbuch des Lammes verstanden werden muß. Schließlich wird seine konzeptuelle Bedeutung im Zusammenhang mit dem Reiter von Apk 19 beschrieben.

The brokerage relationship has been applied as a model to various passages in the NT. Surprisingly, only a few have applied it to the Pauline corpus. Among them is Stephan Joubert, who uses the model to reach a very hierarchical conclusion on Paul's apostleship in the Corinthian Correspondence. Against Joubert, this essay will demonstrate that, when the brokerage model is applied to 2 Cor 1.3-11, a characteristic relational pattern in the economy of grace emerges, one which is marked by interpersonal solidarity and a mutual channelling of χάρις. This discovery, however, only emerges once the ‘unfitting’ nature of the model is acknowledged.

The fact that many of the initial German members of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas were also supporters of the NS regime and among the authors of scholarly antisemitism (G. Kittel, K. G. Kuhn, W. Grundmann) is one that requires proper examination. This paper uses relevant archival material, such as previously unexplored documents from the Reich Ministry of Education (Reichserziehungsministerium), to explain this perceived link, demonstrating how Professor Gerhard Kittel (1888–1948) from Tübingen used his political power to control the selection of the first German scholars in the Society.

Against the contentions of a number of NT scholars, the present article aims to demonstrate that the apostle Paul's gospel language never refers to ongoing Christian instruction and only ever connotes announcements which are news to those who hear them. This conclusion, which is maintained even in connection with Rom 1.15, a key text for the ‘broad-ranging’ view of ευαγγελ-, is shown to conform to the wholly consistent usage of gospel terminology throughout Graeco-Roman, Jewish and early Christian literature: ‘gospel’ is news.

Recent New Testament scholarship has rightly emphasized the significance of urban features at Sepphoris for gospels and Historical Jesus research. However, some of these studies have greatly exaggerated the quantity of evidence for Greco-Roman influence in the first-century city. Most of the architectural features associated with the Greco-Roman city are missing, evidence for use of Greek is minimal, and signs of pagans are rare. In light of this, questions about the influence of Galilee's Hellenistic milieu on the Historical Jesus must be reconsidered.

Discussions of this chapter tend to show the need for background knowledge. Much as commentators disagree as to the meaning of the parable of the Steward,1 all are agreed as to the embarrassment it has caused.2 Attempts to connect the parable with earlier and subsequent matter have been few, and scarcely convincing. Because the parable has not been understood, keys to the connexion between the verses which complete the chapter, and indeed between the parable, them, and the first two verses of the next chapter, have been overlooked.

Mary, Thecla, Perpetua and Felicitas are often seen as female exempla both in the early Christian world and in their modern reception. They are considered model teachers, martyrs and apostles, and counter-cultural as they surpass the normative gender hierarchy. Yet, the texts that tell their stories are not so clear-cut. In characterising their protagonists, they repeatedly place them in sexualized or subordinate roles – they are condescended to, distrusted and exhibited. In the end, the women are favoured by the divine but hold little power over their male peers. Even as these texts appear to challenge the patriarchal society from which they stem, they reinscribe it.

In recent years the importance of the title ‘Son of God’ for Matthew's Gospel has received well-deserved recognition. There need be no hesitation in acknowledging the programmatic role which it plays in the christological development of the First Gospel. Thus, in considering this appellation, we are not lightly extracting a vacuous designation appropriated by the Evangelist from his tradition, but are dealing rather with a confessional title of continuing vitality for the Matthean church. All the more surprising is it, then, that the actual content of this expression has of late received comparatively little attention from many of those concerned to establish its importance. Moreover, among those who have dealt in more detail with the meaning of the title in Matthew's Gospel, little by way of a satisfactory consensus has been achieved.

This essay examines Ephesians in light of current research in ethnic studies. The methodological advance of such an approach is twofold: first, it moves the exegesis of the domestic codes to the wider frame of the letter; and, second, it goes beyond the limited hermeneutical framework of the ‘origins’ of the reconciliation language to the more productive examination of its function in the text. The concept of ‘one new humanity’ provides evidence for the author's ethnic reasoning, which participated in ancient cultural affirmations of the essential fluidity and changeability of all ethnicity. The author of Ephesians domesticates the mythical language of baptism by making it fit the conventional morality of a household economy, thus presenting the letter's most important ecclesiological concept, that of ‘the body of Christ’, as a unity that is more moral than mythic.