In this article it is argued that in Rom 11.25–32 Paul starts from the situation of Israel that he has described in Rom 11.1–10: Israel is torn into two parts – a Christian minority and a non-Christian majority which has rejected the Gospel because it has been hardened. In these verses Paul develops an expectation according to which it is God himself who will take away the hardening of the non-Christian majority of Israel by leading them to faith in Christ. It is God himself whom Paul identifies as the ‘deliverer who comes from Zion’ (v. 26), although he does not expect a theophany but uses the quotations from Isa 59.20–1 and 27.9 as metaphorical circumscriptions for God's intervention in favour of the non-Christian part of his people. Although Paul is fully convinced that God will intervene in favour of the non-Christian Jews, he has no idea how this could happen. This discrepancy between Paul's assurance of the ‘that’ and his cluelessness regarding the ‘how’ is the reason why he presents his solution of the Israel problem in an apocalyptic mode as a revelation of a ‘mystery’ (v. 25).

Despite numerous studies of the word κύριος (‘Lord’) in the New Testament, the significance of the double form κύριε κύριε occurring in Matthew and Luke has been overlooked, with most assuming the doubling merely communicates heightened emotion or special reverence. By contrast, this article argues that whereas a single κύριος might be ambiguous, the double κύριος formula outside the Gospels always serves as a distinctive way to represent the Tetragrammaton and that its use in Matthew and Luke is therefore best understood as a way to represent Jesus as applying the name of the God of Israel to himself.

This article argues that the social memory approach makes a significant contribution to the interpretation of the early gospel tradition. This approach helps to overcome an anachronistic distinction between ‘canonical’ and ‘non-canonical’ (or ‘apocryphal’) Gospels by highlighting the way Jesus was portrayed in various Gospels of the first and second century. Early Christian Gospels in general presuppose the post-Easter perspective on Jesus as a divine figure, but depict his activity and teaching in different ways. A closer look at the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Peter demonstrates how these Gospels take up and continue perspectives which can be observed already in the earlier Gospels in their own ways. Thereby they provide glimpses of different social and theological contexts of second-century Christianity.

The narration between the second and third prediction of Jesus’ suffering in Matthew's Gospel (Matt 17.24–20.16) can be entitled ‘The life and the acting of the disciples in the light of the Kingdom of God’. The last part of this section is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Although there are quite different proposals for defining the function of this Kingdom of Heaven Parable, its specific function in the narrative development of the basileia-line in Matthew's Gospel has not yet been the focus of the interest. The article at hand tries to close this gap by analysing the basileia-sayings in Matt 17.24–20.16 and exploring in detail the function of the Vineyard Parable in this frame. Special attention is paid to the examination of the interrelationship between divine and human action.

The dispute ‘about purification’ between the disciples of John the Baptist and a Jew (John 3.25) has to do with the priority of ethical purity as effected through baptism over the ritual washing prescribed by the Torah, e.g. before entering the Jerusalem temple. This issue is referred to in John 13.10 and 15.3, and also in P.Oxy. 840. It is presupposed here that the circle of Jesus’ disciples received John's baptism of repentance either from John the Baptist or from Jesus (John 3.22, 26; 4.1). The Gospel of John thus engages with an ongoing debate within Jewish Christianity about the obligatory nature of ritual washing.

A familiar feature in Pauline scholarship is the view that Sin as a power, and the concomitant forces of the flesh and death, are the dominant elements in Paul's account of the human plight. The present article seeks not to deny the significance of these elements, but to argue that equally important are ‘sins’ or individual infractions of the divine will. It is argued here that recent developments in Pauline studies have, in combination, led to an unwarranted downplaying of sins plural. In a number of key passages, Paul includes such acts of transgression in his account of the human plight.

This study investigates spelling variants of the name of the city where Jesus raises the only son of a widow, in Lk 7.11: Nain or Naim. The study develops along three lines: textual critic, Hebraic etymology, ancient geography. The investigation eventually raises the question of the theological significance of the miracle of Nain.

Reading Jesus’ conception and genealogy in the context of claims about Augustus brings clarity to the perplexing identification of Adam as God's offspring (Luke 3.38). Jesus was fathered by God's spirit (1.35), as was his ancestor Adam (through Joseph). Likewise, some claimed Augustus was fathered by Apollo and that his ancestor Aeneas (through adoption by Julius Caesar) was the offspring of Aphrodite/Venus. This comparison suggests that Jesus is comparable to Augustus and that Jesus’ kingdom of God is comparable to Augustus’ Golden Age. Moreover, the logical force of these parallels favours the inferring of Joseph's adoption of Jesus in Luke.

The parable of the unrighteous steward encouraged rich individuals outside the Christian community to use their wealth to make friends of Jesus’ poor disciples, specifically by reducing their debts, so that in the eschatological kingdom Jesus’ disciples would receive these benefactors into their eternal dwellings. It had its setting in the efforts of early Palestinian Christians to enlist the financial support of the wealthy. Since many of these did not wish to sell all their possessions and donate the proceeds to the Christian community, this parable suggested an alternative way that the rich could use their wealth to assist the community.

The second half of the Akhmîm fragment of the Gospel of Peter distinguishes the recalcitrant Jewish leaders, who suppress the truth of Jesus’ resurrection, from the Jewish people, who regret their murder of Jesus the moment he dies – a distinction best explained by the thesis that the document was produced by and for Jewish Christians living in second-century Syria. Other Christian documents related to the Gospel of Peter and written or influenced by second- and third-century Jewish Christians, especially the Didascalia Apostolorum, show a similar combination of philo- and anti-Judaism. The Gospel's reference to the disciples fasting during the interim between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection may refer to the practice, attested in the Didascalia and elsewhere, of liturgical fasting for the Jews. Apocalypse of Peter 2, which was probably an original part of the Gospel, holds out hope for Israel's restoration. As the Akhmîm scribe excised this hopeful chapter from the Apocalypse, so he probably excised the hopeful ending of the Gospel, in which the risen Jesus commissioned the disciples to continue the work of separating the people from their recalcitrant leaders and thereby converting them to faith in the one they had crucified.

Scholarship on Matt 5.25–6 has focused on the question of whether the saying offers mundane wisdom or threatens divine judgement, with the majority concluding that it refers to eternal punishment in hell. This article examines debt-prison and related phenomena before turning to the illuminating history of ancient interpretation. The article concludes that the ‘eternal damnation’ gloss widely favoured today is an overinterpretation first inspired by the exigencies of fourth- and fifth-century doctrinal controversy. Instead of eternal perdition, Matt 5.25–6 and its parallels suggest a time of straits followed by possible release.

Commentators regularly note the alleged tension in John 15 between ‘friendship’ and ‘obedience’. This article employs numismatic inscriptional evidence to explore the ΦΙΛ- lexeme and more carefully denote the semantic domains of relevant terminology. This analysis confirms that no such tension exists within the socio-political context in which the Gospel was written. The inclusion of specific political terminology on Roman coins (for example, ΦΙΛΙΑ; ΦΙΛΟΚΑΙΣΑΡ; ΦΙΛΟΚΛΑΥΔΙΟΣ; ΦΙΛΟΡΩΜΑΙΟΣ; ΦΙΛΟΣΕΒΑΣΤΩΝ) was one way in which elite concepts of political friendship, evidenced in Cicero and Seneca, were communicated to the masses. In light of the numismatic evidence, the ΦΙΛ- lexeme can refer not only to the emotional bond of friendship, but also the dimension of obligation.

Lukan scholarship has paid attention to the ambivalent attitude towards the temple found in Stephen's speech. However, a coherent explanation of this ambivalence is still needed from within the narrative of Stephen's retold history of Israel itself. This study points to a pattern of connection between God's salvation and Israel's worship space captured in the Song of Moses, particularly Exod 15.17, as a sub-structure of the Lukan Stephen's basic understanding of Heilsgeschichte within which he integrates the stories of Abraham, exodus and David. The nature of Israel's worship space revealed in this scheme elucidates Stephen's ambivalent critique of the temple.

Recent studies have discussed Paul's letters against the backdrop of ancient Greek philosophy, particularly of Stoicism, Platonism and Cynicism. This article will take up the latter suggestion, as it shows significant similarities between Paul's argument in Rom 1–2 and the Cynic tradition, which is a neglected aspect in scholarly discussion. A comparison of Rom 1.18–32; 2.14–29 and the Cynic epistle Ps.-Diogenes, Epistula 28 will outline decisive assumptions and argumentative patterns that both letters have in common.

This essay supports the thesis that the Beloved Disciple is a purely literary character employed as a literary device of authentication recognisable during the late first and early second centuries CE. As evidence, three works are thoroughly compared with the Fourth Gospel in regard to their eyewitness appeals: Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana (a biography), the Wonders beyond Thule by Antonius Diogenes (a historiographical novel) and the Diary of the Trojan War (a revisionary history) attributed to Dictys of Crete. All three works are roughly contemporaneous with the Fourth Gospel and offer important insights into the sophisticated use of an eyewitness as a literary character to guarantee the (spiritual and moral) truth of a narrative.

This study explores the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, elucidating the details of Lazarus' worldly suffering – what it is that ails him, and whether the dogs are friends or fiends. Fresh evidence from the classical world is brought to bear, including medical texts, miracle stories and philosophical treatises, in addition to overlooked Jewish and Christian testimony. The results establish the plausibility of maladies unrelated to diseases or skin conditions, and reveal the dogs to be positive characters that highlight Lazarus' penury and the rich man's depravity. New avenues into several broader interpretive issues of the parable are explored.

The present paper offers a new interpretation of the three-clause reading of Jude 22–23 and demonstrates how Jude carries on the Jesus tradition by inverting the norms of invective. It is demonstrated that this interpretation is especially surprising given that the epistle follows many conventions of Greco-Roman invective. Given the character of invective, one would expect the writer to instruct the beloved to expel the ungodly from the community. Instead, Jude commands the beloved to ‘show mercy’ to the very ones with whom they contend (Jude 22), a profound reflection of Jude's understanding of mercy and faith.

The form of Paul's citation of Isa 28.16 and 8.14 in Rom 9.32–3 indicates not only that his source was an early Christian collection of stone texts but also that this collection followed a particular interpretation of Jesus’ death: Jerusalem's ruling class planned Jesus’ death because of his controversial approach to the law and the temple. Paul quotes these texts to help explain why unbelieving Israel has rejected the gospel. Like Israel's ruling elites, they have lost sight of the law's weightier matters. Punctuated correctly, 1 Thess 2.14–16 confirms this understanding of Rom 9.32–3.

This article compares the Apocalypse of Weeks with Galatians to examine whether the motif of creatio e contrario is apocalyptic. While reviewing the themes of revelation, salvation and eschatology in each text, it argues that creatio e contrario is absent from and theologically foreign to the Apocalypse; by contrast, this motif permeates Galatians, not because Paul retrieves it from the apocalypses but because for him the divine economy is shaped by the disjunctive, e contrario history of the crucified and risen Christ. Thus, creatio e contrario should be classified not as apocalyptic but as christomorphic.

The literary status of 1 Cor 5–7 is diversely considered in scholarly literature. Sometimes these chapters are seen as a stand-alone part of the letter, sometimes they are divided in separate blocks, chapters 5–6 on the one hand and chapter 7 on the other. However, an original approach that pays close attention to the structure of the text makes it possible to show the neat architecture of this larger textual unit. The concentric structure of the three chapters (A–B–A’) highlights their literary unity and stresses the significance of the central chapter, which correspondingly possesses the greatest theological density of the whole section.