The importance of purity legislation and the ‘separateness’ that it implied within Second Temple Judaism confirms the significance of the renewed interest in purity issues in ‘historical Jesus’ research. The relevance of John the Baptist's ‘baptism’ is less clear than at first appears. But that Jesus himself shared at least some purity priorities is implied by Mark 1.44 and by his ‘cleansing of the Temple’. Yet he also sat loose to the purity halakhoth regarding clean and unclean and table-fellowship, which suggests that Jesus did not regard such concerns as central to the definition of Israel and its practice.

In several NT passages an audience is urged to be ready for the parousia of Christ, which will come upon them ‘like a thief in the night’. This image plays upon a common stock of cultural lore regarding the nocturnal activities of house burglars. A review of the evidence suggests that poor people and women had the most to fear from burglars. For them, the idea of Jesus coming ‘like a thief in the night’ might have induced feelings of fear rather than anticipation. In the case of women, the image may have functioned as a means of social control.

Many current Matthean scholars argue that Matthew employs the phrase ‘kingdom of heaven’ as a circumlocution for the divine name. However, by analysing the author's rhetorical and sociological strategies one finds that ‘kingdom of heaven’ combines with other ‘heavenly’ language (especially ‘Father in heaven’) to reaffirm the readers' identity as the true people of God. This language defends Jesus as a Davidic messiah, showing that he came to establish a heavenly, not earthly, kingdom. Furthermore, the ‘heavenly’ language reinforces the disciples' commitment to Jesus in the midst of persecution, reminding them that their identity, affirmation, and goal are in heaven.

Die Thematik Verus Israel im Blick auf Paulus zu behandeln, ist schwierig – schon weil er ein solches Syntagma nicht gebraucht, für den Sachverhalt vielmehr andere Termini verwendet. Außerdem ist der Ausdruck Verus Israel insofern unscharf, als dabei an wirkliche Juden oder (auch) an Nicht-Juden gedacht werden kann. Der Beitrag schlägt eine ‘mengentheoretische’ Neubeschreibung des Befundes vor, die hier deutlich unterscheidet. Dabei zeigt sich: Der Apostel dürfte bei der Wortfamilie um 'Ισραηλ, im Unterschied zu anderen Zusammenhängen (‘Jude’; ‘Beschneidung’; Abrahamskindschaft; ‘Volk Gottes’), die Grenze zwischen Juden und Nicht-Juden nicht überschreiten (auch in Gal 6.16 nicht) – in Übereinstimmung mit den traditionsgeschichtlichen Daten.

In the much-studied ethical thinking of Paul one aspect has been overlooked: the impact of role thinking. In his letters Paul assigns to the Christians several roles taken from social life, among which the sibling (brother/sister) role has a central position. Paul's frequent and often pointed use of sibling terminology shows that he employs ideas generally associated with social/biological siblingship in order to characterise and influence his co-Christians' attitudes and actions. By doing this, he reinforces and broadens the motivational basis for his ethics, and introduces elements which in important ways shape both its character and its content.

Although scholars have long been aware of syntactical difficulties in Rom 1.13–15, few have approached the problem by challenging the established punctuation. Readings of the text by some earlier interpreters, e.g. Origen of Alexandria, indicate that there may be good reasons to do so. In this article it is argued that current readings of Rom 1.13–15 are based on inaccurate punctuation and syntax. A different punctuation of the passage is suggested, upon which a more plausible reading is based. This reading may, in turn, have some significance for the interpretation of Romans as a whole.

How did Paul preach during his initial missionary visits? An analysis of Galatians' explicit and implicit references to Paul's original preaching shows that there he had initially ignored the Law, and probably had little to say about community order and conduct. The analysis also sheds some light on subsequent events. Apparently the Jewish Christian missionaries who followed Paul compromised on their own observance of the Law, joining the Gentile Christians at meals (as Peter had done at Antioch); they did not understand Paul's position on the Law and did not attack him directly.

Scholarly consensus generally assumes that the Gospel of the Ebionites as preserved by Epiphanius is either a harmony of the Synoptic Gospels or excerpted mainly from Matthew. A synopsis of the texts, however, demonstrates that the Epiphanius quotations show stronger affinity with Luke than with Matthew or Mark. Indeed, the evidence suggests that Epiphanius's references to the Gospel of the Ebionites are not excerpted from Luke, but rather from a Greek translation of the elusive Hebrew Gospel attested by a number of church fathers, and thus one of the sources of Luke mentioned in the prologue of his Gospel.

Recently, Christopher M. Tuckett offered in this journal a careful and incisive study of the question whether the scribe of P52 (PRyl 457) employed the nomina sacra forms. The extant text contains no words that were commonly abbreviated as such, though missing portions of the fragment would have contained three instances (lines 2, 5, 7) of the name ‘Jesus’. Tuckett concluded with C. H. Roberts's original opinion (later changed) that the abbreviations were probably not used in P52.Christopher M. Tuckett, ‘P52 and Nomina Sacra’, NTS 47 (2001) 544–8. I would like to call attention here to several factors which have a bearing on the question and which I believe balance the issue, or perhaps even tip the scales of probability a bit the other way.