There are three occurrences of the phrase πραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου in John (1.28; 3.26; and 10.40) at a location identified in 1.28 (problematically) as Bethany. The significance of the phrase and location is developed first by exploring Bethany as Bashan via Micah 7.14–15, Jer 50.19–20 and Ps 68, and secondly by considering the significance of ‘crossing the Jordan’ in the OT and 1QS. The gospel is shown to invert the traditional motif; for John one finds life with God in Jesus by crossing the Jordan out of Israel, to Bashan, indicating an unexplored symbol in the Fourth Gospel.

Arguments for the Q hypothesis have changed little since B. H. Streeter. The purpose of this article is not to advocate an alternative hypothesis but to argue that, if the Q hypothesis is to be sustained, the unlikelihood of Luke's dependence on Matthew must be demonstrated by a systematic and comprehensive reconstruction of the redactional procedures entailed in the two hypotheses. The Q hypothesis will have been verified if (and only if) it generates a more plausible account of the Matthean and Lukan redaction of Mark and Q than the corresponding account of Luke's use of Mark and Matthew.

The growing recognition that Judaism and Hellenism were not mutually exclusive suggests that Paul should be studied from a point beyond the Judaism/Hellenism divide. After attending to the apostle's own multiculturality, the relevance and implications of the ‘beyond’ position are assessed by means of an enquiry into Paul's use of charis and ecclesia. In both instances, intercultural convergence is indicated. However, the farewell to a dichotomous point of departure does not imply the denial of all distinctiveness. Studying the biblical documents from the ‘beyond’ position opens up new vistas and holds great promise for future NT research.

Comment l'identité narrative de Jésus se décline-t-elle dans l'évangile selon Marc? La question est traitée en quatre étapes, à commencer par un examen de l'impact christologique des limites du récit marcien, son prologue et sa finale suspendue. Dans un deuxième temps, l'attention se porte sur le développement de l'intrigue de situation à partir des actions du protagoniste et des réactions qu'elles suscitent. En troisième lieu, l'intrigue de révélation et l'évolution des manières de désigner Jésus est analysée. Enfin, sous mode de synthèse, l'hypothèse est avancée d'une christologie ‘mystique’ de Marc, hypothèse préférée à la théorie devenue classique du secret messianique.

Scholars continue to divide over whether John the Baptist acclaims Jesus as ‘the Son of God’ or ‘the Chosen One of God’ at John 1.34. This article argues that transcriptional and intrinsic probabilities, supported by the testimony of a few early manuscripts, favour the latter reading. However, in adopting this reading, the claims that (a) the variation took place in the course of a battle against adoptionism and (b) ‘the Chosen One of God’ supplies corroboration that the original tradition underlying the Synoptic baptismal accounts was based solely on Isa 42.1, are found to be unnecessary and methodologically problematic respectively.

This essay explores the heuristic force of Alain Badiou's theory of ‘truth-processes’ for an understanding of the psycho-social effect of Paul's gospel upon first-century inhabitants of the Roman Empire, both elite and lower class. Badiou's analysis of the ‘situated void’ around which existence is constructed directs attention to figures of the subject as ‘living death’ in the literature of the first century, illuminating the process by which a new, liberated self came forth, in response to Paul's message of the resurrection. An immanent critique of Badiou's singular emphasis upon the resurrection as the Pauline ‘truth-event’ gives rise to an hypothesis regarding Paul's description of his gospel as ‘Christ crucified’ in his later epistles: Paul dared to name the ‘situated void’ around which the existence of slaves was constructed in order to redeem the oppressed, whose identities were submerged in shame, from the annihilating power of the cross.

This essay offers a critique of recent works that claim for the author of Acts a high level of rhetorical sophistication. The paper attempts to begin to fill a gap in Acts studies by exploring two skills of the curriculum of tertiary rhetorical education and asking how these are exemplified in the curriculum itself. In this way an attempt is made to provide a more sophisticated parallel reading, one that avoids shell comparisons that can often lead to distortion. The two skills explored are intertextuality from the Greek classics and speech construction. It is suggested that—from the perspective of the rhetorical curriculum—the author of Acts probably lacked a rhetorical education.

L'article analyse la tension, repérable dans quelques passages du premier Évangile, entre l'obéissance aux commandements se situant à l'intérieur du cadre donné par la Loi, et la radicalisation à laquelle invite le Jésus matthéen. L'enquête débute par une exégèse détaillée de Mt 5, 17–20. Dans un second temps, elle s'intéresse à trois épisodes où la tension entre obéissance et radicalisation est apparente: les antithèses du Sermon sur la Montagne (5, 17–48); la controverse sur le divorce (19, 1–9); l’épisode du jeune homme riche (19, 16–22). Dans une troisième partie, l'interrogation porte sur la cohérence des passages analysés avec la déclaration de Jésus en Mt 23, 2–3. Il résulte de l'enquête le constat que le référent du premier Évangile s'est déplacé: la colonne vertébrale structurant la théologie de Matthieu—et donc son identité religieuse—n'est plus prioritairement la Loi et l'obéissance aux commandements, mais le Messie et son enseignement.

There is no consensus on the meaning of the syntagm ἔργα νόμου (in the discussion on the New Perspective on Paul). The main question is: Does the expression refer to halakhot or (so recently O. Hofius) to deeds? In the first case, according to Paul, justification does not depend on a system of regulations (in particular not on ‘boundary markers’), in the second case justification does not depend on the (good) works of individuals. Meanwhile a considerable group of scholars advocates the halakhot interpretation, and for instance Gal 3.10 supports it (τά γεγραμμένα, αὐτά). Diachronic arguments which, however, should not only consider the nomen regens (ἔργα) are to be added (see Apk 2.26; TestLev XIX.1; 4QMMT C27; yQid 63d). The Pauline references can be understood much better under this assumption, and it does not mean to undermine the ‘Lutheran’ emphasis on forgiving of sin and on Christ (see Gal 2.16–17). But now it is easier to take into account the apostle's positive statements concerning the law (see Rom 8.4) and concerning the judgement ‘according to the deeds of a person’ (see Rom 2.6).

Nicodemus is an enigmatic literary character who is wavering in no man's land in John's narrative between Jesus' opponents and his true disciples. Some scholars have taken Nicodemus as an example of someone of inadequate faith who remains an outsider throughout the narrative, while others have traced his development from initial and tentative faith to open and public commitment to Jesus. The present article, however, agrees with those who have acknowledged that no single trait determines Nicodemus's portrait, but, in the end, this portrait remains ambiguous. In the article, a text-centered approach to Nicodemus is complemented by asking how this ambiguous literary character may have functioned as a symbol for those who shared John's dualistic tendencies. The article draws upon the social identity approach in order to explain how Nicodemus's ambiguity may have helped the Johannine Christians to accept the uncertainties in their social environment without abandoning the stereotyped and fixed thrust in their symbolic world.

Traditional Protestant accounts of Paul's theology are often criticized for their inability to relate justification by faith and the participatory categories of Paul's thought. The two are driven apart by sharp distinctions between declaring and making righteous, between justification as a once for all external act and regeneration as an internal lifelong process. The way is left open for justification to be treated as a legal fiction. Contrary to popular misconceptions, these difficulties do not stem from Martin Luther. In his exegesis of Paul, Luther intimately connects justification by faith and participation in Christ, integrating the two effectively. This article explores the manner in which Luther does so, evaluating his exegetical conclusions and assessing their relevance for contemporary attempts to interpret Paul's theology.

Although the term ‘rewritten Bible’ has been used primarily of postbiblical Jewish retellings of the Hebrew Bible, the phenomenon which it describes extends to the present day, and pertains to the NT as well as the Hebrew Bible. This paper examines two examples of ‘rewritten Gospel’—Dorothy Sayers's play cycle, The Man Born to Be King (1941–2) and Sholem Asch's novel, The Nazarene (1939)—in order to argue that such postcanonical Jesus narratives should be of interest to NT scholarship just as ‘rewritten Bible’ is of interest to scholars of the Hebrew Bible.

Crete is rarely taken seriously as a plausible actual destination for the NT letter to Titus. Investigation of Roman Crete, however, yields intriguing points of contact with puzzling features of the letter. Patterns of social organisation on the island correlate closely to the structure of behavioural instruction in Titus 2.1–10, suggesting that it might have been shaped specifically to that environment. Unusual elements of the major theological statements in Titus correspond to aspects of Cretan religion in ways that could represent intentional engagement. There are implications for identifying the letter's provenance and interpreting it as a missionary document.

In 1 Cor 10.14–22 Paul warns his readers to refrain from idolatry. In order to convince his readers he calls attention to the unity and solidarity which exist between worshippers of the same religion. In this context he uses the terms κοινωνία and κοινωνός (vv. 16, 18, and 20). In v. 17 Paul tells his readers that at their joint meals they are ‘partners’, this time expressed by the term μετέχειν. In the light of ancient parallels, it is concluded that the references to κοινωνία in v. 16 (cf. vv. 18 and 20) should be understood ecclesiologically, denoting ‘partnership’ rather than ‘participation’.

This essay argues that the traditional dichotomy between ‘apocalypticism’ and philosophy should be transcended with regard to Paul's understanding of the pneuma in relation to sarx. The essay first analyses the cosmology of the pneuma in connection with the future resurrection of believers (1 Cor 15.35–50), then considers its presence in the bodies of believers here and now (2 Corinthians 3–5), then interprets the ‘anthropology’ of 1 Thess 5.23 and 1 Cor 2.14–15 and 15.44 and its connection with Paul's ‘ethics’, and finally proposes a reading of Rom 8.1–13 in relation to 7.7–25 that is based on Paul's concrete cosmology.

Die These des Beitrags ist, dass die Wendung ‘ὡς δι᾽ ἡμῶν’ in 2 Thess 2.2 nicht als direkter Hinweis auf den 1 Thess zu verstehen sei, sondern dass sich hier vielmehr der pseudonyme Verfasser mit einer nicht mehr erhaltenen brieflichen Fehlinterpretation des 1 Thess auseinandersetzt und sich so indirekt um eine ‘richtige’ Deutung des 1 Thess bemüht. Im Unterschied zu 2 Thess 2.2 ist 2 Thess 2.15 als direkter Hinweis auf die—nach Meinung des Verfassers—‘richtige’ Paulus-Lehre, d.h. den 1 Thess oder den vorliegenden 2 Thess, zu verstehen. Mit dieser These schlägt der Artikel zugleich eine differenzierte Typologie der paulinischen und pseudo-paulinischen Diskurse vor.

This paper offers a detailed investigation of the LXX texts underlying the seven OT citations in Hebrews chapter 1, taking account of significant twentieth-century manuscript discoveries and recent developments in the field of Septuagintal Studies. The findings are then related to the study of the use of the OT in the NT more generally, and to some important current issues in the study of the LXX, such as the value of Lucianic readings. This investigation supports the growing consensus that the author of Hebrews reproduced his scriptural citations faithfully, so that the burden of proof should now rest with those who argue for a deliberate alteration of his source.

Hebrews 2.14–15 goes beyond the epistle's cultic symbolism and embeds its image of Christ in a poly-mythic framework, thereby illuminating its existential relevance. Faith enables the believer to see through death in order to cope with fear of death. The author does not reflect explicitly on anxiety about death but integrates it into the Christ drama, thus inspiring his addressees to transform their conceptualization of self and purpose (‘terror management’). Arousing eschatological fear of judgment (6.4–8; 10.26–31; 12.16–17) forms part of the deliberative rhetorical strategy. Immediately subsequent to the warnings, the addressees are guided to the opposite emotion of hope. To postulate a theological perpetuum (exclusion of ‘second repentance’) on the basis of a pathetic temporale would be to miss the emotion-centred guidance of the hearer, the rhetorical truth game, and the pragmatic intention of Hebrews.

The route of Paul's first journey between Perga and Pisidian Antioch is still disputed. This article examines the three alternatives proposed by scholars. It explores the geographical and historical evidence for each route, looking especially at the extensive road system that existed in Pamphylia, Pisidia, and south Galatia in the first century. Bible atlases routinely depict one route and the reasons for this choice are discussed. Based on a review of the evidence, a fresh hypothesis for the route of the first journey is suggested.

This article proposes that the variant Βαλαάκ in the 72 text of Jude 11 be read in light of theological tendency in the Bodmer codex, especially as evidenced in the christological variants of 72. Initially, scholarly opinion dismissed the ‘Balaak’ reading as nothing more than an inexperienced copyist's careless mistake. Though recognizing the older view to be unsatisfactory, recent explanations are also inadequate. Given neutral or positive traditions about Balaam in Judaism, and in the context of the early Christian belief that the Spirit of Christ inspired the OT Prophets (including Balaam), the article makes a case for reevaluation of the variant.