A number of motifs found in ancient Jewish accounts of the heavenly throne room appear in the Epistle to the Hebrews. These elements include the throne of God, the temple veil, the glory of God, and participation in angelic worship. Though in ancient Jewish texts they are all depicted as presenting nearly insurmountable obstacles to the presence of God, the author of Hebrews transforms these conceptions, and instead depicts them as encouraging, facilitating, and even ensuring access to a welcoming God. This is especially apparent in the passages promoting the author's ultimate hortatory goal: the community's entry into the heavenly sanctuary (2.5–10; 4.14–16; 6.18–20; 10.19–23; 12.22–24).

P. Antinoopolis 12 (Aland 0232), a miniature codex containing remnants of 2 John, was considered by C. H. Roberts to be our earliest copy of this short epistle (third century) and also evidence of an early Johannine corpus. However, upon closer examination, both of these claims appear to be problematic. This article will argue that P.Ant. 12 is most likely a fifth-century codex (not third) and that it was far too small to have carried the entire Johannine corpus. Although there is no combination of books that fits perfectly into this codex, the most plausible suggestion seems to be that P.Ant. 12 originally held the book of Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles.

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.

In the discussion of ‘identity’ in Paul's writings, the question whether the apostle holds to a view of salvation history is a controversial matter. The most important aspects of ‘identity’ play a part, however, in Galatians: namely the individual, the social, the mental and the habitual. In 1.6–2.14 the letter discusses a transformation in the life of the author; in 2.15–21 this is the case for Jewish (Christian) persons and in 3.1–6.17 for non-Jewish (Christian) ones. To be sure, the law is thereby relativized (see the enthymeme in 2.14b). The circumcision commandment should not to be forced upon non-Jewish (Christian) persons (see 5.2–6), because salvation is not mediated by ργα νόμου. After joining Christ (cf. 2.20; 3.18, 25; 4.7: οὐκτι), according to Paul, one has to take heed of the danger of a relapse, thus falling behind this event (cf. 2.18; 4.9b; 5.1: restitutive πάλιν). Furthermore, the apostle expects, astonishingly enough, a habitus of the addressees conforming to the law (see 5.14, 23b; 6.2). And the ‘Israel of God’ (compare especially Ps 127[128].6; 4QMMT C31–32; PapMur 42.7) even receives a peace greeting in 6.16. This view probably stands contrary to many exegetical expectations (due to the [purely] non-Jewish identities of Christians through many centuries).

The Arabic Diatessaron has often been neglected in research on the New Testament, and understandably so. It is, indeed, a late and remote witness, written in a language that does not belong to the usual outfit of most theologians. Moreover, its text sometimes presents readings that are not easy to explain. One of these readings occurs in the Transfiguration Narrative and has found its way into the apparatus of the large Oxford edition of Luke's Gospel. This short study is an attempt to evaluate this variant reading and to clarify its origin.

The Epistle of James is not commonly seen in relation to early Christian common meals. At the same time, the work is preoccupied with the common life of an early Christian community, which in turn was, generally speaking, closely related to the way in which it celebrated its meals. In other words, ethics, ecclesiology, and etiquette were closely related. Based on this consideration, this essay attempts to relate aspects of the epistle to symposiastic conventions as they were known in the first-century Mediterranean world.

1 Peter 2.4–10 is a significant passage within the letter, rich in material from the Jewish scriptures. Verse 9 is particularly significant for the construction of Christian group-identity in that it uniquely applies three words from the vocabulary of ethnic identity to the Church: γένος, ἔθνος, and λαός, widely translated as ‘race’, ‘nation’, and ‘people’. A survey of these words in pre-Christian Jewish literature (especially the LXX), in the NT, and in other early Christian literature, reveals how crucial this text in 1 Peter is to the process by which Christian identity came to be conceived in ethnoracial terms. Drawing on modern definitions of ethnic identity, and ancient evidence concerning the fluidity of ethnic identities, it becomes clear that ‘ethnic’ and ‘racial’ identities are constructed, believed, and sustained through discourse. 1 Peter, with both aggregative and oppositional modes of ethnic reasoning, makes a crucial contribution to the construction of an ethnic form of Christian identity.

This article argues that ‘the commandment’ in 1 Timothy 6.13–14 refers to almsgiving. This shows that verses 11–16 are not an intrusion into a discussion of the proper use of wealth, but an integral part of the author's argument in 6.6–19.