I love listening to the Bible read aloud, especially the Gospel of Mark. Over the last couple of years I have listened to Max McLean read the Gospel (ESV) over at biblegateway.com. But recently, my friend @bibhistctxt sent me a link to David Suchet, a British actor perhaps best known for playing the Belgian detective... Continue Reading →
Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 930. While it is probable...that some members of the Jewish hierarchy pressed Pilate to put Jesus to death (Mark 15:1, 3, 11), and while a revolutionary ringleader may have been released at about the same time that... Continue Reading →
Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 160-161. If the letter to the Romans is Paul's Ninth Symphony, Romans 11.11 begins its fourth movement, Paul's own "Ode to Joy." Alle Menschen werden Brüder, and the apostle, divining God's plan, knows how. Too many gentiles? No: more, in fact, will... Continue Reading →
J. David Woodington, "Crafting the Eschaton: The Second Death and the Lake of Fire in Revelation," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, vol 41 no 4 (2019), 508. The need to clarify what type of punishment the second death entails explains why John might have decided to identify this concept with a place... Continue Reading →
Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 890-891. The abomination of desolation [in Mark 13:14] is probably related to a desecration that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem. The occurrence that best fits the bill is the occupation of the Temple by the Zealots near... Continue Reading →
Martinus C. de Boer, Paul, Theologian of God’s Apocalypse: Essays on Paul and Apocalyptic (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020), 22. The story of [the] angelic fall is found or alluded to in much of the literature (1 En. 6-19; 64:1-2; 69:4-5; 86:1-6; 106:13-17; Jub. 4:15, 22; 5:1-8; 10:4-5; T. Reub. 5:6-7; T. Naph. 3:5; CD 2:17-3:1; 2... Continue Reading →
Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 115. Israel's god, in Jewish tradition, stands at the apex of humanity. The other elohim bow down to him; he alone is supreme. But his universality is ethnically inflected: this god chooses Israel from among all the other nations, setting them apart... Continue Reading →
Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 92-93. Until and unless we keep in view all of the social agents in Paul's world - not only its humans, but also its gods - we will misconstrue his reports of "persecution," both those he gave and those he got. Divine... Continue Reading →
Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 63-64. Paul's letters are instances of Greco-Roman rhetoric. The conventions of ancient epistolary style and the rhetorical tropes that Paul employs to persuade his hearers need to be taken into account when we try to interpret his letters. Of these, we must... Continue Reading →
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