How did the use of biblical traditions shape theology? Benjamin Wold focuses on allusions to traditions from Genesis in Musar leMevin from the Dead Sea Scrolls and explores implications for the document's understanding of women, men and angels. Cosmology and anthropology are conceived of in light of creation and ethical instruction provided on this basis. The nature of creation is reflected upon and alluded to in the document to educate and exhort the addressees about who they are and how they should live. The behaviour between the addressee and members of the family, society and angelic...

Taking seriously the Gospel as a unified narrative and the Gospel's late first-century Jewish setting, John Dennis investigates the Fourth Gospel's appropriation of Jewish restoration theology. Employing John 11.47-52 as the starting point, the author argues that one of the primary functions of restoration theology in John is to interpret Jesus' death in the light of Jewish restoration expectations. A new angle on Jesus' death in the Fourth Gospel emerges from this study: Jesus' death effects the restoration of Israel, the restoration that was engendered by the Prophets and expected by many...

Young S. Chae analyzes the puzzling association of the Son of David with Jesus' healing ministry in the First Gospel. This, along with the Gospel's rich shepherd/sheep images and the theme of the restoration of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, finds a significant clue in the picture of Jesus as the eschatological Davidic Shepherd according to the pattern of the Davidic Shepherd tradition in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism. As Matthew communicates the identity and mission of Jesus, he is conversant with this tradition, particularly Ezekiel 34 and 37 as well as Micah 2-5 and...

Guy Waters examines Paul's explicit quotations of Deut 27-30, 32, as well as his explicit, verbal references of Deuteronomy: texts that are not attended by a citation formula but are recognizably texts of Scripture because of substantial verbal correspondence between the Pauline text and the text of LXX in question. The author investigates whether these quotations and references evidence any particular pattern of reading, and what relationship Paul's readings bear to contemporary Second Temple Jewish readings of these chapters of Deuteronomy. He also analyzes the relationship to other early...

Modelled on the respective studies of Ernest C. Colwell and James R. Royse, Juan Hernandez Jr. offers a fresh and comprehensive discussion of the Apocalypse's singular readings in Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and Ephraemi. Moreover, the singular readings of the Apocalypse are also assessed in light of the work's reception history in the early church. The author shows that the scribes of these three manuscripts omitted more often than they added to their texts, were prone to harmonizing, and, in the case of at least one scribe, made significant theological changes to the fourth century text of...

The concept of God's power is a leading motif in Pauline theology. It functions in key passages of Paul's letters and is intrinsically linked to his theology of the cross and its soteriological explication in the message of justification. Because this concept is so closely related to the message of the cross, Paul often speaks of 'power' in a paradoxical context. Although 'power' is generally assumed to be an important motif in Pauline theology, the concept has not yet been fully explored.Petrus J. Grabe investigates the concept of God's power in Paul's letters. He also gives an overview of...

Erik Waaler takes a somewhat modified intertextual approach to the relationship between Jewish monotheism and Pauline Christology. His focus is on Paul's Christological reuse of Shema in 1Cor 8:1-6. He argues that the statement there is no God but one (8:4a) is a combined echo of Shema and the First Commandment, and that v. 4a might be associated with the Second Commandment. This fits with Paul's constant use of Deuteronomy in 1Cor 5-10. Admittedly first century non-Christian Jews did not use the term one about other beings together with the one God, thus combined phrases such as 'one God the...

The essays in this volume engage specific New Testament texts and theological doctrines through the lens of one or more of the following questions: Should systematic theology dominate biblical theology or the reverse? Should they form a partnership of equals? How would such a partnership function? Is theology necessary or harmful for exegesis? Should theological peculiarities in the New Testament be considered in exegetical study? The contributors include both systematic theologians and New Testament scholars, and each explores their respective topics with a concern for reconsidering the...