The cryptic phrase “brood of vipers” (γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν), in Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33 and Luke 3:7, stands out as a shocking rebuke by both John the Baptizer and Jesus of the religious leaders of their day. This metaphor, portraying them as the offspring of venomous snakes, certainly points to their evil spiritual nature. When this … Read more
Jesus’ ministry in Luke is often understood against the background of an eschatological Jubilee “release” (ἀφεσις). His use of Isa 61 in the Nazareth synagogue address (Luke 4) is combined with subsequent enactments of ἀφεσις (both physical and spiritual) to form the basis for such an understanding. Recently, Logan Williams has argued (in JSNT 46.2) … Read more
James W. Barker, in Writing and Rewriting the Gospels (Eerdmans, 2025), has challenged the view that the Gospel of John developed independently from the Synoptic Gospels. By arguing that John was written with full literary awareness of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and is meant to be read in light of them, Barker opens a fresh … Read more
Scholars have long debated the precise nature of the “sin unto death” in 1 John 5:16-17. Commentators regularly note that certain Old Testament sins led to the death penalty (see for example, Smalley, Word Biblical Commentary, 2007), but they usually dismiss these capital sins as the Old Testament context for John’s “sin unto death.” Instead, … Read more
Habakkuk’s woe song in Hab. 2:6-20 denounces the abuse of power in his context, while using the foundations of and allusions to other Scriptures. This paper analyzes those connections to examine the Habakkuk’s methods of communicating ethics in the late 7th century BC, based on texts that were still applicable to God’s people. While communicating … Read more
This paper argues that the gender pairs in Jesus’ teachings and the narratives in the Gospel of Matthew have OT precedents in terms of the structure and content of OT male/female pairs, which build upon the concept from Gen 1:27. While the pairs in Luke have been mentioned by some scholars, the gender pairs in … Read more
Martin Noth hypothesized the literary unity of the work of the Chronicler in creating the combined work of Chronicles and Ezra/Nehemiah. That hypothesis began to be undone in the work of Sara Japhet and others. Not only has it become commonplace now to question the unity of authorship of the two works–Chronicles and Ezra/Nehemiah–but it … Read more
In a debate between Jesus and the Sadducees about the rising of the dead, the Synoptics narrativize Christ rebuffing sect members for their non-resurrection-theology in Matthew 22:23-33, Mark 12:18-27, and Luke 20:27-40. Jesus asserts that God is the God not of the dead but of the living in these accounts. Indeed, from Jesus’ standpoint, God … Read more
In recent discussions on Hebrews and Hermeneutics, one of the sticking points concerns how reading the author’s appropriation of the Old Testament in relation to various contexts skews a more theological, specifically Christological, ‘backward’ reading. The current paper explores recent attempts at explicating the hermeneutics of Hebrews, particularly interfacing with both Graham Hughes’ older proposals … Read more
Viticulture imagery occurs prominently throughout the Bible and Second Temple Literature as a symbol for Israel (e.g., Isa 5:7; Ps 80:8; Jer 2:21; Philo, Dreams 2.172). Brown (2008) argues that John creatively repurposes the OT viticulture imagery for his unique Christology (Jn 15), while Thompson (2015, p. 324) sees John picking up on Isaiah’s “prophetic … Read more