The New Testament: A Guide

This work addresses the question of why the New Testament is considered a sacred text by Christians. While sharing some characteristics of an Introduction to the New Testament, this work has a very different purpose. While for many the New Testament is respected as an interesting and influential ancient first-century text, for believing Christians the New Testament bears perennial normative religious authority. After exploring the content, the historical roots, and the complex process that led to the composition of the varied writings contained in the New Testament, this study turns to the fundamental unifying purpose of the New Testament writings as religious proclamations in various literary forms of the inherently transcendent character of Jesus Christ and the implications of that proclamation for the lives and destiny of both individual Christians and the Christian community itself. It is this defining characteristic that underwrites the sacred character of the New Testament for Christians. A key process was the formation of the New Testament canon during the early centuries of the Christian era which certified the normative nature of the New Testament writings and fused them onto the Jewish Scriptures or Old Testament to form the Christian Bible. The study concludes by sketching the evolution and ongoing diversity of New Testament interpretation both in the academy and in the church.

3. The making of the Bible

‘The making of the Bible’ discusses the process whereby different books came to be included in the various Bibles (a term first used by the Churches) which are now accepted as authoritative (canonical) by various religious communities, Jewish and Christian. This process is often referred to as the canonization of scripture. It is important to look first at the formation of the Hebrew Bible and its Greek version, the Septuagint. While the Septuagint started life as a translation for Jews living in the Diaspora, it was subsequently taken up by the Christian community as the medium through which the Old Testament was known in the Church. The language of the Septuagint also influenced many of the writers of the Christian New Testament. The authoritative writings of the Christian Church were in the first instance largely identical with the Jewish scriptures. It is valuable to consider the process whereby Christian writings, principally letters and gospels, were collected and recognized as authoritative alongside other Jewish writings.

The conversions of ʿAbdallāh ibn Salām (d. 43/633): A legendary moment in the biography of Muḥammad's Jewish companion

The Jewish scholar ʿAbdallāh b. Salām is a legendary figure from early Islam who is regarded in Islamic tradition as the archetypal Jewish convert to Islam during the Prophet's career, the pre-eminent authority on Jewish scriptures in seventh-century Arabia, and a renowned Companion. This study examines the traditions on Ibn Salām's conversion that were recorded in the biographical literature and Quranic commentaries of classical Islam and identifies the literary tropes from Muḥammad's biography featured in these traditions. Scrutiny of the evidence shows that the reports on the date and circumstances of Ibn Salām's conversion were shaped by a number of factors, including, the biases of his descendants, Quranic exegesis, and anti-Jewish polemics. Ibn Salām's legendary conversion served as a vehicle for diverse groups of Muslims to promote their doctrines and supply the Prophet with Biblical legitimacy.

The Epistle of Jeremiah

The Epistle of Jeremiah, one of the shortest extant deutero-canonical writings, offers a strong critique of idolatry, describing it as the worship of impotent and lifeless idols. This article explores the theology of the text, as well as significant aspects of its composition and literary structure, engaging with it as a genuine letter, an example of a well-attested and authoritative form of communication among Diaspora Jews. It highlights in particular the epistle’s pervasive connections with the Jewish scriptures, arguing that, despite its brevity and perceived lack of originality, it offers valuable insights into the exegetical techniques and principles characteristic of the Second Temple period.

Marcion’s Gospel and its Use of the Jewish Scriptures

Despite the popular notion of Marcion’s outright rejection of the Jewish Scriptures, his gospel draws on those Scriptures not infrequently. While this might appear inconsistent with Marcion’s theological thought, a pattern is evident in the way his gospel uses Scripture: On the one hand, Marcion’s gospel includes few of the direct, marked quotations of Scripture known from canonical Luke, and in none of those cases does Jesus himself fulfill Scripture. On the other hand, Marcion’s gospel includes more frequent indirect allusions to Scripture, several of which imply Jesus’ fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. This pattern suggests a Marcionite redaction of Luke whereby problematic marked quotes were omitted, while allusions were found less troublesome or simply overlooked due to their implicit nature.

Citations in the New Testament

The New Testament and the Septuagint share a bound fate in their common reception. Indeed, the Septuagint functions as the great predecessor text that serves as an ‘encyclopaedia’ for the authors of the New Testament, and so makes sense of many distinctive modes of expression and theological concepts which the earliest Christian authors employ. This chapter surveys the New Testament’s debt to the Septuagint’s language, ideas, and canon, then goes on to offer a brief overview of the individual writings of the New Testament from the perspective of their use of the Greek Jewish Scriptures.

Suicide in the Jewish scriptures

The Jewish scriptures and the commentaries of the scriptures throughout history present a very complex approach towards suicide. There is a categorical prohibition against suicide, but also an obligation to submit to death when there is an external coercion to transgress Jewish laws that pertain to the essence of the faith. Talmudic sages have shown a psychological and empathic understanding of the suicidal state of mind, but they have harshly condemned suicide and punished it by omissions of certain religious rituals for the dead. Yet, Jewish law defines suicide in a very minimalistic way, so it is very rare that a death is defined as a suicide. Inherent in this approach is the attempt to avoid further suffering by the family, to show respect for the frailty of the human being, but at the same time, to condemn self-destructive behaviour.

Erma e la sacra Scrittura giudaica. Una nota di precisazione

The aim of this paper is to reconsider a recent hypothesis of M. Simonetti on Hermas and the Jewish scriptures.

Trojan Horses: The Counterintuitive Use of Dinah, Helen, and Goliath in Joseph and Aseneth

A primary theme of the first story in Joseph and Aseneth (Jos. Asen. 1–21) is the conversion of an Egyptian to the worship of the living God, motivated by romantic attraction. In this respect, Joseph and Aseneth is one among many ancient novelistic writings to use a story about intermarriage, in this case the marriage of a Hebrew to an Egyptian, as a means to explore themes related to hybridity. Though different in tone, I propose that the second story (Jos. Asen. 22–29) is equally concerned with hybridity and that it can likewise be read as expressing an intercultural sensibility that is open to gentile incorporation and intermarriage through its imitation—and subversion—of literary models from two different cultural domains, the Jewish Scriptures (the rape of Dinah; the slaying of Goliath) and classical Greek literature (the abduction of Helen).

Samuel Fisher’s Letter to the Jews: ‘To All the House of Jacob’

In the 1650s, Samuel Fisher addressed an undated letter ‘To All the House of Jacob’, inviting Jews to attend to the light in their hearts. Composed in Hebrew, it consists almost entirely of allusions to the Jewish Scriptures or Christian Old Testament, much of it organised by clusters of images drawn from biblical sources. The letter is a call to repentance, drawing on the threats of divine wrath, particularly from the Psalms and the prophets. Since no English translation from Samuel Fisher’s time is known, one is offered here.