Some ‘Western’ Variants in the Text of Acts

1928 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-145
Author(s):  
Benjamin W. Bacon
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Higher Criticism ◽  
Outstanding Problem ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
The Common

In his article published in the issues of the American Journal of Theology for January and April 1919 (Vol. XXIII), under the title ‘Fact and Fancy in Theories Concerning Acts,’ my respected colleague Professor Charles C. Torrey appears to resent my characterization as “philological” of the type of criticism displayed in his able articles. The term, however, bears no disparaging connotation, and was not so intended. It was, and will be, employed by the present writer simply to distinguish a particular mode of approach to this outstanding problem of New Testament criticism. The mode chosen by Torrey to the exclusion of all others is ‘philological,’ as distinguished from the mode exemplified in the ‘historical’ (or, as Torrey prefers to call it, the “theologico-conjectural”) type represented by such scholars as Harnack, Schürer, Windisch, Preuschen, Loisy, and others. The present reply to his strictures has been long delayed, awaiting Ropes's “Text of Acts” in Volume III of “The Beginnings of Christianity,” in which the long-debated question of the ‘Western’ Text is discussed with what may be hoped to be advance toward its settlement, If in the present essay the type of criticism which Torrey brings to the common problem is still designated ‘philological,’ it must be understood that the term implies no minimizing of Torrey's great attainments in the fields both of textual and higher criticism.

The Unity Of The Aramaic Acts

1918 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-335
Author(s):  
William Jerome Wilson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Common People ◽  
Interesting Contribution ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Book Of Acts

The most interesting contribution to New Testament criticism in recent times has come from a scholar in another field. Professor Torrey, a student of Semitics and particularly of the Aramaic, the language of the common people in Palestine before and after the Christian era, has propounded a new theory regarding the Book of Acts. Chapters 1 1b —15 35 are thought by him to have comprised an Aramaic book written about 49 or 50 A.D., which Luke later procured in Palestine and translated as faithfully as he was able, at the same time adding the remaining chapters himself in Greek on the basis of his own knowledge and investigation. The two parts of the book are accordingly designated I and II Acts, respectively. The evidence for the hypothesis is primarily linguistic. A striking series of Aramaisms and of mistranslations which can be plausibly corrected on the basis of the Aramaic, is found in I Acts, while in II Acts the reflections of Aramaic idiom are rare and instances of mistranslation are wholly lacking. The literature of the subject is not yet large, but a careful résumé and discussion of the new theory has appeared from the pen of Professor Foakes-Jackson. Since he questions the validity of Professor Torrey's more important deductions—conclusions whose correctness had been accepted almost without qualification by the present writer—a further consideration of their claims to credence may be permissible.

SUBSTANTIVE MORAL THEORY

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Pettit
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Moral Thinking ◽  
Scientific Thought ◽  
Moral Thought ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Common

Philosophy can serve two roles in relation to moral thinking: first, to provide a meta-ethical commentary on the nature of moral thought, as the methodology or the philosophy of science provides a commentary on the nature of scientific thought; and second, to build on the common presumptions deployed in people's moral thinking about moral issues, looking for a substantive moral theory that they might support. The present essay addresses the nature of this second role; illustrates it with substantive theories that equate moral obligations respectively with requirements of nature, self-interest, benevolence, reason and justifiability; and outlines a novel competitor in which the focus is shifted to requirements of co-reasoning and respect.

The Paradox of the Easy Yoke: A Survey of χρηστός in Greek Literature and the Interpretational Implications for Matthew 11:30

2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Clark Bates
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
First Century ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
Word Study ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Common ◽  
Apostolic Fathers

Matthew 11:30 could easily be considered one of the most recognizable passages of the New Testament. Many find comfort and fortitude in the words of Jesus, and warm to the idea that his ‘yoke’; is ‘easy’ and ‘burden’, ‘light’. However recognized and familiar this passage may be, it has not gone unnoticed throughout scholarship as a persistent word study in need of incessant explanation. While copious amounts of ink have been spilt discussing the nature of the ‘yoke’ in Matthew 11:30, it is the position of this article that the author of Matthew, had no intention of creating such a mystery. Rather, that the emphasis is to be found in the nature of the yoke itself and the attributive use of χρηστός in Greco-Roman literature, including that of the Greek Old Testament, and the writings of the first-century Christians. This article seeks to demonstrate that the use of χρηστός in the Matthean Gospel does not mean ‘easy’ by English standards, nor was this what the audience of this Gospel would have taken it to mean, given the common use of the term. This is accomplished through an engagement of the text and message of Matthew, followed by an examination of the word’s use in Classical Greek compositions and the Apostolic Fathers, as well as its use in the LXX and the New Testament.

The Johannine ‘Jews’: A Critical Survey

1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urban C. Von Wahlde
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Common People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The use of Ioudaioi in the Fourth Gospel (hereafter, FG) has attracted much scholarly attention. It is a consistent conclusion of such investigation that the term Ioudaioi in the gospel has a variety of meanings. It is also noted and generally agreed upon that one of the ways in which the term is used is unique to John among New Testament authors and indeed among ancient authors in general; it is this unique usage of Ioudaioi which has been the focus of the investigation. However if we look only at this peculiarly Johannine use of Ioudaioi we find that scholars have disagreed both about which texts within the gospel constitute this usage and also about the identity of the persons referred to by the term. Some authors have seen this usage as referring to the entire Jewish nation composed of both the common people and the narrower circle of religious authorities. Other scholars have considered the term to refer exclusively to religious authorities.

The Significance of the Ascension of Jesus Christ in the New Testament

1977 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 555-568
Author(s):  
B. K. Donne
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
The Third ◽  
German Scholar ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Subject ◽  
To Come ◽  
Ascent To Heaven

The theme of the Ascension of Jesus Christ is one of the most JL important in the New Testament, yet during the present century, very little theological attention has been given to it. Most of the published work has been in the form of articles in theological journals and commentaries, though J. G. Davies' Bampton Lectures entitled He Ascended into Heaven, published in 1958, were devoted to the subject, and later, there appeared, also in English, U. Simon's The Ascent to Heaven in 1961. Even H. B. Swete's The Ascended Christ, which first appeared in 1910 and was subsequently published in several editions until 1916, expresses the hope that the work might awaken a response to a renewed sense of the importance of this great Christian festival. His earlier writing, The Apostles' Creed in 1894, contains a chapter on the Ascension which was a spirited reply to the German scholar Harnack, who asserted that the Ascension had no separate place in the primitive tradition, and whose views considerably influenced the thought of New Testament scholarship for many years to come. This article seeks to make an assessment of what the present writer considers to be a subject of the utmost importance, both in regard to its theological significance in the New Testament, and in its relevance for contemporary Christian experience. The Scriptures declare that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, buried, and raised again the third day.

1 Cor 15:33

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-391
Author(s):  
John Granger Cook
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Question Mark ◽  
Critical Editions ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Common

Abstract NA28 and UBS5 identify the source of Paul’s statement in 1 Cor 15:33 as Menander, Thais, although NA28 puts a question mark after “Thais.” One can, however, demonstrate that the proverb originally came from Euripides. Consequently, future critical editions of the New Testament should include Euripides in the margin along with Menander and should probably make reference also to the mass of proverbs that were shared orally or in writing in the culture of antiquity. One can read 1 Cor 15:33 as a text of Euripides, Menander, or as an expression of the common wisdom of antiquity.

Anti-Imperial Rhetoric in the New Testament

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Diehl
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
First Century ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Interpretive Methods ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Common ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Common Era

The first of a series of three articles, this essay introduces current scholarship concerned with the use of anti-imperial rhetoric in the New Testament Gospels and the book of Acts. In the first century of the Common Era, if the powerful Roman Emperor was considered a god, what did that mean for the earliest Christians who committed loyalty to ‘another’ God? Was it necessary for the NT authors to employ subversive language, words and symbols, to conceal their true meanings from the imperial authorities in their communications to the first Christian communities? The answers to such key questions can give us a clearer picture of the culture, society and setting in which the NT was written. The purpose of this complex study is to observe how current biblical scholarship views anti-imperial rhetoric and anti-emperor implications found in the NT, assuming such rhetoric exists at all. This initial article reviews recent scholarship with respect to the background of the Roman Empire, current interpretive methods and research concerning anti-imperial rhetoric found in the NT Gospels and Acts.

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