Two Kinds of Love in the Story of the Paralyzed Man

Articles

Two kinds of love operate in the story of the paralyzed man. One kind of love is inclusive and redemptive, the other is exclusive and destructive. Which kind of love will prove victorious?

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The Seven Types of Pharisees and the Fear of God in the Synoptic Gospels

Articles, DB 85th Festschrift

Ancient Jewish sources attest to a debate over which motivation for keeping the commandments—fear or love—was most highly to be esteemed. This debate surfaces, among other places, in the Talmudic discussions of the seven types of Pharisees. These seven types and the debate over love versus fear illuminate important aspects of Jesus’ teaching.

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The Expectation of Sabbatical Redemption within Ancient Judaism and Luke-Acts

Articles, DB 85th Festschrift

Luke-Acts attests to the connection of the movements of John the Baptist and Jesus to ancient Jewish hopes of sabbatical redemption.

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Notes on the New Testament as a Witness for Broader Jewish Patterns in Jesus’ Times

Articles

This essay probes a number of Matthean and Lukan contributions to the shared Synoptic narrative, in search of possible reflections of contemporaneous Jewish customs and beliefs with broader circulation.

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Call of Levi

& LOY

In the Call of Levi story we learn about Jesus’ attitude toward sinful persons and about his relationship with the Pharisees.

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The Good Samaritan

Articles

The parable of the Good Samaritan came as a response to the lawyer’s question, “And who is my neighbor?” The lawyer wanted Jesus to draw a circle defining who is inside, and therefore the neighbor I must love, and who is outside. Jesus, by using Leviticus 19:34, ingeniously turned the lawyer’s question on its head.
This article is a sample chapter of Marc Turnage’s, Windows into the Bible: Cultural and Historical Insights into the Bible for Modern Readers (Springfield, Mo.: Logion, 2016), which will be released at the end of March 2016.

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“Treasure in Heaven”: Examining an Ancient Idiom for Charity

Articles

The growing value placed on charity in the first century C.E. cannot be overstated. As a new sensitivity developed within Judaism that challenged the compensatory “blessings and curses” paradigm of the Hebrew Bible (cf. Deut. 28) as a basis to serve God, so there was a shifting emphasis towards altruistic love embodied in the Levitical commandment, “…and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ אֲנִי יי; Lev. 19:18).”

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Jesus’ Place in First-century Judaism and His Influence on Christian Doctrine

Articles

The main aims of this contribution are, first, to show what Jesus’ place was among the various trends of the Judaism of his time and, second, to estimate the impact on Christianity of his teachings and of his life and death.

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Lord’s Prayer

& LOY Commentary

David Bivin and Joshua Tilton envision how the Lord’s Prayer might have been formulated in its original language and explore the ancient Jewish context to which the Lord’s Prayer belongs.

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