Digital Commons Network^™

Portrayals Of The Pharisees And The Sadducees In The Qumran Texts And Josephus, Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

The accuracy of Josephus's portrayals of the three major schools of Jewish thought, namely the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, continues to be the subject of scholarly debate. A related issue is whether he accurately portrayed the relationships between theses haireseis and the Hasmoneans. This paper uses a variety of Qumran texts often ignored in Josephus studies to suggest that Josephus correctly described political and religious alliances between the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the members of the Hasmonean royal family.

Justification By Faith According To The Old Testament: In The Footsteps Of The Reformers, Richard M. Davidson

Faculty Publications

Martin Luther asserted that “if we lose the doctrine of justification, we lose simply everything.” Luther believed that justification is “the article with and by which the church stands, without which it falls.” In the preface to his Forty-Five Theses drawn up in 1537, Luther makes this impassioned plea: “The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines; it preserves and governs all Church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God. Without this article the world is utter death and darkness.” John Calvin considered the doctrine of …

Ministry Without Borders: Insights From The New Testament, Katelyn Campbell, Boubakar Sanou, Hyveth Williams

Faculty Publications

On the basis of the evidences surveyed above, although there is functional distinction among the laos of God, if we consider the body imagery given to the church and the variety of spiritual gifts (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12–14 and Ephesians 4), there should be no status, gender, class or hierarchical distinction, because all believers and ministries are equal before God (Acts 10:34; Galatians 3:26–28). While the clergy/ laity hierarchical distinction is embedded and assumed in religious circles, it cannot be found in the New Testament. Rather than being the activity of a spiritual aristocracy or the work of a …

All Kindreds Shall Be Blessed: Nephite, Jewish, And Christian Interpretations Of The Abrahamic Covenant, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

A review of current and traditional scholarship regarding the covenant God made with Abraham combined with a thorough review of Book of Mormon references shows that the Nephite understanding varies in important ways from traditional Christian and Jewish interpretations. However, some of the insights of contemporary scholarship are more compatible with the Book of Mormon perspective.

The Ancient Doctrine Of The Two Ways And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Scholars have long recognized that a number of ancient cultures shared a traditional doctrine of the Two Ways that could be used to instruct youth and others in the right way to live their lives. While the language of the Two Ways surfaces on occasion in both the Old and New Testaments, the doctrine is not developed or explained in any detail in the Bible. However, noncanonical texts of the Greco-Roman period display a highly developed and stylized form of the doctrine in both Jewish and Christian traditions. The earliest known version of these stylized forms of the doctrine occurs …

Understanding The Abrahamic Covenant Through The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Interpretation of God's covenant to Abrahamic and its promised fulfillment varies across scholarly and religious writings. The Book of Mormon emphasizes this covenant and the promise that through Abraham all the kindreds of the earth will be blessed. It also features a unique interpretation--that the covenant will be fulfilled as the Book of Mormon itself, a record of the seed of Joseph, is given first to the Gentiles, and then to house of Israel.

Marcion’S Gospel And The Resurrected Jesus Of Canonical Luke 24, Daniel A. Smith

Faculty Publications

From the publisher's website:

"New reconstructions of Marcion’s Gospel, which are considerably more sophisticated than past attempts, allow more certainty when comparing Marcion’s text with canonical Luke. This essay examines the presentations of the resurrected Jesus in canonical Luke and Marcion’s Gospel, with a particular focus on the text-critical problems in Luke 24 (especially the shorter Western readings) and on the distinctive ways the two texts theorize Jesus’ risen bodily presence (especially the terms φάντασμα and πνεῦμα, and σάρξ and ὀστέα). Parallel evidence from the letters of Ignatius indicates that the emphasis on touching Jesus, who has …

The Wedding At Cana (John 2:1-11): Reading The Text In The Cultural Context Of Ephesus, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Babylon And New Jerusalem In The Book Of Revelation: Imagery And Ethical Discernment., Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Image Of The Beast From The Land (Rev 13, 11-18): A Study In Incongruity, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Image Of The Beast From The Land (Rev 13, 11-18): A Study In Incongruity., Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Who Speaks For (Or Against) Rome? Acts In Relation To Empire, Matthew L. Skinner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Genre, Theology, And The God Of The Psalms, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Old Testament And The Neighbor, Rolf A. Jacobson, Karl Jacobson

Faculty Publications

The dispute between Jesus and the legal expert in Luke over the question of “the neighbor” was certainly not a new conflict. It is possible to understand the Lucan exchange as a Midrash on sections from the Pentateuch and the Hebrew writings. Rolf and Karl Jacobson delve back into the Old Testament to find the roots of the Lucan dispute, and shed further light on this important biblical concept.

Making Ritual Strange: The Temple Cult As The Foundation For Tannaitic Discourse On Idolatry, Avram R. Shannon

Faculty Publications

This article examines the Tannaitic conception of the worship of avodah zarah. The term is commonly translated as “idolatry,”but the definition of what constitutes worship of avodah zarah, in m. Sanh. 7:6, is based on a more nuanced notion than simply worship of foreign gods. For the Sages of the Mishnah, worship of avodah zarah involved misuse of objects and rituals associated with the Temple cult, which constituted a betrayal of covenantal loyalty. This means that although the rabbinic laws against the worship of avodah zarah were based on the biblical prohibitions against worshiping other gods, the actual …

The Latter-Day Saint Reimaging Of “The Breath Of Life” (Genesis 2:7), Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

The creation and flood accounts in Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) contain variations on a phrase commonly translated “the breath of life.” This phrase additionally occurs in some uniquely Latter-day Saint materials relating to creation. After overviewing and analyzing this phrase and its meaning in the Bible, this paper then examines the occurrences of the phrase “the breath of life” in important early Latter-day Saint texts.1 The purpose of this study is to illustrate and explain how and why many Latter-day Saints have come to often employ the phrase “the breath of life,” transforming its traditional …

Formed In And Called From The Womb, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Jeremiah’s call narrative or vocation report includes a clear example of pre-birth divine election:

(1:4) “Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,

(1:5a) ‘Before I formed you in the womb [babbetẹ n] I knew you,

(5b) and before you were born [came forth from the womb/mēreḥem] I consecrated you;

(5c) I appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (Jer. 1:4–5; NRSV).

However, there is ambiguity about the meaning of the phrase “from the womb” and there are persistent questions about the relationship between Jeremiah 1:5a—“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”—and 1:5b+c, “before you …