The second stanza (v.9–11) of the Christ-hymn in Phil 2.5–11 has led to two main difficulties of interpretation: first, it is disputed to whom exactly the triad in v.10b refers and what implications this has for understanding the scope of Phil 2.10–11. Second, Otfried Hofius has prominently argued that the scene in v.10–11 must be understood as universalism in the sense of salvation for all at the end of times. According to his interpretation, everyone, whether they have already put their faith in Christ, will worship Christ as Lord in the eschaton as a salvific event. A precise exegesis of the background of Phil 2.9–11 (i.e. Ps 148 and Isa 45.20–5) reveals a clear picture contrary to Hofius. The minority opinion that the triad ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπιγείων καὶ καταχθονίων (v.10b) is to be understood as neuter nouns and encompasses the whole of creation has been neglected in the history of interpretation, but is plausible. Ignatius, Trall. 9.1, conversely, cannot be used as a meaningful parallel because its exact meaning remains vague. Moreover, Hofius’ idea of the eschatological salvific worship of all creatures is not tenable in Isa 45.20–5 and thus highly implausible in Phil 2.9–11. The expectation of universal judgement in the eschaton is also present in Rom 14.11, the only other instance in the NT where Isa 45.23 is directly alluded to (or even quoted). All three texts disagree with a notion of universalism. Rather, Paul expects an eschatological homage of the entire cosmos before Christ as Lord, willingly or unwillingly.

One of the intriguing features of the Petrine household code (1 Pet 2.18–3.7) is the lack of instructions to masters. A common view claims that there are no instructions because there were no Christian masters in the community. This view, however, is textually and historically unlikely. This essay, rather, considers how the instructions to enslaved persons and the lack of instructions to masters might have been heard from the perspective of a Christian master. The first part of the essay highlights some features of literature on household management and perceptions of enslaved persons’ moral competency. The essay then turns to 1 Peter to analyse the theological perspective of the household code and the description of enslaved persons. I propose that the author has intentionally ignored masters as part of his defining the house of God.

This essay offers an appreciative response to Anders Runesson’s recent NTS article ‘What Does It Mean to Read New Testament Texts “within Judaism”?’ While affirming his argument that the NT writings belong historically to the body of Second Temple Jewish literature, the essay challenges Runesson’s strict separation of the historical project of reframing the NT within Judaism from theology. The essay argues that interpreting NT texts within Judaism can coincide with theological interpretation, that is, reading the NT writings as Scripture. The recent movement to understand the NT texts as Second Temple Jewish literature makes a fundamental truth-claim about the nature of the NT writings themselves – they are Jewish texts. Christians, then, canonised first-century Jewish writings as holy writ. This historical assertion necessarily exerts theological pressure on confessional readers. As theological interpreters seek to understand NT texts within their enculturated, generative contexts, they must attend to the Second Temple Jewish particularity of these writings and their theological perspectives. This should prompt the development of non- or post-supersessionist forms of theological interpretation that engage the NT writings as Second Temple literature and as Scripture.

This article develops the position of Rebekah Eklund’s earlier NTS article on ἀνοία in Luke 6.11. Eklund argues that there is no basis for translating ἄνοια in Luke 6.11 as rage or fury. Instead, she shows that ἄνοια is used consistently to indicate folly that is either induced by madness or ignorance. This article offers a reading of the healing of the man with the withered hand in Luke 6.6–11 that provides a more congenial context for the conventional way of reading ἀνοία as madness-induced folly.

Hebrews scholarship regularly includes claims that the author used the word οὐρανός in either two or three distinct senses. Most basically, it is argued that the word can refer to created parts of the cosmos or to the uncreated place where God dwells, and that authors who use the word have one of these two distinct referents in mind. This is particularly important in Hebrews 12.25–9, where the οὐρανός is shaken. It is often argued that this must be the created οὐρανός in distinction to the divine or eternal οὐρανός. This article critiques this common understanding of οὐρανός and its application to Hebrews 12.25–9. First, it surveys some early Jewish and Christian texts that discuss humans ascending into heaven, illustrating that these texts do not indicate any ontological divisions between various entities named ‘heaven’. Second, it briefly examines the ten occurrences of οὐρανός in Hebrews against this background, and it becomes clear that the author of Hebrews was more interested in contrasting heaven and earth (and perhaps the highest from the lower heavens) than in separating ‘heaven’ into distinct realms based on ontology. Third, the article outlines the significance of this conclusion for understanding what Hebrews 12.25–9 says about the shaking of heaven and earth. The author of Hebrews does not mean that some uncreated οὐρανός will ‘remain’ while the created heavens and earth are shaken. Instead, all of the heavenly and earthly space will be shaken.

In the BDAG entry for the noun σκηνοποιός (used in Acts 18.3 to refer to the trade in which Priscilla, Aquila and Paul worked during Paul’s first visit to Corinth), Frederick Danker broke with tradition and listed the word’s primary sense as ‘maker of stage properties’. The more familiar translation of ‘tentmaker’ is listed second as an alternative possible meaning, but after a brief survey of the surviving evidence, Danker concludes that ‘one is left with the strong probability that Luke’s publics in urban areas, where theatrical productions were in abundance, would think of σκηνοποιός in ref. to matters theatrical’.

Despite the far-reaching implications of Danker’s claim, if true, it has been given little consideration in subsequent scholarship and has been more frequently ignored than evaluated or adopted. In this article I assess Danker’s claim, beginning with the lexicographical evidence that he himself adduces before broadening the field of inquiry to include discussion of texts in which cognate terms such as σκηνοποιέω and σκηνοποιΐα are used with theatre-related meanings, the translation decisions made in the surviving Vetus Latina versions, the scenic architecture of Roman theatres in the early imperial period, and theatre-related attitudes and practices in first-century Judaism and early Christianity. After weighing the various evidence sources and contextual considerations, I conclude that Danker’s proposal is more likely than not, and that a stronger case can be made for it than he himself makes within the confines of the BDAG entry.

The essay explores the implications of Paul's description of himself as an ‘old man’ (πρεσβύτης) in Phlm. 9 for his rhetorical strategy, his psychological state and his social role. The essay first counters the interpretation of πρεσβύτης in Phlm. 9 as ‘ambassador’ and identifies the sources of the interpreters’ resistance to Paul’s description of himself as an ‘old man’. On the basis of demographic data, the essay suggests that Paul was a man of about sixty when he wrote to Philemon and that Paul would have aged prematurely in consequence of what he had suffered as an apostle. The essay then argues that Paul’s description of himself as an ‘old man’ functions in the argumentative rhetoric of his epistle both as a pathetic and an ethical appeal, simultaneously arousing pity and engendering respect. Finally, the essay contemplates the source of the ‘confidence’ shown by Paul in his appeal to Philemon, despite his senescence and imprisonment.

First Corinthians 11.30 voices divine punishment or judgment on misbehaviour at the Lord’s table in terms of weakness, sickness and death. Are these metaphorical or physical descriptions? The text is seen as an example of the notion of reciprocity between human misconduct and divine judgment in relevant sources, which in most cases is not metaphorical. Paul also draws on this notion in other passages. Divine judgment is pronounced in this text as punishment (paideia) aimed at protecting the church from being condemned alongside the world. It is difficult to see spiritual poverty as a means of divine discipline.

While faith is central to the Gospel of John, the focus of interpreters on the faith responses of John’s characters tends to regard these characters rather simplistically. This article considers Martha’s engagement with Jesus in John 11 and contends that her faith takes a journey of lament as she comes to a place of understanding Jesus’ person. Martha speaks with Jesus regarding Lazarus’ death, and Israel’s lament poems frame the depth found in the progression of their conversation, which serves a rhetorical purpose that provides dynamic depth to her character. Grounded in the work of Gail R. O’Day that traces Martha’s conversation within the lament structure, this article examines this interaction that leads to the pinnacle of Johannine confessions to the identity of Jesus made by Martha herself. The process of lament as the expression of Martha’s faith develops John’s resurrection theology, given that her faith and understanding are clarified by Jesus’ identification as the resurrection and the life. This disclosure is what leads to Martha’s paradigmatic confession in 11.27. Building on previous characterisations of Martha by scholars such as Adeline Fehribach, Colleen M. Conway, Sandra M. Schneiders and Cornelis Bennema, a fresh perspective emerges that engages Martha’s conversation and ensuing confession, and the contribution this makes to the Johannine theology of resurrection. Lament is significant in the context of faith in John’s portrayal of Martha and suggests more depth in Fourth Gospel characterisation than many interpretations have recognised.

At the end of the Farewell Discourse (FD) in the Gospel of John, Jesus offers a prayer that is far longer than any other in the Gospel. John 17 pauses the narrative progression, transcending both space and time as Jesus addresses his Father directly for only the third time in the Gospel (11.41–2; 12.27–8; 17.1–26). Reading this prayer in John 17 alongside Jesus’ other prayers in chapters 6, 11 and 12, this article argues that John 17 acts as the culmination of Jesus’ teaching through prayer and adds to his theophanic depiction in the Gospel. Moreover, in this prayer Jesus implicitly requests the Spirit’s presence among believers and points toward the Spirit’s work as an ongoing theophany for his disciples.

This article explores the critical possibilities that arise in New Testament studies when we view palaeography as a subjective discipline. In response to recent trends in palaeography that contrive new tools and techniques for making ‘objective’ judgements regarding the dates of manuscripts, I argue that another equally valid approach is to embrace palaeography as a practice akin to aesthetics, one that relies on observation and judgements about shapes to create new contexts for interpretation. Even if palaeography is no longer considered as ‘scientific’ as it was in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there are multiple new opportunities that arise when we place palaeographic discourse and its critical practices into conversation with other disciplines.

This article argues that Mark uses matronymics, that is, identifying someone by the name of their mother, to construct female communities that resist Jesus’ message. This happens precisely twice in the Gospel of Mark, at Mk 6.3 (Jesus ‘the son of Mary’) and at Mk 6.22 (‘the daughter of Herodias’). Through comparison with other Greek uses of the matronymic, I will show that both scenes draw on the link between matronymics and female lines of authority, but with slightly different valences. Mark 6.3 heightens the female context of the Nazareth speakers and the hometown resistance, while Mk 6.22 is more concerned to establish a competing line of authority to that of Jesus in the person of Herodias and her daughter. My argument complements previous research into the Markan characterisation of the positive portrayals of multiple unnamed women in Mark’s Gospel (e.g. the women with the flow of blood (Mk 5.25–34), the Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7.24–30), the poor widow (Mk 12.41–4) and the woman who anoints Jesus in Bethany (Mk 14.3–9)). Joining the negative named women to the positive unnamed women reveals a unique feminine pattern of Markan characterisation, with its own dynamics and inflections.

The article argues that the reference to the fig tree under which Jesus claims to have seen Nathanael (John 1.48) has not been satisfactorily discussed by previous critical interpreters. Instead, the tree should be understood against the backdrop of Second Temple and later Jewish and Christian exegetical discussions about what species the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil exactly was. After tracing these debates in ancient and early medieval sources, including iconography, the argument moves on to show the interpretative possibilities created by this proposal. The conclusion makes a case for understanding the Fourth Gospel as an inherently open work which invites the audience to actively participate in a variety of exegetical discourses, and whose author function builds its authority through polysemy.

Prayer is one of the basic elements of religious life and is widespread in most religions. It is the human act, verbal and non-verbal, of communicating with a transcendent being (in the broadest sense). In comparison to its communicative function, the written form of prayer is secondary. This study differentiates between prayer as act, prayer as text and prayer as subject, understood as any reference to or statement made about prayer. In First Thessalonians, as in contemporary letters, prayer as subject can be found in a variety of ways. An especially remarkable feature is the prayer texts and acts of prayer (although these are not numerous and mostly short), which imply a change of addressee within the communicative situation of the letter. Against the background of ancient letters and epistolary conventions of the time, this article examines the characteristics and the specific function of prayer (as text, act and subject) in First Thessalonians. It argues that the Christian message shapes and multiplies the references to prayer, also integrating short texts and acts of prayer which transcend the epistolary communication, deepening not only the relationship between Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy and the Thessalonians but also their relationship to God and in God.

The nomina sacra, abbreviations of sacred or sometimes sacred names, are ubiquitous in Greek New Testament manuscripts. Despite their prevalence, they have typically been ignored in studies seeking to determine genealogical relatedness among manuscript witnesses. Previous studies have focused on the origin of the nomina sacra or the abbreviation practices in individual manuscripts. This article argues that scribes attempted to copy the abbreviations of their exemplars faithfully, which means that the nomina sacra are genealogically significant. Three avenues of inquiry are explored to come to this determination. First, it is shown that known textual groups, such as Family 1 and Family 13, tend to attest the same abbreviation patterns. This indicates that textual consanguinity extends to the nomina sacra. Second, it is shown that Abschriften tend to abbreviate in the same patterns as their exemplars. Finally, two examples are given of manuscripts that were each copied by one scribe but from multiple exemplars. As the exemplars change, the patterns of abbreviation also change. This indicates that it is the exemplar, not the scribe, that most determined which words would be abbreviated, and how they would be abbreviated. The study concludes with a call for future apparatuses to include information about abbreviation so that researchers can take this valuable data into account.

A growing consensus interprets the Pastoral phrasing μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ (1 Tim 3.2, 12; Titus 1.6) and ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς γυνή (1 Tim 5.8) in reference to church leaders and widows as ‘spousal fidelity’, despite this not being an intuitive approach to the phrases. This article contends that one-spouse traditions were widely enough known in the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds – especially once objections and misunderstandings are resolved – to render comprehensible a limitation to a single spouse. The univira traditions, for instance, apply to both women and men and include reference to faithfulness. The application of these traditions to widows was not a Christian innovation, lasted into the imperial era and influenced both Jews and early Christian authors. One-spouse traditions were also extant in the eastern part of the Empire. Some sectors of Judaism attest to such traditions. Jesus-sayings also prohibit remarriage. Lastly, the requirement for χήραι to marry in 1 Tim 5.11, 14 does not contradict this qualification for ‘real’ widows (5.9) since they were likely ‘virgin-widows’, admonished to marry for the first time, and the Pastoral emphasis is on identifying those with less resources, requiring more extensive assistance from the churches. The Pastorals’ insistence on a single marriage for officeholders and ‘real’ widows is yet another example of how Christ-believers are to be exemplars of, if not exceeding, the very best in Roman piety and marital values.

This study explores the integration of Euthalian Apparatus features into catenae in Acts manuscripts, highlighting the resulting textual and visual ambiguities. It examines how traditionally distinct elements, such as prologues, hypotheses and quotation markers, intersect with catenae. Examples include the Euthalian prologues opening or concluding the chain in various catena types and the use of graphical symbols linking Euthalian features, such as quotation markers and brief narrations, as marginal scholia to scripture. The study investigates these intersections to understand paratextual exchanges in New Testament manuscripts and the origins of certain Euthalian features.