Loving one’s neighbor in JETS

Reading time: 2 minutes

As I mentioned earlier, the current issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (60.2) contains Henry Kelly’s essay on “Love of Neighbor as Great Commandment in the Time of Jesus: Grasping at Straws in the Hebrew Scriptures” (265–81). According to the abstract,

One’s “neighbor,” generously interpreted to include everyone else in the world, even personal and impersonal enemies, looms large in the NT, especially in the form of the second great commandment, and in various expressions of the Golden Rule. The NT also contains expansive claims that neighbors have a similar importance in the OT. The main basis that commentators cite for these claims is a half-verse in the middle of Leviticus (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” 19:18b), as fully justifying these claims, supported by other isolated verses, notably, Exod 23:45, on rescuing the ass of one’s enemy. Relying on these verses has the appearance of grasping at straws in order to justify the words of Jesus, but it seems clear that in the time of Jesus they had indeed been searched out and elevated to new significance. John Meier has recently argued that it was Jesus himself who gave the Levitical neighbor his high standing, but because the Gospels present the notion as already known, this article suggests that it had achieved a consensus status by this time.

For JETS subscribers, the essay doesn’t currently seem to appear on the current issue’s webpage, but doubtless that absence will be remedied at some point in the near future.

Wallace, “Medieval manuscripts”

Reading time: 2 minutes

ETS logoIn its first 2017 issue (currently behind the society membership paywall), the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society has a version of Daniel Wallace’s presidential address from the 2016 annual Evangelical Theological Society meeting: “Medieval Manuscripts and Modern Evangelicals: Lessons from the Past, Guidance for the Future” (5–34). Per the abstract, the essay focuses on

paratextual and codicological material in medieval Greek NT manuscripts … that have been largely neglected by evangelicals. Five such features are touched on in this article: (1) the growing canon consciousness and emergence of the codex and their interrelationship; (2) subscriptions (scribal notes at the end of NT books, often reflecting very early traditions) and colophons (blessing, supplication, or mild complaint by a scribe at the end of his codex); (3) the significant but essentially ignored role of female scribes through the centuries; (4) the part that paratextual features in these MSS played in helping scribes to memorize scripture; and (5) the visual priority given to Scripture over tradition in MSS with commentaries.

The article has a substantial and interesting discussion of each of these points, as well as some helpful additional discussion and bibliography in several of the footnotes.

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56, no. 2

Reading time: < 1 minutes

The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56, no. 2 includes the following:

  • Jason DeRouchie, “The Blessing-Commission, the Promised Offspring, and the Toledot Structure of Genesis”
  • Jeffrey Niehaus, “God’s Covenant with Abraham”
  • Douglas Petrovich, “Identifying Nimrod of Genesis 10 with Sargon of Akkad by Exegetical and Archaeological Means”
  • Todd Scacewater, “Galatians 2:11–21 and the Interpretive Context of ‘Works of the Law'”
  • Andrew Wilson, “Apostle Apollos?”
  • Keith Campbell, “The American Evangelical Academy and the World: A Challenge to Practice More Globally”
  • Gerald McDermott, “The Emerging Divide in Evangelical Theology”
  • Daniel Strange, “For Their Rock Is Not as Our Rock: The Gospel as the ‘Subversive Fulfillment’ of the Religious Other”

Zondervan to LiveStream 2012 ETS Plenaries

Reading time: < 1 minutes

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From the latest Zondervan academic update:

If you can’t make it to ETS, however, there is now a next-best option. We are sponsoring live webcasts of all plenary speakers, including E. Calvin Beisner, Russell Moore, Richard Bauckham, and Douglas Moo. Visit www.LiveStream.com/ZondervanAcademic to RSVP and get reminders.

Particulars about the plenary sessions, including scheduling, can be found by searching for “plenary session” in the “session information and indexes” program section PDF available via the ETS website.