The Date of Jesus’ Crucifixion
Scholars continue to debate the year and date of Jesus’ crucifixion. Several pieces of evidence, both inside and outside the Bible, help historians to calculate… Read More »The Date of Jesus’ Crucifixion
Scholars continue to debate the year and date of Jesus’ crucifixion. Several pieces of evidence, both inside and outside the Bible, help historians to calculate… Read More »The Date of Jesus’ Crucifixion
New Testament theology as a discipline is a branch of what scholars call “biblical theology.” Systematic theology and biblical theology overlap considerably, since both explore… Read More »The Theology of the New Testament
When Jesus began to proclaim the gospel, the Sadducees, Essenes, and Pharisees were also laying claim to Israel’s heritage. Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 13.171) mentions the groups… Read More »Jewish Groups at the Time of the New Testament
The first-century Roman world of the NT lay culturally at the intersection of Hellenism (Greek language and culture) and Roman imperial rule. Hence, to understand… Read More »The Roman Empire and the Greco-Roman World at the Time of the New Testament
Most of the writers of the NT grew up in the world of “Second Temple Judaism,” the time between the temple’s reconstruction (516 b.c.) and its… Read More »The Time between the Testaments
Introduction Mesopotamian texts indicate that long before Israel entered Canaan, other countries had prophets. These texts from Israel’s neighbors indicate that their prophets claimed to… Read More »Introduction to the Prophetic Books
Poetry is pervasive in the Hebrew Bible—the only books in the OT without any poetry are Leviticus, Ruth, Esther, Haggai, and Malachi (although 1 Kings… Read More »Introduction to the Poetic and Wisdom Literature
The “Historical Books” of the OT, which come after the Pentateuch, tell the story of (1) Israel’s entry into the Promised Land of Canaan under… Read More »Introduction to the Historical Books
The Name of the Pentateuch The Pentateuch (Gk. “five-volumed”) consists of the first five books of the Bible, i.e., Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Hebrew term… Read More »Introduction to the Pentateuch
The following material summarizes some of the arguments for an early date (1446 b.c.) and a later date (c. 1260) of the exodus. The archaeological claims… Read More »The Date of the Exodus