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RESOURCES – MAY 27, 2012

It was primarily the prophets who sounded the charge that Israel’s kings (e.g., Jer 22:13-19) and official leaders (e.g., Mic 3:1-12; cf. Jer 2:8; 5:31; 6:13-14; 8:8-12) had failed to live up to [God's] high standard of justice.

RESOURCES – MAY 20, 2012

Zech. 6:9-8:23 contains a series of oracles with a common theme of the glory of the messianic age. The crowning of Joshua the high priest as king is described in 6:9-15. Many believe the text originally said Zerubbabel instead of Joshua because Zerubbabel was the one who would build the Temple (6:12-13; cf. 4:9), but the oracle may suggest the blending of the priestly and kingly offices in one messianic figure.

RESOURCES – MAY 6, 2012

The messages of chaps. 1-8 are dated over a two-year period from October-November 520 B.C.E. (1:1) to November-December 518 B.C.E. (7:1). Haggai emphasized the material prosperity Judah would enjoy upon completion of the Temple. Zechariah’s focus was on the subsequent glories and exaltation of the messianic kingdom.

RESOURCES – APRIL 29, 2012

In the legally and socially complex world of the NT, “slavery” designates the various systems of compulsory labor and dependency in which at any one time as many as one-third of the urban population was owned by a large number of the others.

RESOURCES – APRIL 22, 2012

The Letter mentions as its place of origin “Babylon” (5:13), a first-century symbol for Rome in apocalyptic literature (cf. Rev 14:8; 16:19). Early church tradition maintains that Peter went to Rome, served, and died there.

RESOURCES – APRIL 15, 2012

First John was written by the Elder to the Johannine community about the threat posed by those who had departed from it. Because 1 John takes up relatively few themes and weaves them together in a spiral fashion, using transitional statements to link paragraphs together, it is difficult to outline.

RESOURCES – APRIL 8, 2012

The resurrection of Jesus becomes the focus of NT faith. The resurrection is the confirmation of sonship (Rom 1:4) and, as such, the cause for hope for Christians (e.g., cf. 1 Cor 15:12-19 and 1 Pet 1:3ff.).

RESOURCES – APRIL 1, 2012

The most Jewish understanding of incarnation appears in several passages of the NT and is clearly set forth in the identifying formula Paul cited in Rom 1:3-4: Jesus Christ, “who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”