In the previous post on the parable of the good Samaritan, I noted that “robbers” (lēistai) is likely to have had political overtones and suggested that, particularly given the remarkable parallel with 2 Chronicles 28:8-15, the parable could be read as an indictment of the miserable state of Israel in the build up to the war against Rome. This is a brief footnote to that observation.

I came across this intriguing perspective on Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan in an article by Amy-Jill Levine in the Biblical Archaeology Review (2012). She dismisses a number of what she regards as misinterpretations of the parable of the Good Samaritan and comes to this conclusion:

I wrote most of this on a flight back from Doha on Christmas Eve. My wife has been at COP 28 in Dubai and at hydrogen conferences in Oman and Qatar—so plenty of opportunities to reflect on climate change from a very different angle.

I won’t have time to write anything else this week, so here I’ve written up what started as a response to some further comments made by Edward Babinski regarding Paul’s supposed belief in an imminent “final cosmic judgment.”

Babinski argues that the belief was prevalent in second temple Judaism (Daniel, the War Scroll, Testament of Moses, 2 Esdras) and is to be found in the earliest New Testament writings, notably in 1 Corinthians. And they all got it badly wrong.

The latest issue of The Bulletin for Biblical Research (33.3, 2023) has my article on the subjection of the creature or created material to the futility of idolatry. It’s an argument that I made here in outline a few years ago. You need a subscription or institutional access to view it, but here’s the abstract:

In his 2016 NIGTC commentary on Romans, Richard Longenecker provides a summary of what he regards as the key themes that Paul “considered distinctive to his own proclamation of the Christian gospel” (1045-46). They strike me, for the most part, as being expressive of a Reformed outlook. I have quoted the eleven themes in bold below with a brief critique of each point. Then I have set out a quick summary of eleven key issues or arguments that emerge when the letter is read in accordance with a post-new-perspective, narrative-historical hermeneutic.

The way I see it, Paul’s letter to the Romans is like a stage with three vast backdrop cloths hanging one in front of the other.

The largest cloth depicts the creational presuppositions of the letter: God is the creator of all things and cannot be worshipped in the form of created objects; Adam sinned and death entered the world. The letter is often read on the assumption that this largest backdrop explains everything. That is far from the case.