The Good Samaritan
The parable of the Good Samaritan came as a response to the lawyer’s question, “And who is my neighbor?” The lawyer wanted Jesus to draw a circle defining who is inside, and therefore the neighbor I...
View ArticleA Statistical Approach to the Synoptic Problem: Part 3—Single Tradition
In Part Three of his series, "A Statistical Approach to the Synoptic Problem," Halvor Ronning examines the data concerning the degree to which each of the Synoptic Gospels was influenced by a Semitic...
View ArticleSending the Twelve: Conduct on the Road
Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans. Instead, go to the lost sheep who belong to the people of Israel. Don’t take along gear for your mission, not even a walking stick, or a pack, or food, or...
View ArticleJacob ben Aaron—A Samaritan High Priest
Jacob ben Aaron ben Shelamah was the Samaritan high priest from 1861 until his death in 1916. Jacob ben Aaron was not only the spiritual leader of his people, he also represented the Samaritans to...
View ArticleJesus’ Attitude Toward the Samaritans
In our recent attempt to propose a Hebrew reconstruction of Jesus’ instructions to his twelve apostles (see Sending the Twelve: Conduct on the Road), David Bivin and I were confronted with a racially...
View ArticleUnconditional Love: A Holy Week Meditation
The commemoration of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples affords a moment of vulnerability that allows both the servant and the one being served to experience unconditional love.
View Article“Shake the Dust from Your Feet”: What Did the Apostles’ Action Signify?
The standard interpretation of the apostles' dust-shaking action proposes that Jesus turned the concept of the impurity of Gentile lands against the Jewish inhabitants of cities within the (ritually...
View ArticleSending the Twelve: Conduct in Town
David N. Bivin and Joshua N. Tilton suggest a Hebrew reconstruction of Jesus' instructions about how the twelve apostles were to behave when they entered a town. In this pericope we learn about the...
View ArticleGospel Origins: From a Hebrew Story to the Canonical Gospels
Originally released as a pamphlet entitled The Gospels in 1972, Jerusalem Perspective brings you this discussion of the Synoptic Gospels by Robert L. Lindsey in a newly revised and updated edition....
View ArticleMay His Memory Be for a Blessing
The recent death of author and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel reminds us that we are living at a time when the survivors of the Holocaust are becoming fewer. The eyewitnesses to the horrors of the Nazi...
View ArticleThe Programmatic Opening of Jesus’ Biography as a Reflection of...
In this study Professor Ruzer suggests that there was a broader first-century Jewish context behind the narrative strategies employed in Mark’s prologue to Jesus’ messianic biography. On the other...
View ArticleSending the Twelve: Apostle and Sender
The Apostle and Sender saying (Matt. 10:40; Luke 10:16) not only gave assurance to Jesus' emissaries as he sent them out on their first healing and teaching mission, it also offers us an extraordinary...
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