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Archive for the ‘Romans’ Category


Edward Adams, “Were the Pauline Churches House Churches?”

In Durham, Edward ADAMS, Galatians, Justin A. Mihoc, New Testament, Paul, Philippians, Romans, SEMINAR REPORTS on December 8, 2011 at 11:45 pm

This is a report on a paper presented by Dr Edward Adams, Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies at King’s College London, at the New Testament Research Seminar, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, 5th of December 2011.

The list of forthcoming papers in the NT Research Seminars at Durham University can be found here. Like us on Facebook, here.

At the last session of the New Testament Research Seminar, Dr Edward Adams presented a very interesting and engaging paper on the identification of the early Christian meeting places. This presentation will be published as a contribution of a monograph on the same topic.

His analysis was focused on the undisputed Pauline epistles and the incidence and meaning of the phrase κατ᾽ οἶκον αὐτῶν ἐκκλησίᾳ (the church in their house). Read the rest of this entry »


John Barclay, “Paul and the Gift”

In Durham, Galatians, John BARCLAY, Justin A. Mihoc, Paul, Romans on November 11, 2011 at 12:49 am

This is a report on a book preview by Prof John Barclay, Professor of New Testament Studies at Durham University, at the New Testament Research Seminar, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, 07th of November 2011.

The list of forthcoming papers in the NT Research Seminars at Durham University can be found here.

At the last assembly of the weekly New Testament research seminar, a new type of presentation was inaugurated. Prof Francis Watson, this session’s chair, introduced the format of book previews, a new and different one from the seminars we were used to so far. In these new sessions, the chair will get involved much more as a moderator, in a questions and answers format. For the first half of the session, the moderator will ask a set of questions which will enable the author and respondent to draw the general structure and themes of his book. In the second half, the open discussion, to which all participants are invited, would complete the already composed picture and further focus on the participants’ interests in the previously presented book.

Read the rest of this entry »


Worship that Makes Sense to Paul: A New Approach to the Theology and Ethics of Paul’s Cultic Metaphors

In Cognition, Cultic metaphors, De Gruyter, HB/OT, Nijay K. GUPTA, Paul's ethics, Philippians, Romans, Samuli Siikavirta on October 14, 2011 at 10:43 pm

2011.10.06 | Nijay K. Gupta, Worship that Makes Sense to Paul: A New Approach to the Theology and Ethics of Paul’s Cultic Metaphors, (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde des älteren Kirche 175), Göttingen: De Gruyter, 2010. ISBN 978-3-11-022889-2. Hardcover.

Reviewed by Samuli Siikavirta, University of Cambridge.

RBECS would like to thank De Gruyter for kindly providing us with a review copy. Visit us on facebook too.

How are cultic metaphors of the Hebrew Bible used in Paul’s undisputed letters? Read the rest of this entry »


Benjamin Schliesser, “The Dialectics of Faith and Doubt in Paul”

In Abraham, Benjamin SCHLIESSER, Cambridge, Disputing, Doubt, Faith, Meddling, Paul, Romans, Samuli Siikavirta, SEMINAR REPORTS on October 13, 2011 at 12:21 pm

A report on a paper given by Dr Benjamin Schliesser (Zürich University) at the Senior New Testament Seminar of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 11 October 2011.

The list of forthcoming papers in the New Testament Seminars at Cambridge can be found here. You can also find us on facebook, here.

Dr Schliesser’s paper began with the realisation that he had made when writing his PhD thesis: the notion of doubt has not been dealt with much at all in Pauline scholarship. The doubt of Don Quixote, Descartes, Luther and the modern sceptic were all mentioned as examples that shape our present-day definition of the word “doubt”: uncertainty, hesitation, lack of confidence and wavering between two positions.

Most of the paper focused on Romans 4:20 and Paul’s use of διακρίνεσθαι therein. Dr Schliesser carefully showed the discrepancy between the classical/Hellenistic meaning of the verb (“to be separated or to be dissolved [into elements]”, “to come to a decision or to get it decided” or “to contend or to dispute”) and the way in which it is usually read in the New Testament (“to contend with oneself” or simply “to doubt”). Read the rest of this entry »


Shane Berg, ”Revelation and Anthropology in the Community Hymns of the Hodayot and in Romans”

In Cambridge, Hodayot, Paul, Romans, Samuli Siikavirta, SEMINAR REPORTS, Shane BERG on October 28, 2010 at 12:20 am

This is a report on a paper of Shane Berg, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, presented in the Senior NT seminar at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 26 Oct 2010.

The list of this term’s papers in this particular seminar is available here.

Shane Berg’s paper presented the interesting hypothesis that the anthropology and religious epistemology of the community hymns of the Qumran Hodayot (thanksgiving hymns) have similarities with those of Romans. Berg argued that both the Hodayot and Romans assert universal human sinfulness in light of the creation and Fall narratives of Genesis on the one hand and the remedying agency of the Spirit on the other.

Amongst other Qumran texts, the paper mentioned 1QHa 9:10-18; 6:13; 20:11-12 and 7:12-14 as examples of community hymns with universal sinfulness in their anthropology. They depict human existence in a negative fashion, emphasising human sinfulness, ignorance and frail and inadequate cognition to come to God’s will. Men are composed of dust and cannot know God – and idea that has its Biblical background in Gen. 2-3 (cf. Job 10:9; 4:19; 34:15; Ecclesiastes 3:20; 12:7; Ps 103:14; 104:29). Read the rest of this entry »

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