You can hear me discussing some of the ideas at the heart of the Jesus Monotheism project on a just-released The Bible Project podcast, here: https://player.fm/series/the-bible-project-1401633/did-jesus-really-think-he-was-god-feat-dr-crispin-fletcher-louis Tim and John are doing wonderful job bringing recent and cutting edge scholarship to the masses, so it was a privilege and to spend time with them.
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Cambridge presentation arguing for a dynamic ontology in Phil 2:6c
I have spent much of the last couple of years revising my understanding of Phil 2:6–11. The journey has been uncomfortable. For the duration of the time you are forced to rearrange your mental furniture there can be nowhere comfortable to sit. But the rearrangement has been necessary and the end result has far reaching… Read more »
On ancient republicanisms: Roman, early Christian and Jewish?
An article has just been published that I reckon contains a breakthrough insight into the earliest understanding(s) of Jesus and the movement he started. In his ‘Long Live the King: The Fourth Gospel’s Responses to Greco-Roman Suspicions Concerning Monarchy’, JGRChJ 13 (2017), pp. 189–212, Adam Booth contends that John’s gospel presents a problem for first… Read more »
A Whole New Approach to the Christ Hymn in Phil 2
The writing of volume 2 of my Jesus Monotheism series has taken longer than expected. The main reason is that in my work on the Christ hymn in Phil 2 I have been forced to acknowledge dimensions of Phil 2:6–11 which I had missed and parts that I had, in the past, misunderstood. I am… Read more »
“On Angels, Men and Priests (Ben Sira, the Qumran Sabbath Songs and the Yom Kippur Avodah)” (A newly published article)
I have just received my copy of the papers from a conference in Zürich in 2015 dedicated to worship and angels in ancient Judaism and early Christianity (). I was invited to speak to the conference on the back of my 2002 book , in which I investigated the role of angels and human transformation… Read more »
On the Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71), its Political Theology and Divine Messiah
I have just received my copy of the proceedings of a conference on Enoch literature and contemporary theology at the University of Gloucestershire, for which I provided an essay on the Similitudes of Enoch (). The Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71) is one of the most difficult and contentious of the texts that scholars… Read more »
Intertextuality, Richard Hays and the Son of Man Problem
On Monday of this week I gave a lecture at a Biblical Studies conference at the University of Birmingham entitled “Intertextuality and the Son of Man Problem”. It was an invited (“Keynote”) paper and, as I was asked to speak to the general topic of Intertextuality, the research and writing has helped me clarify my understanding of the… Read more »
Richard Bauckham and the Numerical Structure of the Confession in 1 Cor 8:6
I heard this week that Prof. Richard Bauckham (St Andrews and Cambridge) likes and is convinced by the main points of my argument for a carefully worked out numerical structure in the reworked Shema that Paul cites in 1 Cor 8:6. (The reworked Shema in 1 Cor 8:6 has two parts, each composed of thirteen… Read more »
A little noticed reference to speculation on Adam and the Merkabah in Ben Sira
I am finishing up a detour in my research schedule. Work on a small book on John 5 (forthcoming later this year) has forced me to revisit Ben Sira 50, my favourite Jewish text outside Hebrew Bible. Reading through Otto Mulder’s rich and detailed treatment of the chapter () I noticed for the first time the importance of… Read more »
King Solomon and N. T. Wright’s Pauline Theology
Earlier in the year, in June, I presented a paper on Solomon in 1 Kgs 3–4 at the Son of God Conference at St Andrews: Abstract N. T. Wright has argued that Pauline theology is indebted to a Jewish and biblical notion that the king is a representative, incorporative figure. This paper offers fresh evidence from the… Read more »