First Glance
For more than a century, scholars have considered the Gospel of John to be latest (second century) and the most indebted to Greek philosophy of all the Gospels. But as James H. Charlesworth explains in “Reinterpreting John,” that view is being turned on its head by new manuscript discoveries-prominent among them the Dead Sea Scrolls. The emerging scholarly consensus sees John to have been written around the year 100 and to be the most thoroughly Jewish of the Gospels. Charlesworth guides us through the documents that are responsible for this sea change in Johannine studies, taking special note of the many similarities in thought and expression between key Dead Sea Scrolls and the Fourth Gospel.
Charlesworth is the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Languages and Literatures at Princeton Theological Seminary and editor of the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project. He has written or edited 26 books, including The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols., Doubleday: 1983 and 1985), winners of the Biblical Archaeology Society’s Book Award, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Doubleday, 1992) and John and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Crossroad, 1990). An ordained Methodist minister, Charlesworth is also an avid basketball and tennis fan and, when his knees are not hurting, player.
Does the Gospel of John nurture anti-Semitism? In “John’s Anti-Jewish Polemic,” Robert D. Kysar continues the discussion of this Gospel and warns that we must not allow the particular historical circumstances that shaped John’s antagonism to some Jews to become a license for anti-Semitism today.
Professor of homiletics and New Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Kysar is author of Called to Care: Biblical Images for Social Ministry (Fortress, 1991) and co-author of A Beginner’s Guide to the Books of the Bible (Augsburg, 1991).
Christian couples with gold wedding rings would have had a hard time in the first two centuries of the Church. The Letter of James 2:2–4 and other New Testament passages condemn the wearing of gold rings, which were identified with wealth and status in the Greco-Roman world. In the early third century, however, Clement of Alexandria, an early Church father, modified the teaching to allow the wearing of rings used as seals in the conduct of business. In “Rings of Gold-Neither ‘Modest’ Nor ‘Sensible,’” Cynthia L. Thompson discusses these differing attitudes and presents a gallery of photos of rings that offended the earliest Christians for reasons in addition to ostentation: the use of mythological figures and pagan gods and symbols.
Thompson edits academic and reference books for Westminster/John Knox Press of Louisville, Kentucky. Her proudest recent professional accomplishment was sponsoring the Women’s Bible Commentary. She holds a doctorate from Yale, and she was a fellow for two years at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. The research for Thompson’s article was supported by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1991, when she was a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School. She finds research a good excuse for travel and also tries to tie together interests in literature, art and music.
“What are pagan river gods doing in scenes of Jesus’ baptism?” asks Robin Jensen in the title of her article. Usually unnoticed or ignored, a river god, or personification of the Jordan, often appears in artistic depictions of Jesus’ baptism. Understanding the reason for this seemingly incongruous element in an otherwise Christian scene is complicated by the fact that the river god is typically portrayed in two different ways. Jensen traces the history of these river gods’ appearances and suggests meanings for their two types of portrayals.
Jensen is assistant professor of church history at Andover Newton Theological School, in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. The topic of her doctoral dissertation at Union Theological Seminary, “Living Water: Images, Symbols and Setting in Early Christian Baptism,” reflects her areas of special expertise, including history of worship and sacraments an Christian art and architecture. She specializes in the literature of the early Christian church. Her other interests include the history of Christian doctrine, the role of women in the early church, the social context of Christianity and medieval religious movements.
A reading specialist who helps students of all ages increase their comprehension, critical thinking and writing ability, independent Bible scholar and educator Adrien Janis Bledstein brings her gifts to bear on one of the more controversial passages of the Bible. In “Was Eve Cursed? (or did a woman write Genesis?),” she examines the Hebrew words that are the basis for the common assumption that God cursed Eve with pain in childbearing and with domination by man. Her conclusions call into question many translations of this oftquoted verse. Author of articles in four books in Sheffield Academic Press’ Feminist Companion series, Bledstein writes about issues that arise in her Hebrew and reading classes.