Loving one's neighbor in JBL and elsewhere

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 13:00:23 +0000

The most recent issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature carries Matthew Goldstone’s essay “Rebuke, Lending, and Love: An Early Exegetical Tradition on Leviticus 19:17–18” (307–21). According to the abstract,

In this article I posit the presence of an early Jewish exegesis of Lev 19:17–18 preserved in the Tannaitic midrash known as Sifra, which is inverted and amplified in Did. 1:3–5, Q 6:27–35, Luke 6:27–35, and Matt 5:38–44. Identifying shared terminology and a sequence of themes in these passages, I argue that these commonalities testify to the existence of a shared exegetical tradition. By analyzing the later rabbinic material I delineate the contours of this Second Temple period interpretation and augment our understanding of the construction of these early Christian pericopae. In commenting on Lev 19:17, Sifra articulates three permissible modes of rebuke: cursing, hitting, and slapping. In its gloss on the subsequent verse, Sifra exemplifies the biblical injunction against vengeance and bearing a grudge through the case of lending and borrowing from one’s neighbor. The Didache, Matthew, and Luke invert the first interpretation by presenting Jesus as recommending a passive response to being cursed or slapped, and they amplify the second interpretation by commanding one to give and lend freely to all who ask. The similar juxtaposition of these two ideas and the shared terminology between Sifra and these New Testament period texts suggest a common source. By reading these early Christian sources in light of this later rabbinic work I advance our understanding of the formation of these well-known passages and illustrate the advantages of cautiously employing rabbinic material for reading earlier Christian works.

Butler, Lives

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 17:40:05 +0000

The Internet Archive has full-text PDFs of Alban Butler’s twelve-volume set, Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints (Thomas Richardson, 1842–46):

Lightfoot, "Colossians and Philemon"

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:00:36 +0000

In working on the phrase εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ in Col 2:2 ( NA27 punctuation), I stumbled upon J. B. Lightfoot’s commentary on Colossians in full view, PDF format on Google Books. According to Lightfoot ( 239),

Full-Text-Pdfs on J. David Stark

Loving one's neighbor in JBL and elsewhere

Butler, Lives

Lightfoot, "Colossians and Philemon"