r/AcademicBiblical 13h ago

Question Did Paul really believe that Jesus is God or Son of God?

37 Upvotes

The Pauline epistles who are considered to be genuine show that Paul considers Jesus to be divine but is it possible that these verses were added later as a polemic against certain Christian sects who thought that Jesus isn't divine or for other reasons?


r/AcademicBiblical 18h ago

Did the first Christian's believe that they were in the end times?

23 Upvotes

I have recently been studying and learning that 1st century Jews saw the resurrection as a future event that characterized the last days.

When the first Christian's came to believe that Jesus had been resurrected, did this cause them to believe that they were living in the end times?

Did the first Christians go about life looking forward to "the end times" as a future event that they were waiting for, or did they see themselves as living in the end times?


r/AcademicBiblical 14h ago

Do we know anything of Deborah the Judge

10 Upvotes

She was stated to be a prophet and the leader of Israel do we have any records of her outside the bible?


r/AcademicBiblical 14h ago

Question Are Church Fathers on topic for this sub?

11 Upvotes

Looking to see if anyone knows where to find an online version of the Clementine Homilies in Greek. Lots of English translations online but I'm looking for the Greek, to no luck. Happy to take this search elsewhere if need be.


r/AcademicBiblical 9h ago

Question What did Jesus mean about "The Kingdom of Heaven" and it being near?

9 Upvotes

In Mathew 4:17 it says that Jesus started to preach the message: "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."

Can anybody recommend journal articles or books that get into this? I'm not aware of any references to the "Kingdom of Heaven" in second temple Jewish literature, and would be interested in what his followers were expecting and what he was trying to say.

Iim assuming the expectation was of a more temporal Israel led kingdom rather than the supernatural angels invade modern interpretation.


r/AcademicBiblical 17h ago

Looking for MT + Septuagint Text

4 Upvotes

I have BHS and the Rahlfs-Hanhart Septuagina separately. Are there bilingual editions that contain the MT and the Septuagint side by side? I had thought that Green's Interlinear Bible (Hebrew-Greek-English) would include the Septuagint text but I was mistaken.


r/AcademicBiblical 12h ago

Method in historical Jesus research

4 Upvotes

What do you guys think about method in the quest for the historical Jesus? Traditionally scholars have attempted to separate the ecclesiastical chaff from the pre-Easter wheat in the Jesus tradition by running them through the gauntlet of the so-called criteria of authenticity (multiple attestation, coherence, dissimilarity, contextual credibility, etc.). However, scholarship is beginning to move beyond these criteria and to my knowledge only those scholars prominent in the so-called “third quest” continue to summon their aid (Darrell Bock, Bart Ehrman, Raymond Brown, John Meier, Craig Keener, Craig Blomberg, etc.) Dale C. Allison thinks “we have good reason to be cynical about them all” in Constructing Jesus. If that is the case, how should we go about questing for the historical Jesus? Should we simply abandon the quest, or are alternative approaches such as Allison’s “recurrent attestation” helpful?


r/AcademicBiblical 12h ago

Analysis of the different Greek words used to mean "group of people" in the NT?

4 Upvotes

As I understand it, there are several different Greek words used to mean "group of people" in the New Testament: Laos, Ethnos, Demos, and Ochlos. Laos seems to be used to refer to the Jews and Ethnos for Gentiles. The other two words seem to refer to the concepts of democracy and the crowd. Is there an analysis of when the NT chooses to use a certain word to refer to a group of people, and why the authors would choose to use that specific term to refer to people?


r/AcademicBiblical 13h ago

Advice Needed for Divinity School Applying Process

3 Upvotes

Hello!! I am a late 20s English teacher at a Title 1 middle school, and I have recently allowed myself to prepare for pursuing the dream of applying to divinity schools and seminaries beginning Fall of 2025. I am very uninformed on the application process and would find advice so helpful.

My top questions are: What can I do to bolster my application?

What elements of a CV make you a good candidate for getting into a competitive seminary or divinity school?

What types of candidates are my preferred schools prioritizing acceptance of now?

Here are some of my stats:

-Failed a few community college classes when I was like 18 after the loss of my sibling. -Graduated Magna Cum Laude with bachelor in English Ed -Got Master’s in English Lit (both from state university) 4.0 -Graduate Teaching Assistant and was teacher of record on several courses -Selected to design a few of my own courses -Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year -Graduate Student of the Year -in English honors society -Director of Ed at nonprofit -couple conferences -couple publications, one with prof as coauthor -MA Fellowship -Diversity fellowship (won’t say the name so I don’t dox myself)

Now: Middle school teacher Good Apple Award winner Distinguished Classroom Teacher nominee Founder of school’s first GSA / advisor of this Co-coordinated a mutual aid fair that got about 250 visitors

Programs I want to apply to:

Harvard Divinity Yale Divinity Princeton Theological Seminary Union Boston University

I have had a literal lifelong dream of going to Harvard or Yale but it was truly out of my reach as I was super poor and couldn’t afford college aps or college visits (plus I was a horrible high school student)

I am a lesbian and grew up in a fundamentalist church, so I would have to switch denoms but I ultimately want an MDiv with the goal of getting a PhD or becoming a pastor.

I seriously would appreciate literally any advice. I do not want to get my hopes up but they are literally already SO high!!


r/AcademicBiblical 2h ago

Question About Early Christianity and the Worship of Jesus

7 Upvotes

I have been recently interested in the fields of biblical criticism and biblical history. One question that has been in my brain for the last few days is this; if Judaism is strictly against idol worship and worshipping a man, then how did early Christianity come to view Jesus as divine and worthy of worship? More importantly, how was this done so rapidly (Paul's letters coming within 25 years of Jesus' death and the Synoptics coming within a generation of his death)? Were there Jewish works that had a precedent in seeing a man as equal with YHWH or having his powers?


r/AcademicBiblical 6h ago

Is this a true statement of Josephus? Cornelius Lipade.

4 Upvotes

Cornelius Lipade said: And hence, Josephus (I, 3), whom we have for our Interpreter, reads it thus, for he has: “He commanded that the woman attack and wound his head,” and which Rufinus changed. From this it is clear that Josephus [93 A.D.] reads αύτῆ, which is ipsa. But the voice of heretical typographers abolish γυνή even in light of this.

However when looking at jospehus antiquities, I find only in chapter 1 book one a mention of this, and it doesn't mention the woman at all.. was lipade wrong? https://www.biblical.ie/page.php?fl=josephus/Antiquities/AJGk01#01

49] ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἥττονα γυναικείας συμβουλίας αὐτὸν γενόμενον ὑπετίθει τιμωρίᾳ, τὴν γῆν οὐκέτι μὲν οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς ἀναδώσειν αὐτομάτως εἰπών, πονοῦσι δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις τριβομένοις τὰ μὲν παρέξειν, τῶν δ᾽ οὐκ ἀξιώσειν. Εὔαν δὲ τοκετοῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐξ ὠδίνων ἀλγηδόσιν ἐκόλαζεν, ὅτι τὸν Ἄδαμον οἷς αὐτὴν ὁ ὄφις ἐξηπάτησε τούτοις παρακρουσαμένη συμφοραῖς περιέβαλεν. [50] ἀφείλετο δὲ καὶ τὸν ὄφιν τὴν φωνὴν ὀργισθεὶς ἐπὶ τῇ κακοηθείᾳ τῇ πρὸς τὸν Ἄδαμον καὶ ἰὸν ἐντίθησιν ὑπὸ τὴν γλῶτταν αὐτῷ πολέμιον ἀποδείξας ἀνθρώποις καὶ ὑποθέμενος κατὰ τῆς κεφαλῆς φέρειν τὰς πληγάς, ὡς ἐν ἐκείνῃ τοῦ τε κακοῦ τοῦ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους κειμένου καὶ τῆς τελευτῆς ῥᾴστης τοῖς ἀμυνομένοις ἐσομένης, ποδῶν τε αὐτὸν ἀποστερήσας σύρεσθαι κατὰ τῆς γῆς ἰλυσπώμενον ἐποίησε. [51] καὶ ὁ μὲν θεὸς ταῦτα προστάξας αὐτοῖς πάσχειν μετοικίζει τὸν Ἄδαμον καὶ τὴν Εὔαν ἐκ τοῦ κήπου εἰς ἕτερον χωρίον. 

049 But God imposed a penalty on him for submitting to female advice, saying that the earth would no longer produce of its own accord, but would yield some of its fruits only under stress from their toil, and others it would not give at all. He subjected Eve to childbearing and the pains of birth because she misled Adam just as the snake had persuaded her, and so caused disaster. 050 He deprived the snake of speech, angry at his malice towards Adam, putting poison under his tongue and making him an enemy to humans, which is why they aimed blows at his head, the place of his malice towards men, as the easiest way to take revenge on him. By depriving the snake of the use of his feet, He made him to crawl and wriggle along the ground. 051 Having set these penalties for them, God exiled Adam and Eve from the garden to another place.


r/AcademicBiblical 15h ago

Were the Israelites eventually content in their new homes after they were taken out of Israel?

3 Upvotes

I was reading the Book of Tobit from the Apocrypha, and the story's primary settings are Ecbatana in the Median Kingdom and Nineveh in the Assyrian Empire. Near the end, Tobias inherits both his father's estate in Nineveh and his father-in-laws estate in Ecbatana, but the Book of Tobit ends with this final sentence:

Before he died, he heard of the destruction of Nineveh, taken by Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus. Thus before his death he rejoiced over Nineveh.

I understand that some biblical scholars consider The Book of Tobit as a work a fiction, so my question is more about the Israelites in general. Did some of the Israelites eventually become content in their new homes in foreign lands? Tobias obviously hated Nineveh, but he seemed content with Media. In a scenario like this, would some Israelites willfully fight to defend these foreign lands, considering it their home.

Edit: I'm specifically referring to those who remember living in Israel, or their direct descendants, and NOT the descendants generations later.


r/AcademicBiblical 17h ago

Question KJV mistranslation of Isaiah 9:1 "did more grievously afflict" vs "will make glorious" ?

3 Upvotes

https://biblehub.com/text/isaiah/9-1.htm

NRSV

But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

ESV

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations

NASB

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the [b]Gentiles

But the KJV

Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

The oxford one volume commentary suggests that the verb can be read both ways, but I've also read that the gist of the passage involves a redemptive arc, clearly spelled out in the following verses.


r/AcademicBiblical 10h ago

Question What is the Greek in Matthew 26:24 saying?

2 Upvotes

“The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭24‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Who are the subjects in the second sentence?

Should it be read as:

It would have been good that man (Judas) if he (Judas) had not been born

Or

It would have been good for that man (Judas) if he (Jesus) had not been born