Raymond Westbrook has convincingly demonstrated that in biblical times, in order to acquire an inheritable estate in real property, it was necessary to pay the "full price."
Historian Lynn White, Jr.'s theory that the current ecological crisis derives from the biblical creation story still has its adherents. There is no single biblical viewpoint on ecology, nor were the biblical writers addressing twentieth-century problems. Yet the great weight of biblical tradition-including the Genesis creation narrative-represents God as caring actively for all living beings, and humanity as having not only dominion over, but also responsibility for the well-being of other creatures. The Bible gives no support to those who would exploit the earth's resources at the cost o f destroying any species of' life.
The topic of Lukan eschatology has received considerable scholarly attention in the last few years. 1 But certain obscurities remain. In Conzelmann's view, Luke ' abandoned belief in the early expectation'; he undertook to project the coming of the Kingdom of God into the 'distant' future: 'the End is far away'. 2 And yet, Conzelmann notwithstanding, Luke preserves sayings to the effect that' the Parousia ' 3 will come upon ' this generation', that it may come at any time, and will do so 'speedily'. 4 Another problem: Conzelmann proposes that Luke's 'main declaration is not that the Kingdom is coming, but that the Kingdom is being preached by Jesus and made manifest in his ministry'. At the same time, Conzelmann insists, ' I t cannot really be disputed that Luke means by the Kingdom of God a future entity.' 6 We may ask: Did Luke really intend such a subtle distinction between the 'manifestation' of the Kingdom in Jesus' ministry and its 'coming' in the future? If this distinction had been, as Conzelmann claims, the goal of Luke's apologetic, calculated to spare the Church from coming to grief at the time of the Parousia, 6 we might expect that Luke would have presented this distinction clearly and insistently, for he was not subtle in setting forth his other basic concerns, for example, that wealth should be used for the benefit of the poor, or that Jesus, Paul and the whole Christian movement were innocent of any charges of sedition against Rome. In fact, however, Luke says nothing about the 'appearance' or 'manifestation' of the Kingdom of God in Jesus or his ministry. What will be 'manifest' is the great day of the Lord (Acts ii. 20).
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