When Paul asks for the incestuous man at Corinth to be handed over to Satan is he calling for mere physical expulsion from the community or is he calling for something more? We argue in this paper that the nature of the man's offense—i.e., an ostentatious display of sexual immorality that also receives theological justification from the perpetrator—demanded a harsher sentence beyond mere physical exclusion. Drawing on the book of Job, we show that the disciplinary practice Paul advocates in 1 Corinthians 5 is a spiritual practice that aims to remove the spiritual protection enjoyed by the incestuous man while he remained in the body of Christ, thereby exposing him to Satan's attacks. Paul's hope was that the affliction suffered by the man at the hands of Satan as a result of this exposure would lead to his repentance and ultimate salvation.
This article examines the textual arguments offered for and against the reading Jesus Barabbas in Matthew .-. While siding with the position that the longer reading, Jesus Barabbas, stood in the original text of Matthew's Gospel, this article argues against the tendency of scholars to deduce from the longer reading that a historical figure called 'Jesus' with the patronymic 'Barabbas' was released by Pilate, and that this man's name was suppressed by Christian tradition out of reverence for the name Jesus.
The figure who instigates God to afflict Job, “the satan,” vanishes entirely after the prologue of the book of Job. But his role in the prologue is mirrored by Job’s friends in the poetry section of the book. We argue that the presentation of “the satan” in the prologue is entirely consistent with the theology of creation proffered in the poetry section of the book of Job. The possible implication of this finding for the fate of Satan is spelled out.
This article puts John and Paul in conversation concerning two issues: believers' partaking of food sacrificed to idols and the question of who were the primary actors in Jesus' death. While many modern interpreters see discord between John's treatment of food offered to idols and Paul's, this article argues that both John and Paul were informed by an apocalyptic worldview that sees demonic forces behind idolatry. As such, they are in harmony in their arguments that all foods explicitly identified as idol food must be rejected by believers. Furthermore, both John and Paul share an apocalyptic worldview that saw demonic forces as the primary actors in Jesus' crucifixion.
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