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The verse 'His blood be upon us and upon our children' said after Jesus was crucified, fueled anti-Judaism and disturbed commentators. The verse is understood differently, it can mean that Israel has wiped itself out of the history of salvation or it can also mean his blood has poured out to save his people from their sins.

The book 'The Wisdom of Ben Sira' recounts Israel's heroes of the past and climaxes one of them as Abraham, with the high priest Simon II. Abraham's faithfulness and obedience to the covenant is highlighted to show how the author understood Abraham as the ideal Torah-observant Jew.

Biblical scholars are showing interest in characterizations of oral and literate forms of communication and their transitions from one to the other. This has given rise to an emerging methodology called performance criticism.

Jesus' great-grandmothers are traced by looking at the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. The significant characteristics of the great-grandmothers named by Matthew, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba and stories of other women are discussed.

The recent diachronic study of the text that all kings in northern Israel are uniformly condemned, even as they are uniformly absent from the later account of the Chronicler is refined and more nuance is given to the verdict. The verdict did not turn from 'the sins of Jeroboam' hence they are rejected in the Deuteronomistic History because.

The article provides a new framework for reading language pertaining to the family in the context of early Jewish and Christian communities.

The 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 verses are known to be some of the most difficult and controversial verses in the letter and particularly disputed, among many others, are the references to the baptism of the dead and battling with beasts in Ephesus. One possible solution to this problem would be to view these passages as an interpolation that was not composed by Paul and also not included by him in the epistle.

The varying interpretations were made of the fragmentary 'Aramaic Apocalypse' (4Q246) that was discovered among the writings of Cave 4 in Qumran. The nature of the literary relationships between the fragment and the two canonical texts, Daniel 7 and Luke 1:31b-35, focusing upon pre- and early Christian perspectives on divine sonship is discussed.

An attempt is made to redress the general neglect that the Books of Chronicles have suffered as a subject of teaching in spite of the growing field of scholarship on them. The significant and spiritual issues thrown up by such scholarship are discussed including the notion of repentance and restoration in a vision of a merciful God.

Many readers and critics see in the Letter of James a chiastic arrangement of themes, whereas others propose a more straightforward thematic development, while several appeal to rhetorical analysis. A careful discourse analysis is presented, offering new insights into the literary dynamics of the letter, highlighting the structuring techniques, and a new way of understanding the overall relationship and interaction of units in the macrostructure of James.

A discussion on the theological problems about questions related to Christ's sufferings, and how Paul can fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the church, is presented. The evidence of extant Greco-Roman materials indicates that both suffering as exhortation and suffering as expiation should be included in the understanding of vicarious suffering, while understanding Paul's sufferings, as the gospel is explicated in Colossians, are acts that possess a mimetic vicariousness in the most natural way.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31, in Jubilees 1, suggests that Israel's redemption depends solely on its repentance, while in Deuteronomy 30:1-10, an additional element is included which says that God must change the people's nature and circumcise their hearts, to effect full restoration. Jubilees anticipates a dramatic, divinely initiated transformation of human nature, rather than humanly initiated repentance.

The theology of the opponents of Hosea at Bethel is reconstructed, by presenting a new understanding of four words in the MT of Hos 12:5a. The reconstruction of the text might lead to a surprising possibility that there is indeed a polemic against the deity El in the OT, traces of which can be found in Hosea 11-13, and Hosea himself declares to his northern contemporaries at Bethel in the eighth century that it was not El who met Jacob, but Yhwh all along.

An argument is presented about the Ecclesiastes 8:1-9 as a unified literary composition in which Qohelet underscores the limits of both mantic wisdom and monarchial power in the royal court. Yet Qohelet simultaneously reminds his audience of the practical wisdom of obedience to the king in the present and reasserts in a more limited way the reality of retribution in the future.

Some new scholarship on King David is reviewed in light of long-standing problems concerning his evaluation and it is suggested that the evaluation of David has less to do with him than with prior ideas about the nature of biblical narrative. Both critical and traditional reconstructions of David have suffered from a selective reading of the text and have offered portraits of David that lack nuance and imagination.

The Pastoral Epistles, which are identified as the purest distillation of 'early catholicism' in the New Testament, are examined. The analysis indicates that the Pastorals, rather than representing a decreased apocalyptic perspective, provide a vibrant embodiment of the essential ingredients of an apocalyptic worldview.

The numerous contradictions present in 1 Cor 8:1-9 have made the use of ancient historical theory an appropriate heuristic tool for the elucidation of Paul's argumentation. It is argued that these apparent contradictions can be sensibly explained by recognizing 8:1-9 as a rhetorical 'partitio' containing Corinthian quotations and interspersed Pauline refutations, that allowing for Paul's instructions in 8:1-11:1 to be interpreted as a coherent, sustained prohibition of intentional consumption of food offered to idols.

The episode of the viper in Acts 28:1-6 in tandem with the shipwreck in Acts 27 is Luke's version of the death of Paul. But the story of the viper more closely parallels the death of Jesus in Luke 23.

The meaning of the expression 'hour of distress' in 'Targum Neofiti' is examined. Moreover, the Gospel of John is also explained to illustrate how its use of the term 'hour' parallels certain aspects of 'Targum Neofiti's 'hour of distress'.

Esther is a model text used for research, which clearly manifests novelistic features in the earliest layer. Both the Greeks and the Jews in the fourth century had an equal need to reimagine their identify in a changing world, while Esther and Ctesias reflects differing responses to the same basic need.

Several biblical references to the pattern of segmented sleep in humans in premodern times are presented.

The context of Hebrew 9:15-22 explains that a broken covenant calls for death of the covenant maker. The agreement would be not be valid if the covenant breaker were to remain alive.

John 13 interprets the foot washing as an act of humble service that Jesus wished his disciples to follow. The foot washing also shows the depth of Jesus' love and God's love for the people.

'They' in John 8:33 were the group of people who spoke to Jesus. Further, another interpretation states ' they' as Christian Jews who wanted to hold on to both Jesus and Jewishness.

The description of Antiochus IV in the Book of Daniel is similar to that of Cambyses in the Histories of Herodotus. Antiochus is shown as an impious king who breaks both foreign and native laws and usurp power by murder.

An interpretation of Jeremiah 32 that cuts against the grain of traditional understandings is intimated. This interpretation is focused to appreciate the relationship between God's query in Jer 32:27 to Jeremiah's prior declaration in 32:17.

The narrative style of questioning adopted by Luke, which in many ways bore similarities to the Homeric manner of speaking, is analyzed. Compared to Homer, though, LukeEs consistency in style and connectivity in narration which represent the virtues of clarity, plausibility and persuasiveness, is impressive.

The literary relation between the books of the Old Testament namely, Jeremiah and Deuteronomy, are questioned by a number of critics. An account of one of the critics, who believed that the prophecy of Jeremiah was shaped by Proto-Deuteronomy and that he called himself a prophet like Moses, is presented.

A new foundation for an alternative interpretation of Rom 9:27-29 is provided, that accords better with the grammar, context, and OT background (Isa 10:22-23; Hos 2:1) of this verse. An attempt to show the progression from the hope represented by a 'remnant' of Israel in 9:27 to the hope represented by a 'seed' in 9:29 is made.

Interpretation of 2 Cor 5:14-6:2 provides valuable insights into Paul's views about Christ. Paul interprets the meaning of Christ's death in the study.

The two-way relationship between psalmody and prophecy is discussed. The influence of psalmody in the prophetic books, the future-oriented use of psalmody being evident in the compilation of the psalms and in the Greek translation of the psalter, and the eschatological use of psalmody in the intertestamental period, are examined.

Most of the biblical scholars have understood the overlapping stories of Saul and David in 1 Samuel 16-31. The overlapping stories of Saul and David illustrate, the difference between Saul and David and the nature of David's heart, as he continually inquired of Yhwh and declared his faith in Yhwh.

The significance and function of large and small story units within the great narrative works of the OT, is discussed. The three factors that affect the understanding of the great narrative works of the OT or their component elements are described.

The study debates on the antecedents of pronouns in the First Letter of John. The interjection of statements about Jesus in the overall structure has created problems for the modern reader in distinguishing between the two elements of the structure, and recapturing the original antecedents of the puzzling pronouns, to be able to understand more clearly, the overall meaning of the passage.

The problems related to the subjective and objective genitive interpretation and reading of Paul 's piiacutesigmatauiccedil Xrhoisigmatauo phrases are discussed.

An interpretation of Ecclesiastes based upon a rhetoric in accord with its historical and social background is presented. In this book Qoheleth reminds his readers about life and advises them on such matters as wisdom and work.

Issues concerning Quirinius' mention in Luke's gospel at the time of Jesus' birth are discussed. According to Matthew's gospel Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, but Quirinius was not legate at this time.

Issues concerning the interpretation of the structure and meaning of chapter 9 of Daniel are discussed. The chapter reflects the self-understanding of the second-century community under Antiochus IV behind the Book of Daniel.