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Acts 17:16-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and the negative suggestions of “superstition.” Though Paul would hardly be opening his remarks on a negative note, the underlying second inference of this term still lurks. Paul’s tack is to immediately find common ground between himself and his erudite audience. He finds this commonality in an inscription on one of the multitude of altars adorning Athens: “To the unknown God.” While there is literary evidence of the existence of such altars (see Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers ...

2. Hebrew Servants

Exodus 21:2-11

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... , pp. 201–7. For a newer source critical argument that the book is not the oldest of the biblical law codes see Van Seters, A Law Book. For excellent discussion of the laws and an extensive bibliography on the book, see Sprinkle, The Book. For an erudite analysis of the laws within the book see Houtman, Exodus, III, pp. 78–269. For a focus on composition history, see Crüsemann, The Torah. The seven extant law codes of the ancient Middle East include two Sumerian documents: that of king Ur-Nammu of the ...

3. Job Considers a Legal Dispute with God

Job 9:1–10:22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... an account that includes the death of his father. In The Trial of God, Wiesel gives us an idea of the provenance of the din torah (“judgment according to the Torah”): “Its genesis: inside the kingdom of night, I witnessed a strange trial. Three rabbis—all erudite and pious men—decided one winter evening to indict God for allowing his children to be massacred. I remember: I was there, and I felt like crying. But nobody cried.”1 The dilemmas of this play have often been compared to the book of Job ...

4. The Greatest Commandment

Mark 12:28-34

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The final test of Jesus from the constituents of the Sanhedrin comes from a scribe (12:28–37). Scribes (NIV “teachers of the law”) were torah experts of great erudition who both advised the Sanhedrin and enjoyed legendary reputations and privileges. Famous rabbis were often asked, as Jesus is asked here, to summarize the essence of all 613 commandments in the torah in a nutshell. According to the NIV (12:28), the scribe asks which is the greatest of the “ ...

5. Divisions In the Church

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... apostellō) that is related to his normal assertion that he is “an apostle [a sent one] of Christ” (1:1). Paul was one who was sent by Christ (to preach), but Christ did not send him primarily to baptize or to preach an ostensibly erudite message. On this issue of the congruence of the messenger with the message, see N. M. Watson, “ ‘The Philosopher Should Bathe and Brush His Teeth’: Congruence between Word and Deed in Graeco-Roman Philosophy and Paul’s Letter to the Corinthian,” ABR 42 (1994 ...

6. Idols and Altars

Exodus 20:22--21:1

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner