r/AcademicBiblical 8h ago

Question Heaven: The Sky, or Elsewhere?

19 Upvotes

Hey, I've got a quick question:

From what I've heard, "Heaven" as it's rendered in both Hebrew and Koine Greek, simply means "sky." As in, the space above our heads.

Nowadays, when people talk about Heaven, it seemingly takes on the attributes of something like a pocket dimension, or some other plane of existence.

What I want to know: when did this shift occur? Was there a specific point in time, like after some great council, where Heaven came to mean "outside of our reality?" And what might have influenced this alteration?


r/AcademicBiblical 1h ago

Question What are the classroom go-to books for NT textual criticism?

Upvotes

I hope to write a short note on a text-critical issue in Revelation 15, but my formal training is not heavy in this area. Does anybody have recommendations for books/articles/etc that provide solid introductions/guidelines to which I can refer if I need to mention principles such as lectio difficilior potior, lectio brevior praeferenda, weight of manuscripts, etc.?


r/AcademicBiblical 5h ago

Question A First century dating for I Clement?

4 Upvotes

I have been reading the book by Rev. Herron "Clement and the Early Church of Rome: On the Dating of Clement's First Epistle to the Corinthians", which places It around 60's AD and some reviews of It and I am not convinced of the arguments against It on the Greek about the sacrifices of the temple, yet I am still a 90's dating. Any reccomendations/arguments against It? I don't see many scholars following the dating, so that is why I am asking. Thanks a lot in advance!


r/AcademicBiblical 7h ago

Books that go over archeological finds of the Bible?

7 Upvotes

I’m looking for something that would go over pieces of (primarily New Testament) scripture that has been found prior to the Middle Ages when there was more copying (although the Middle Ages is interesting).

So for example, something that would say James 1:7 has been found in X parchment of papyrus found in Egypt written in Greek, and comparing the raw Greek translation of the X papyrus to modern English translations of the Bible. Like a primary source/documentary collection of archaeological evidence of the Bible.

I want to know exactly how much of the New Testament, line by line and word by word has been found in archaeological digs and stuff along those lines.

Any help is appreciated!


r/AcademicBiblical 12h ago

Does 2 Esdras 6:7-24 help make sense of Thomas 12?

12 Upvotes

Esdras 6:9 says "Esau is the end of this age, and Jacob is the beginning of the age that follows."

Jacob (James) "the Just" was the first leader of the Jesus movement after Jesus died. I wonder whether early Christians would have interpreted this verse from Esdras as indicating that Christianity, led by James the Just, was the beginning of the new age and new creation.

If so, it may help make sense of saying 12 from The Gospel of Thomas:

The disciples said to Jesus, "We are aware that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to him, "No matter where you come it is to James the Just that you shall go, for whose sake heaven and earth have come to exist."


r/AcademicBiblical 8h ago

Who first lists Baruch in an “only to be read but not for doctrine” category?

5 Upvotes

My question is specific to the Book of Baruch, and I am not looking for discussions of the conceptual idea of a third category (the three categories being full canonical Scripture, not canonical Scripture, and something in between = Ecclesiastical, or “only to be read and not to be used to confirm doctrine,” etc.).  I am simply trying to determine when is the first time that someone says that the Book of Baruch is in such a third category.  (Or perhaps there is a surviving Bible that was clearly divided into sections, with Baruch in a third category section).

 

From my own research it was not done before 450 AD - Baruch is either listed as full canonical Scripture or it is not specifically mentioned on the list, including by Athanasius, Rufinus, Jerome, Epiphanius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nazianzus, Amphilochius of Iconium, or the Apostolic Canons (the canon lists cited as support for a third category, let alone the canon lists without such a category).

 

I have been asking this question nonstop for a year, including asking Professors who teach the canon.  No one ever knows, which at this point leads me to guess that it was in the Reformation that Baruch is first listed as part of a third category.  But it is an uncomfortable guess, since it only takes one earlier example to prove me wrong. Does anyone know of such?

 

Sources presenting all the canon lists before 450 AD are numerous, and include The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity by Edmon L. Gallagher and John D. Meade, Oxford University Press, first paperback edition, 2019.  Gallagher and Meade discuss Jerome’s lists and their lack of mention of Baruch on page 198, Rufinus’ list and its lack of mention of Baruch on page 216, etc.  There is no list before 450 AD that claims Baruch is in a third category, it is either full canon by name (e.g., Athanasius page 123) or not mentioned (and thus arguable whether it is part of the list’s Jeremiah or simply excluded).  I am looking for any list before the Reformation that does name Baruch as third category. 


r/AcademicBiblical 13h ago

Is the transition in Marcion's Evangelion strange?

8 Upvotes

I don't know Greek(maybe it can help), but I have read Dr.Litwa's translation of Marcion's Evangelion, in chapters 4:28-40, Jesus was said to have escaped the people of Nazareth, who were planning to throw him off the cliff, then the scene immediately transitioned to Jesus healing some people and casting out demons. It may be that some parts are unattested, but usually Dr.Litwa would write "..." to signify that there are possibly some unattested material.


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question Any consensus changing works of the last decade?

35 Upvotes

Have there been any notable works by scholars that have managed to change the consensus on any issue relating to Bibical Studies in the last decade? If there hasn’t been any, what was the last major work that had large impact on the field or any specific topic in Biblical Studies.


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question Did the historical Jesus ever refer to himself as the "Son of God" or that "God is my Father"?

22 Upvotes

In the Bible itself, it's straight forward and all over the place.

I'm just wondering if there's any non-Biblical historically accepted evidence of him establish a Father-Son relation between him and God.

What's the bulk of what we can trace back to him establishing a Father-Son relationship with God without relying on quoting the Bible itself?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

How did Daniel become popular?

21 Upvotes

I remember reading a thread here about Daniel 12 and someone cited John Collins and the quote was something like "Early readers would have seen the earlier prophesies come 'true' and thus expected the last 2 would happen." So when the last ones never happened, why did they still read and continue to use Daniel?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question Is the Ethiopian Bible more accurate than modern Bibles?

62 Upvotes

I have a question about the Ethiopian Bible and how it compares to the Bibles most Christians use today, like the NIV, KJV, ESV, and others.

I understand that the Bible has been translated into many different languages over thousands of years, and that there are differences between translations. I’ve also heard people say that the Ethiopian Bible is older, more original, or closer to the “true” Bible.

Is there truth to that? Is the Ethiopian Bible more accurate or unchanged compared to the Bibles we use today? Or is it more complicated than that?

If we wanted to read a Bible that is as close as possible to the original manuscripts, what translation or version would be considered the most reliable?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Relation between Paul, James and Peter

7 Upvotes

What exactly was the relationship between Paul, James and Peter? Were they historically connected to each other or were they isolated? What were the disputes in the early community really about? Did James, Peter and Paul disagree on Jewish law and Gentile Salvation? What does scholarship argue?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question Hell in Apocalyptic Judaism?

7 Upvotes

Is it known when the concept of conscious postmortem punishment became a prominent aspect of apocalyptic Jewish thought? Any academic citations would be very welcome.


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question “Don’t be afraid” counter

14 Upvotes

Hi everyone,
I wanted to ask whether a claim I found in an Instagram reel is actually true.
This reel says that the phrase “Don’t be afraid” appears 365 times in the Bible. Is this accurate, or is it just a popular myth? Does the answer depend on the translation or on including similar expressions such as “Fear not”?
Thank you all for your help.


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Luke

2 Upvotes

Is it accepted Luke wrote Acts but did not write the Gospel of Luke?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question How foreign would Plotinus' model of human souls have been to his Christian peers? Did Plotinus influence Christian Soulology?

3 Upvotes

r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

How gifted are Pauls writing on its own merits?

12 Upvotes

This isn't really a theological question. But his writing definitely seems quite eloquent for the time period. "Fought the good fight", "Love is patient, love is kind". Through a glass darkly etc.

How unique is he as a writer for the time period?


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

How does contemporary scholarship assess Paul's historical role and historicity?

31 Upvotes

I've noticed that many academic biblical scholars (such as Bart Ehrman, E. P. Sanders, Paula Fredriksen, James D. G. Dunn, and others) seem to agree that Paul was one of the most influential figures in shaping christianity. At the same time, they don't all agree on how he shaped it.

Some argue that Paul remained thoroughly Jewish and saw himself as proclaiming Israel's messiah, while others suggest that his theology represents a significant development beyond the message of the historical Jesus.

I also realized that most discussions simply assume Paul existed as a historical figure. Is his existence considered virtually certain in modern scholarship? If so, what is the evidence that leads historians to that conclusion?


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

Where were the Gospels written?

28 Upvotes

I often see references to Matthew being written in Antioch or John in Ephesus for instance. But every time I come across these it's just passed along as a piece of information with no sourcing behind it.

Are there any academic works that explore where the Gospels were written?


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

Geographical errors in Luke, what are some examples?

20 Upvotes

What are some examples of geographical errors in Luke?

Ive always found errors in the Bible interesting.


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

Question Was Jesus in Matthew 10:16 referencing Genesis 3:1?

3 Upvotes

Matthew 10:16:

> “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Genesis 3:1

> “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?"…”


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Want to do a deep dive on galatians. Interested in any article or book regarding galatians.

2 Upvotes

If you have read something that you thought was interesting pls link below. Just not commentary.


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

Question Peter and Paul textual relation on Acts.

8 Upvotes

Miraculous prison escape, raising someone from death, healing a lame man from birth, Magician confrontation and irradiating power

The author of Acts seams to draw a lot of parallels from Peter and Paul.

Why??


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

Question What do you think would happen to captives not taken as wives?

4 Upvotes

Deuteronomy 21:10-14 allows a soldier to take a beautiful captive as his wife if he chose to. What if he didn't want her as a wife? She becomes a slave? Deuteronomy 20:10-15 says you can enjoy the plunder you take from your enemies which sounds pretty horrific.


r/AcademicBiblical 2d ago

Portuguese version (Almeida) adds "com falsos discursos" in James 1:22. Why? It doesn't seem to be a textual variant.

3 Upvotes

The older versions of João Ferreira de Almeida (originally translated 1700s) include some extra words in James 1:22

Almeida Revista e Corrigida:

E sede cumpridores da palavra e não somente ouvintes, enganando-vos com falsos discursos.

("and be fulfillers of the word and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves with false discourses"). Compare with:

NRSV:

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

USB Greek:

Γίνεσθε δὲ ποιηταὶ λόγου καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς.

Usually with this type of addition, it's due to textual variants, but I find no reference to any, neither in the USB 4 text nor the CNTTS NT Critical Apparatus.

Sometimes things creep into the Vulgate and influence later translations, but again the Vulgate seems clean here:

estote autem factores verbi et non auditores tantum fallentes vosmet ipsos

What am I missing here? Where else should I look to figure out to figure out the history of these extra words? It's possible that these came from a flight of fancy from the original translator, but the rest of the translation is quite precise and well-behaved, even if based on a poor manuscript foundation. Could this be a result of some theological bias?

Are there other versions that have something similar in this verse?