The Jewish World of Jesus: A Historical Overview

Copyright 1982 by Norman Perrin and Dennis During.This article, with very minor modifications, was written by Dennis Duling, Professor Emeritus of Canisius College. It was published in the 2nd edition of Norman Perrin and Dennis Duling, The New Testament: An Introduction (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1982), pp. 4-35, now out of print. This excellent work,…

Paul’s Six Greatest Ideas: Part One

Historically most interpreters of Paul have understood his teaching of “justification by grace through faith” based on the atoning blood of Jesus Christ as his greatest and most central insight. From Augustine to Luther, through Bultmann and Barth, the banner of the “Reformation” was centered on this fundamental precept. Wayne Meeks…

The Messiah Before Jesus

This semester I am offering an advanced undergraduate/graduate seminar on “The Dead Sea Scrolls and Earliest Christianity.” In preparation for this course I have been re-reading all of the published Dead Sea Scrolls as well as many of the secondary publications related thereto published over the past three decades. One…