Bible Review, April 2003
Features
What Jesus Really Meant by “Render Unto Caesar”
(It’s not about taxes)
It’s Spring. Tax time. Time to, as Jesus commanded, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” That phrase has become a kind of cliché—heard with annoying frequency every year as April 15 draws near. The full line of the quote is, “Render to Caesar the things...Read more ›
Beasts or Bugs?
Solving the Problem of the Fourth Plague
Blood, frogs, lice, cattle disease, boils … Every spring at the Jewish holiday of Passover, the ten nasties that plagued Egypt are described in the Haggadah, the midrashic retelling of the Exodus from Egypt that is read aloud during the Passover Seder meal. It is thus appropriate,...Read more ›
Parallel Paths to Heaven
Enoch and Jesus
At the end of the Gospel of Mark, we read: “So then the Lord Jesus … was taken up into heaven, and he sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).1 It is a remarkable fate—to be taken up bodily...Read more ›
Enoch’s Vision of the Next World
What is the appeal of that curious collection of tales known as the Book of Enoch? It is (and was) that it provides a glimpse into the beyond. As George Nickelsburg suggests in his new commentary, Enoch reassures the faithful that there was and will be another...Read more ›
That’s No Gospel, It’s Enoch!
Identification of Dead Sea Scrolls challenged
In 1972 the Spanish scholar José O’Callaghan startled the world of biblical scholarship when he announced that he had identified nine New Testament fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls.1 In the 30 years since, O’Callaghan’s findings have annoyed many scholars, excited a few and left most scratching...Read more ›