Bible Review

This phrase is from the fourth-century Nicene Creed. An interesting fact suggests the centrality of Jesus’ death in Christian tradition: His death is the only part of his adult life mentioned in the Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds, the two creeds most widely used by Christians.

For important recent studies of the interweaving of history and theology in the Gospel stories of Jesus’ death, see Raymond Brown, The Death of the Messiah (New York: Doubleday, 1994), and John Dominic Crossan, Who Killed Jesus? (HarperSanFrancisco, 1995). These two books argue for quite different positions and represent a spectrum of opinion in contemporary scholarship.

Moshe Greenberg, “The Stabilization of the Text of the Hebrew Bible Reviewed in the Light of the Biblical Materials from the Judaean Desert,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 76 (1956), pp. 157–167.

See Judith E. Sanderson, An Exodus Scroll from Qumran. 4QpaleoExod^m and the Samaritan Tradition (Harvard Semitic Studies 30) (Atlanta, GA: 1986); “The Contribution of 4QpaleoExodm to Textual Criticism,” in Memorial Jean Carmignac, ed. F. Garcia Martinez and E. Puech (Paris: 1988), pp. 547–560 (= Revue de Qumran 1349–52).

J.D.G. Dunn, “What did Christianity lose when it parted from Judaism?” Explorations 8 (2, 1994), p. 3.

Alan F. Segal, Rebecca’s Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1986). pp. 1 and 179.

See James D.G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Trinity Press, 1991); and Hershel Shanks, ed., Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of Their Origins and Early Development (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992).

Paolo Sacchi, Storia del Secondo Tempio: Israele tra VI secolo a.C. e I secolo d.C. (Torino: SEI, 1994), p. 280.

James H. Charlesworth, ed., Jews and Christians: Exploring the Past, Present and Future (New York: Crossroad, 1990), p. 37. See also J. Maier, Between the Testaments. History and Religion of the Second Temple Period (Munich: Echter Verlag, 1990); and Frederick J. Murphy, The Religious World of Jesus (New York: Abingdon, 1991).