Bible Review

In the judgment of many scholars, this is probably right. See, for example, Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, pp. 301–304.

I owe the useful phrase “privy council” and this understanding of what happened in part to the very helpful popular book by the Jewish scholar Ellis Rivkin, What Crucified Jesus? (Nashville: Abingdon, 1984).

For a compact summary, see E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), pp. 294–318.

See Gerald G. O’Collins, “Crucifixion” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), vol. 1, pp. 1207–1210.

Everett Fox, In the Beginning: A New English Rendition of the Book Genesis (New York: Schocken Books, 1983), p. 16.

E.A. Speiser, Anchor Bible: Genesis (New York: Doubleday, 1964) p. 29.

Tertullian, de Baptismo 5, trans. mine. Text ed. and trans. (also) Ernest Evans, Tertullian’s Homily on Baptism (London: SPCK, 1964).

See Cyprian, Epistle 70 to Januarius; and Theodore of Mopsuestia, Homily 3 (on baptism).

Ambrose, for example, refers to the font as “Jordan,” Interpretation of Psalm 61, text in Migne, PL, vol. 14, col. 1180; also see Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystogogical Catechesis 3.1

See Ambrose, de Sacramentiis 1.18; Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 76.4–6; and Ignatius, Epistle to the Ephesians 18.2.