Bible Review

See Rashi’s commentary on the Torah, at Genesis 1:1.

For passages associating Sabbath observance with exile, see Genesis 2:1–3; Isaiah 56:1–9; Jeremiah 17:19–27 and Nehemiah 13:16–22.

The J(ahwist) and E(lohist) sources were so named because in the narratives in Genesis attributed to them God is called Yahweh and Elohim respectively. The D(euteronomist) gets its name from the Book of Deuteronomy—though portions of the books of Joshua through Kings are also attributed to this source. The P(riestly) source is named for the interest it has in matters of concern to priests.

YHWH, known as the tetragrammaton, is the personal name of God. Its original pronunciation is not known with certainty, but many scholars pronounce it Yahweh. The combination “YHWH Elohim” occurs as often in the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2–3 as it does in the rest of the Hebrew Bible.

Scholars attribute Genesis 1:1–2:4a to one source (the Priestly source) and Genesis 2:4b–4:26 to another (the Jahwist source).

The Tetragrammaton, four Hebrew letters, is the unpronounceable name of the Israelite God, often vocalized as “Yahweh.”

See John Dominic Crossan, “Why Christians Must Search for the Historical Jesus,” BR, April 1996.

In current scholarship, “apocalyptic” denotes a literary genre, a world-view or the belief common among first-century Jews (and frequently, though not always, expressed in the writings of the genre) that their history, and with it world history, was reaching a great climax. I use the word in the last sense in particular. “Apocalypse” denotes either writings belonging to the apocalyptic genre (especially the Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse) or the climactic historical event itself.

Q, a hypothetical fifth gospel, consists of non-Marcan material common to Matthew and Luke. See the following BR articles: Stephen J. Patterson, “Q—The Lost Gospel,” October 1993; Eta Linnemann, “Is There a Gospel of Q?” August 1995; and Patterson, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Q,” October 1995.

Here, I resume the discussion of “The Persistence of Chaos in God’s Creation”; see BR, February 1996. At points this discussion overlaps with my essay, “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: The Sovereignty of God in the Bible,” Theology Today, April 1996, pp. 1–11.