Bible Review

On this subject, see Victor Hurowitz, “P—Understanding the Priestly Source.”

As to whether Gethsemane was a garden or was just near an agricultural plot, see Joan E. Taylor, “The Garden of Gethsemane: Not the Place of Jesus’ Arrest,” BAR 21:04.

The term “synoptic,” from the Greek for “seeing together,” refers to the fact that the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke share so much material that, when printed in three parallel columns, the correspondences can be “seen together” at a glance.

The Greek fragments were found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.

See Stephen J. Patterson, “Q—The Lost Gospel,” BR 09:05; Eta Linnemann, “Is There a Gospel of Q?” BR 11:04; and Patterson, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Q,” BR 11:05.

See James Brashler, “Nag Hammadi Codices Shed New Light on Early Christian History,” BAR 10:01, and Helmut Koester and Stephen J. Patterson, “The Gospel of Thomas—Does It Contain Authentic Sayings of Jesus?” BR 06:02.

A genizah is a place, usually attached to a synagogue, where objects bearing the name of God are stored when they become unusable. According to Jewish law, such articles may never be destroyed; hence the genizahs of some synagogues contained large collections of manuscripts. See Raphael Levy, “First ‘Dead Sea Scroll’ Found in Egypt Fifty Years Before Qumran Discoveries,” BAR 08:05.

Babylonian Talmud Megillah 29a.

Scholars attribute to someone—or perhaps a school—called Deuteronomic not only the Book of Deuteronomy but also the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. These books are called the Deuteronomic History. They incorporate the same viewpoint and philosophy as the Book of Deuteronomy and reflect the thinking of what is often called the Deuteronomic School.

It probably consisted of an introduction, a law code (certainly chapters 12–19, which embody the principles of the reform) and the admonition in chapter 28 regarding the rewards for obedience and punishments for violation of the “terms of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to conclude with the Israelites” (Deuteronomy 28:69).