Bible Review

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, 2 vols. Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981, 1985)

B.C.E. (Before the Common Era)is the scholarly alternate designation corresponding to B.C.

See Leonard J. Greenspoon, “Mission to Alexandria: Truth and Legend About the Creation of the Septuagint, The first Bible Translation,” BR 05:04.

See Samuel Dresner, “Rachel and Leah: Sibling Tragedy or the Triumph of Piety and Compassion?” BR 06:02.

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981).

By reach closure, I mean the materials were given their final order and form.

An apologetic, in the theological or philosophical sense, means a defense or justification for a cause and not an excuse or acknowledgement of a fault.

See also, Marcus Borg, “What Did Jesus Really Say?” BR 05:05.

A genre of rabbinic literature, Midrash refers to a nonliteral elaboration of biblical texts.

The Talmud is the rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah. The Palestinian, or Jerusalem, Talmud was completed in the fifth century A.D., and the Babylonian Talmud was completed in the sixth century A.D. The latter is longer and considered the more authoritative.