Brice C. Jones

Brice C. Jones presents a comprehensive analysis of those amulets from late antique Egypt which contain New Testament citations and evaluates the words they contain in terms of their text-critical value. The use of New Testament texts on amulets was common in late antiquity. These citations were extracted from their larger Biblical contexts and used for ritual purposes that have traditionally been understood in the slightly shadowy terms of 'magic'. Often, these citations were used to invoke the divine for some favour, healing or protection. For various reasons, however, these citations have not played a significant role in the study of the text of the Greek New Testament.

As such, this is the first systematic treatment of Greek New Testament citations in amulets from late antique Egypt. Jones' work has real implications for how amulets and other such witnesses from this epoch should be treated in the future of the discipline of New Testament textual criticism.

For the first time, the Gospel material unique to both Matthew and Luke is brought together into one volume—in both Greek and English. For more than a century, New Testament scholars have asserted that Matthew and Luke drew on sources in addition to Q and Mark during the composition of their Gospels. For convenience, the non-paralleled material in Matthew has traditionally been labeled "M," and the non-paralleled material in Luke has traditionally been labeled "L." We learn only from Matthew, for example, particular stories like Joseph and Mary's escape to Egypt and the Great Commission; from Luke stories like the Prodigal Son and Jesus' appearance on the Emmaus road. Studying the material unique to each Gospel in isolation from their narrative contexts will allow students and scholars alike to engage these stories on their own. In this book, the individual special pericopae from Matthew and Luke are collected and arranged in Greek and English in the order in which they appear in the Greek New Testament. An introductory essay is provided to introduce readers to the Synoptic Problem, the notions of M and L and where they come from, what the parameters are for selection, and the critical debate, so that readers know how the selections were made and what is being asserted by their inclusion. This book will be a wonderful teaching tool for seminary and university professors, and will facilitate student engagement with distinctive Matthean and Lukan stories. It will also be a valuable resource for New Testament scholars doing research on this special material, since having it all in one place will no longer require them to search for the distinctive passages among the larger Gospel narratives.

This article publishes for the first time the extant remains of a Sahidic Coptic manuscript containing portions of Luke 17-19. Almost all of the special Lukan pericope concerning Jesus and Zacchaeus is preserved (19:1-10), as well as most of the parable of the Dishonest Judge (18:1-8). The edition includes a transcription, translation, palaeographical analysis, critical apparatus, as well as images of the fragment.

This article presents a new transcription of the word τρυϲινον in P.Oxy. XIV 1674 based on a recent autopsy, a word which Grenfell and Hunt left untranslated in their edition due to its being unattested in the Greek language. The word is most likely a misspelling of a common Greek word meaning “fire drill” and would thus fit well within the agricultural context of the letter. An image of P.Oxy. XIV 1674 is published here for the first time.

The present article seeks to understand the statement ‘and the witnesses laid down their cloaks’ in Acts 7:58. This incident does not immediately stand out to the reader as being significant in the context of Acts 7 in any real way, and is often overlooked by commentators. However, based on other ancient episodes in which a cloak is removed, this article will call into question the meaning and function of the laying down of cloaks in Acts 7:58. It will be suggested that the gesture of shedding cloaks was a symbolic gesture which, on one level, signified impending violence or death. The conclusion will have implications for how we are to understand this gesture both in Acts and in the wider Greco-Roman world.