Exploring the New Testament World

Top Highlights

“January 6 was kept as the day of Jesus’ baptism, his spiritual birth, and the Eastern churches also began to refer to his physical birth as occurring on that day. When the Western churches began celebrating the nativity on December 25, the Eastern churches were horrified that they had succumbed to pressure from their pagan environment. To this day the Eastern Orthodox Church still observes Christmas on January 6.” (Page 142)

“It was once fashionable to talk of the distinction between the Jews of Palestine and those of the Diaspora, the Jews scattered across the Mediterranean world (cf. James 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:1). The picture was simple: Palestinian Jews were conservative, clinging to the Hebrew Torah, untouched by Hellenistic influences. Diaspora Jews were virtually indistinguishable from their pagan neighbors in appearance, ignorant of Hebrew, and willing to write new devotional literature in Greek (which eventually became the Old Testament Apocrypha, with books like Tobit and 1-2 Maccabees).” (Page 20)

“Since the Jews of the pre-Christian era had not settled on a canon of sacred books and since they did not adhere to a literal reading of their scriptures, they could dispute the meaning of any passage. The interpretation given by a majority of rabbis was supposed to be binding, but the minority opinions were also preserved. These authoritative pronouncements are called halakah.” (Page 30)

“Paul’s imprisonment could more accurately be described as house arrest, confinement to an ordinary house.” (Page 9)

“The resolution of the question, though slightly different, is culturally based. Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover not sitting in chairs around a table but reclining on couches.⁵ The Greek verbs used in all the Gospels mean ‘to recline,’ not ‘to sit.’⁶ The phrase ‘to lean (recline) on someone’s breast’ is an idiom in Greek meaning no more than ‘to sit next to someone’ in English. So we find that even a quick insight into the cultural setting of the narrative resolves what appeared to be a difficulty for interpretation. Arguments based on a misreading of the text can be recognized as deceptive.” (Pages 11–12)