On 10 November 1883, addressing his Göttingen colleagues and students in academic celebration of the quadricentennial of Luther's birth, Albrecht Ritschl (1822–89) delivered this remarkable verdict: “The genuine ideas of the Reformation were more concealed than disclosed in the theological works of Luther and Melanchthon.” The Wittenberg reformers themselves, not merely their epigones, had failed to systematize and safeguard those original epoch-making ideas by which they had effected their dramatic reform of religious life within the late medieval church.

In Laws 8.835b–842a Plato puzzles over the question of how the lawgiver is to inculcate proper behavior in matters of sexual activity. The problem is made more difficult by the fact that he would like to define proper sexual activity much more narrowly than any Greek legislator before him ever had. He would limit it to acts between man and wife which are capable of resulting in conception (838e–39a). Every other sexual manifestation, homosexual or heterosexual, is to be forbidden.

Even when a division draws heavily upon the facts of Scripture, as does Mishnah's division of Damages, the framers and organi resort to Scripture's theory of what is to be done with those facts. The scriptural data, while essential, simply are incidental to the formation and theory of the Mishnaic system. In no way do the theories of substance or organization of scriptural law-codes impress the framers of Mishnah, who choose their own outline to make their own points. What is further to be seen is that, when we compare the systemic constructions of another Israelite group of approximately the same time and the same place, in this instance, the Essene community represented by the so-called Damascus Covenant, which provides considerable information on the political structures envisaged in its community, we gain a measure of insight.

In a recent analysis of Acts 27–28, Miles and Trompf have emphasized the strategic position of these sections in the text and their value as a kind of witness for Lukan theology. Luke's statement that “everyone escaped to land” after the shipwreck (27:44), they argue, is in fact a “long-forgotten theological punch line.” To an ancient reader, the assertion that all escaped with their lives would, they contend, be prima facie evidence of Paul's innocence. Drawing on pagan concepts of divine retribution, pollution, and shipwreck, they attempt to reconstruct the attitude of this reader on his first encounter with these passages. If Paul had been guilty, such a reader, according to their reconstruction, would have believed that his pollution should have resulted in death for himself and/or fellow passengers. The fact that no one died, however, would amount to “decisive confirmation of Paul's innocence.” There was no need, therefore, to relate the outcome of Paul's appeal to Caesar since he had already been put to the test “by forces and exigencies far more dreaded than the requirements of a human law court.”

To the men and women of the Middle Ages the figure of Constantine loomed large over the fourth century. Born a pagan, he converted to Christianity and became the first Christian emperor, the convenor of councils, the defender of orthodoxy, the builder of churches, the herald of a new age, the founder of Christian Europe. But to the men and women of the later fourth century, the generation of John Chrysostom, it was not Constantine, but Julian, raised a Christian only to forsake his “hereditary piety,” Julian the pagan emperor, Julianus Apostata, whose deeds were alive in their memory. The age of Constantine was part of past history, but Julian's actions, abortive as they may have appeared to later generations, were still remembered not only by the old, says John Chrysostom, but also by the “young people” of our day.

There are two extant copies of the Old Syriac gospels, the evangelion da-mepharreshe. One, the Curetonian Codex (=C), was discovered by William Cureton and edited by him in 1858. It dates to the middle or later part of the fifth century. The other, the Sinaitic Codex (=S), was discovered by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and her sister Mrs. Margaret Dunlop Gibson at St. Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai. It dates to the later part of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. Both MSS have a number of lacunae. In combination, however, they preserve most of the text of the four gospels. Although they are not identical their agreements are sufficient to show that they belong to the same translation. S is generally thought to preserve the original text better than C. C, however, sometimes preserves older readings than S.

Studies on the essence and development of the concept of original sin abound. Not only has this fundamental tenet of Christian theology played an important role in the history of Western religious thought, but it continues to command the attention of scholars and theologians even today. Given this great interest, one is occasionally surprised at the narrowness of the historical and religious framework to which many have confined their discussions of original sin. All too often, scholars have overlooked the significance which events within the community they are examining or parallel developments in other religious communities might have for explicating a new direction in the history of this doctrine. While the present study can hope neither to reformulate the findings of the voluminous literature on original sin nor to compensate in large measure for this methodological shortcoming at times inherent in it, it will attempt to demonstrate by example how the notion of original sin did not evolve in a historical vacuum. It both drew from and contributed to prevalent philosophical and political theory, and it even interacted significantly with non-Christian religious concepts.

Paul Tillich's theology is largely an attempt to interpret or at least illuminate Christian concepts by using ontological or philosophical concepts. An important part of Tillich's system is his treatment of sin and the fall, a treatment that is in effect an analysis of existence. But this analysis is beset with ambiguities and difficulties. It is my purpose here to clarify and to defend Tillich's existential analysis.

So Aṇṭāḷ begins her poem Tiruppāvai, portraying in thirty verses one episode in the life of Krishna and his cowherd lovers, but one highly significant for the Śrī Vaiṣṇavas of South India. In this poem, they believe, is embedded the essence of the Upanishads, and through it the Lord Vishnu will bathe his devotees with grace and unending delight. The purpose of this study is to consider what Śrī Vaiṣṇavas believe the essential teaching of the Upanishads to be and how it is found in the text. To do so we will focus on the theme of bathing as it is portrayed in the poem itself, in the traditional account of the poet's life, and in the earliest complete commentary on the poem.

The rabbinic influence on Origen's exegesis of the Song of Songs has been the focus of three major studies.