In composing his history of the monarchy the Chronicler incorporated material from the canonical Books of Samuel and Kings into his text. Although the Hebrew text of Chronicles in these parallel passages is not identical in every respect with the Hebrew text of Samuel and Kings, the correspondence of the two Hebrew texts is very close. Since the Greek translation of Samuel and Kings undoubtedly preceded that of Chronicles, the question arises whether the translator of Chronicles into Greek made use of the Greek translation of Samuel and Kings, and if so, in which text form or recension. The present investigation is confined to a comparative study of the synoptic parallels in the Greek texts of I Paraleipomena and I–II Reigns.

After exhorting the brethren not to hold the faith with acts of partiality (2:1), the author of the Epistle of James presents an example of partiality in the assembly (2:2, 3), followed by a reproach in the form of a rhetorical question (2:4). Dibelius has rightly warned against historicizing this example, as though it presented an actual incident for which the author gives advice. But even when James 2:2, 3 is understood as an example employed for paraenetic purposes, still we must ask how this example was understood —i.e., what type of situation is depicted and what is the point of the example?

In a recent study of the Greek text of 1 Esdras we argued that it frequently reflected an old, often nonexpanded Semitic Vorlage despite the many corruptions and secondary expansions peculiar to the “apocryphal” text. Esdras B [hereafter: G], on the other hand, was also found to differ from the received Hebrew text, but its variants were small enough that its underlying text-type could be called Proto-Massoretic. This analysis conflicts with that of Bernhard Walde, Wilhelm Rudolph, and others, who would assign the same geographical and chronological horizons and nearly identical Vorlagen to 1 Esdras and G. We shall test our interpretation, therefore, by studying the differences in the Hebrew texts of Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 on the basis of the translation of Ezra 2 in 1 Esdras 5. Although the latter has many omissions and doublets —in fact, it is in relatively poor shape —not enough attention has been paid to its alternation between Ezra-type and Nehemiah-type texts.

Although Pontius Pilate is known primarily because of one episode —his sentencing Jesus of Nazareth to the cross —and from one source — the New Testament, there are five discrete incidents involving him which are reported in extra-Biblical sources. They are: the so-called “affair of the standards” at Jerusalem, his construction of an aqueduct in the same city, the episode of the golden shields in Jerusalem, his repression of armed Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim, and, finally, his citation to Rome by the proconsul of Syria, Vitellius, and his arrival there after the emperor Tiberius died in 37 A.D. Josephus is our source for all these incidents except for the golden shields affair, which is reported only by Philo in his Embassy to Gaius.