The Names of Jerusalem in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts

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How to cite this article: JP Staff Writer, “The Names of Jerusalem in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts,” Jerusalem Perspective (2023) .

There are two main designations for the spiritual center of the Jewish world in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts;In addition, the Gospel of Matthew twice refers to Jerusalem not by name but as ἡ ἁγία πόλις (hē hagia polis, “the holy city”; Matt. 4:5; 27:53).

Calamities in Yerushalayim

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Luke 13:1-5 (Huck 162; Aland 207; Crook 244)For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.'”

Return to the Galil

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— wp:heading {“level”:3,”className”:”has-text-align-center”} –> (Matt. 4:12, 17; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:14-15)

Luke’s version of Return to the Galil (Luke 4:14-15) appears to have been based on a Hebraic source that was subsequently supplemented with additional information composed in Greek, which transformed the simple notice of Jesus’ return to the Galilee into a summary statement describing Jesus’ early teaching activities and the positive response it generated. … the opening sentence (Luke 4:14a), which describes Jesus’ return, reverts easily to Hebrew and contains themes and vocabulary that connect it to the preceding narratives (Yeshua’s Immersion and Yeshua’s Testing). … A few scholars have entertained the notion that in Luke 4:14-15 the author of Luke followed a non-Markan source. … For instance, Mark’s reference to John’s imprisonment after Jesus’ temptation (Mark 1:14) is a chronological “correction” of Luke’s mention of John’s imprisonment prior to Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:19-20).

Register Now for New David Bivin Workshop!

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In this workshop, we will study many dramatic and exciting miracle stories from the life of Jesus, such as:

Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-law (Mt 8:14-15; Mk 1:29-31; Lk 4:38-39; Crook, Parallel Gospels #61)

Healing of a Leper (Mt 8:1-4; Mk 1:40-45; Lk 5:12-16; Crook, Parallel Gospels #65)

Healing of a Paralytic (Mt 9:1-8; Mk 2:1-12; Lk 5:17-26; Crook, Parallel Gospels #96)

Healing of Man with Withered Hand (Mt 12:9-14; Mk 3:1-6; Lk 6:6-11; Crook, Parallel Gospels #131)

Stilling of the Storm (Mt 8:18, 23-27; Mk 4:35-41; Lk 8:22-25; Crook, Parallel Gospels #158)

Healing of a Demon-possessed Man (Mt 8:28-34; Mk 5:1-20; Lk 8:26-39; Crook, Parallel Gospels #159)

Raising of Jairus’ Daughter from the Dead (Mt 9:18-19; 23-26; Mk 5:21-24; 35-43; Lk 8:40-42; 49-56; Crook, Parallel Gospels #160)

Healing of Woman with a Hemorrhage (Mt 9:20-22; Mk 5:25-34; Lk 8:43-48; Crook, Parallel Gospels #160)

Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:30-44; Lk 9:10-17; Crook, Parallel Gospels #166)

Healing of Epileptic Boy (Mt 17:14-21; Mk 9:14-29; Lk 9:37-43a; 17:5-6; Crook, Parallel Gospels #181)

Healing of Blind Man (Mt 20:29-34; Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:35-43; Crook, Parallel Gospels #301)

Jesus raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, calmed the violent waves of the Sea of Galilee, and miraculously fed the multitudes.

Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven

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Matt. 13:11-15; Mark 4:11-12; Luke 8:10 (Huck 91; Aland 123; Crook 145)For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.'” Updated: 12 November 2021

וַיֹּאמֶר לָכֶם נִתַּן לָדַעַת אֶת רָזֵי מַלְכוּת שָׁמַיִם וְלִשְׁאָר בִּמְשָׁלִים כִּי רָאוֹ לֹא רָאוּ וְשָׁמוֹעַ לֹא שָׁמְעוּ וְלֹא הֵבִינוּ

Then Yeshua said to his emissaries: “God has permitted you to experience the mysteries the Kingdom of Heaven had in store. But until now those mysteries were only hinted at through the symbolic language of the prophets, for ‘no eye could see, and no ear could hear, and no heart could understand’ beforehand the full scope of redemption the Kingdom of Heaven would bring.This translation is a dynamic rendition of our reconstruction of the conjectured Hebrew source that stands behind the Greek of the Synoptic Gospels. It is not a translation of the Greek text of a canonical source.

Book Review: Robert Lindsey’s A Comparative Greek Concordance of the Synoptic Gospels

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For instance, Mark picks up στέγη (stege, roof) from Luke 7:6 in the story of the centurion’s servant and uses it as a replacement in Mark 2:4 for Luke’s δῶμα (doma, roof) in the story of the healing of the paralytic (Luke 5:17-26)…. For example, Lindsey cites Matthew and Luke’s mutual inclusion of “lengthy additions” to Mark’s version of the Temptation of Jesus (Mark 1:12, 13; Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13), as well as to Mark’s account of the Baptist’s preaching (Mark 1:7-8; Matt. 3:7-10; Luke 3:7-9).

“It Is Said to the Elders”: On the Interpretation of the So-called Antitheses in the Sermon on the Mount

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This is what we observe, for example, in Luke 6:27 where Jesus expresses the contrast between those addressed by his cries of woe (in vv. 24-26) and his listeners: Ἀλλὰ ὑμῖν λέγω τοῖς ἀκούουσιν (“But to you that listen, I say….”). … The final editor of Matthew has taken this sentence from its original context in the story of the exorcism at the Capernaum Synagogue (Luke 4:31-37 = Mark 1:21-28) in order to use it as his final comment on the Sermon on the Mount. … The same “I” is also missing in the Sermon of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:9 = Luke 3:8) and even in Matthew 5:20.

Yohanan the Immerser’s Execution

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Matt. 14:3-12; Mark 6:17-29; Luke 3:18-20 Luke 3:18-20 he informed his readers that Herod the tetrarch, having been rebuked by John on account of Herodias, the wife of the tetrarch’s brother, put John the Baptist in prison. … For instance, although L

Jesus’ Reference to Folklore and Historical Events

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This cultural interplay is clearly depicted in Jesus’ references to commonly known fables of his day in Matthew 7:15, Luke 4:23, Luke 7:24 (cf. …  Among them were the upper class (Luke 8:3), the Pharisees (Luke 11:37), the Sadducees (Matt. 22:23), members of the ruling Council, (Mark 15:43; John 3:1), tax collectors (Luke 5:27; Luke 19:2), sinners (Luke 15:1), fishermen (Mark 1:16), zealots (Matt. 10:4), men, women (Luke 8:2-3), Greeks (Mark 7:28), and harlots (Luke 7:37). … As Jesus taught in the same vein as other Jewish rabbis in the first century, he used this technique and illustrated his knowledge of folklore in the four following passages: Matt. 7:15, Luke 4:23, Luke 7:24 (cf.

Notes on the New Testament as a Witness for Broader Jewish Patterns in Jesus’ Times

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If the argument for the Jewish matrix of the early Jesus-centered tradition is taken seriously, the New Testament sources should be expected not only to react to elements of that matrix, but also to reflect them. It is here that study of the Jewish setting of early Christianity for the sake of better understanding the latter morphs into the investigation of early Jesus movement sources as witnesses for broader Jewish tendencies. Scholars of Qumran developed salient methods and insights that allow us to learn from the Scrolls not only about the particular group that seems to have produced them, but also about its rivals as well as “wider Judaism.” It stands to reason that a similar effort can contribute to critical assessment of the “witness value” of the earliest Christian writings: We can suppose that much of the material found there mirrors more general patterns of broader Jewish thought and practice.

First-century Jewish Use of Scripture: Evidence from the Life of Jesus

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Luke’s story of Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30) is the oldest account of the Jewish custom to follow the public reading of the Torah in the synagogue with a reading from the Prophets (the Haftarah). … Already the 17th-century Dutch scholar, Hugo Grotius, recognized the parallels between Jesus’ actions (Luke 4:16) and the synagogue caretaker in Tosefta Sukkah: “He stood to read from the Torah” (Tosefta, Sukkah 2:11)…. The first clue is Luke’s introductory phrase, “and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah” (Luke 4:17).

LOY Excursus: The Kingdom of Heaven in the Life of Yeshua

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How to cite this article:
David N. Bivin and Joshua N. Tilton, “LOY Excursus: The Kingdom of Heaven in the Life of Yeshua,” The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction (Jerusalem Perspective, 2014) .

LOY Excursus: Greek Transliterations of Hebrew, Aramaic and Hebrew/Aramaic Words in the Synoptic Gospels

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Mark 3:19; 14:10; Luke 6:16 (The Hellenized form Ἰσκαριώτης appears in Matt. 10:4; 26:14; Luke 22:3; John 6:71; 12:4; 13:2, 26; 14:22.)…

Matt. 5:18, 26; 6:2, 5, 16; 8:10; 10:15, 23, 42; 11:11; 13:17; 16:28; 17:20; 18:3, 13, 18, ; 19:23, 28; 21:21, 31; 23:36; 24:2, 34, 47; 25:12, 40, 45; 26:13, 21, 34; Mark 3:28; 8:12; 9:1, 41; 10:15, 29; 11:23; 12:43; 13:30; 14:9, 18, 25, 30; ; Luke 4:24; 12:37; 18:17, 29; 21:32; 23:43

ἠλί (ēli) = אֵלִי (‘ēli, “my God”)

Matt. 27:46 (2xx)

λαμά (lama) = לָמָּה (lāmāh, “why?”)

Tower Builder and King Going to War Similes

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Luke 14:28-32 (Huck 171; Aland 217; Crook 261)For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.'”