intertextual.bible

ANE, Hebrew Bible, LXX, Dead Sea Scrolls, Samaritan, Pseudepigrapha, Deuterocanon, Classics, New Testament, Targum, Rabbinic, & Patristic literary relationships

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

In the Baal Cycle the craftsman god Kothar fashions silver and gold furnishings for the gods. Exodus gives that role to a human, Bezalel, whom God fills with skill, understanding, and knowledge to build the Tabernacle.

https://t.co/8Mt2ESz2uJ

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

In Genesis 42, Jacob blames his sons for his losses while Reuben rashly offers his own two sons as a pledge. Jubilees keeps the lament but removes Reuben’s offer, smoothing over a detail that made an ancestor of Israel look foolish.

https://t.co/UJvGPukap2

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Revelation 22 describes Jesus as the beginning and end of creation, language similar to Greek traditions, such as a hymn from Egypt honoring a universal god identified with Poseidon. The hymn praises this deity as the source and completion of creation.

https://t.co/19DXE88x0Z

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Acts describes Gentiles who come to faith as those appointed to eternal life. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Berakhot uses the same Jewish idiom when a heavenly voice tells the dying Rabbi Akiva he is destined for the life of the world to come.

https://t.co/FWKf5IWpD4

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

In Luke, Jesus reads Isaiah 61 and proclaims recovery of sight to the blind. His quote follows the Greek Septuagint translation of Isaiah which adds restoring sight to the blind, language not found in the Hebrew original.

https://t.co/vTPfoNbiLi

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

How do you translate an uncomfortable text, especially one that could easily be interpreted as God commanding the people to sin? For the Septuagint and Targum translators of Amos, the solution was to significantly reshape the text.

https://t.co/YAQoVw1yMF

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Paul in 1 Corinthians and Rabbinic tradition in tractate Pesachim follow the same logic, ruling that something permitted should not be allowed in front of those who consider it forbidden.

https://t.co/aU2alNNu6f

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

The demand for exclusive loyalty to one god, and the specific way Deuteronomy phrases that demand, has its root in political documents from the ancient Near Eastern world, particularly in the treaties that bound subject peoples to imperial kings. These treaties required vassals to recognize only one lord, to reject all rivals, and to remain loyal under threat of severe curses. Deuteronomy draws on this political vocabulary …

https://t.co/ZPYI3aVpQ6

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Plato describes the stars as living beings that are divine and eternal, while the wandering planets are disobedient. Jude draws on this tradition when he calls the false teachers wayward stars headed for judgment.

https://t.co/na1PXCsuzT

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

The philosopher Cicero describes the heavens as nine spheres, the seven planetary ones beneath the fixed stars turning the opposite way. Jude draws on this idea of planets as wandering stars when he calls the false teachers wayward stars.

https://t.co/L9UtfDukUg

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Deuteronomy describes Jacob as God’s own inheritance, reflecting the ancient Near Eastern tradition of nations having patron deities. Jeremiah echoes this by calling Israel the tribe of God’s possession.

https://t.co/czXAzzVnCc

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Repairing God's Reputation

https://t.co/OQ0cSa84TJ

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Pseudo-Philo and Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah describe Abraham being lifted above the solid firmament to view the stars below, following ancient Near Eastern cosmology where the stars are attached to a solid dome over the earth.

https://t.co/C5kGWw0Xi7

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Isaiah 61 describes a messenger sent by God to comfort the grieving and free captives. In the Greek Septuagint, the language of freeing prisoners is changed to giving sight to the blind, reshaping the imagery and meaning of the text.

https://t.co/kcx0jvkOWS

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

The prologue to Hammurabi’s code declares he was divinely commissioned to establish justice and protect the poor from oppression. Psalm 72 similarly prays for Israel’s king to do the same, judging the people fairly and crushing the oppressor.

https://t.co/8AENuNwyOd

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

The command to love your enemies is not a Christian innovation, but has its roots in multiple Jewish traditions, being expressed in texts such as the Letter of Aristeas and the Babylonian Talmud. Jesus' own expression of the command to love your enemies fits perfectly with the others.

https://t.co/SofUEow0hv

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Joshua and Ezekiel describe God directly participating in honor and shame culture, with Joshua appealing to God to act in order to protect his reputation, and Ezekiel describing God redeeming Israel in order to repair his reputation.

https://t.co/H3cV6nfQmL

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

The Christian theologian Athanasius uses the Greek Septuagint version of Proverbs 8:25 to argue that Jesus is "eternally begotten" and not created. This reading is only possible in the Greek version and not the original Hebrew version.

https://t.co/nM2AV7l2Dx

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Jubilees repeatedly warns of a mortal sin that brings severe judgment. The epistle of 1 John follows this tradition, distinguishing between sins not resulting in death from a sin resulting in death.

https://t.co/nzrZ5P3mR1

[intertextual.bible @intertextbible]

Paul in Romans describes sin as an external force that takes advantage of human weakness, using language similar to Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah, which teaches that sin takes advantage of people through the evil inclination or “yetzer.”

https://t.co/udFPqYO7re