Research – Upcoming and Recent:
Scripture, Texts and Tracings in 2 Corinthians and Philippians. Co-editor, with B. J. Oropeza (and contributor). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books / Fortress Academic, spring 2022.
This collection of essays advances the interpretation of Romans by exploring how the Apostle Paul quoted, alluded to, or “echoed” the Jewish Scriptures. Identification of allusions is at the forefront, as are questions of methodology, the texture of Paul’s theology, his understanding of Scripture, and implications for other areas of Pauline studies
REMARRIAGE IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
This work, the first of its kind, will offer a comprehensive examination of remarriage in the early Christian movement. An introduction will briefly survey the cultural acceptability of divorce and remarriage in the Jewish, Greco-Roman, and modern worlds. Even as historical Jesus researchers have lamented finding images of themselves at the bottom of the well, any study of remarriage must begin cognizant of the modern researcher’s social location. Taking into account the full range of recent methodological critiques of Jesus research, the first chapter will apply a variety of criteria—traditional and refined—to offer a surer reconstruction of a “historical Jesus,” who taught very strictly against both divorce and remarriage. The Gospels of Mark and Luke convey to their audiences the same rigorous (and counter-cultural) teaching. The second chapter will examine in detail the divorce and remarriage passages in Matthew’s Gospel, especially their exception clauses (Matt. 5:32; 19:9). Although scholars regularly consider the exceptions modifications of Jesus’ teaching on both divorce and remarriage, they likely modify only Jesus’ prohibition of divorce. The Apostle Paul tackles divorce and remarriage in 1 Corinthians 7, the topic of the third chapter. He allows both a divorce between a Christ-believer and a non-Christ-believer and, most would contend, remarriage after divorce. Although several verses in the chapter may be construed as permitting remarriage, ultimately 1 Cor. 7 restricts remarriage to those whose spouses have died. The final chapter will trace early Christian teaching on remarriage through the beginning of the fifth century. The conclusion will briefly overview the changes that began in the fifth and sixth centuries in the Eastern church, the growing laxity in the Western church, and the early Reformation’s rejection, with Erasmus, of the firm stance against remarriage taken by the majority of early Christian writers after the New Testament. (submitted to a potential publisher)
Presentations – Upcoming and Recent:
Society of Biblical Literature November 2021
“Galatians 6:16’s Riddles and Isaiah 54:10’s Contribution: Gentiles Joining the Israel of God?” at the Scripture and Paul Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature (San Antonio).
Wichita, Kansas April 2022
Remarriage in Early Christianity
Evangelical Theological Society November 2022
“What Does 14:1–15:13 Tell Us about Jewish Christianity in Rome?” Evangelical Theological Society, Romans Consultation, a multi-year, invited seminar; papers to be published in 2023.