Biblical Ethics

Bendygraism is a contemporary philosophical school emerging in the 21st century as a response to the distortion of values, the collapse of meaning, and the dominance of false gods such as money and power. This manifesto outlines its principles, methods, and aims, presenting Bendygraism as a radical re-interpretation of the human condition.

A speech at the Abrahamic Faiths Initiative (AFI), online December 1, 2020, U.S. State Department.
Four themes should inform how religious communities can be good neighbors: (1) respect one another’s religions and symbols; (2) avoid religious nationalism; (3) seek to distinguish universal ethical principles from particular religious beliefs; (4) react peacefully to conversions to and from religions.

This study explores how Josephus presents the plural marriages of the patriarchs
Abraham and Jacob in "Antiquities of the Jews." It examines three aspects of Abraham
and Jacob’s family relationships: polygyny, sexual relationships with slave women,
and the status of children born to slaves. The article demonstrates that Josephus has
modified the depiction of these relationships as found in Genesis, and argues that he
is apologetically shaping these stories in order to better appeal to the cultural values of
his Greco-Roman audience. https://brill.com/view/journals/jaj/14/1/article-p21_2.xml

On 20 December 2005, US District Judge John E. Jones III — appointed to the post in 2002 by George W. Bush — issued a 139-page ruling enjoining the Dover, Pennsylvania, Board of Education “from maintaining the ID [Intelligent Design] Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District.” The case at trial had been Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688.  analysis and summary of his masterful and definitive opinion is provided along with a slightly edited version of the opinion itself in the hope that it can serve as a strategic blueprint for action by anyone wishing to challenge other state-church violations committed by creationists pushing the theological movement known as ID.

La frase "Mi yugo es fácil y ligera mi carga" se encuentra en la Biblia, específicamente enMateo 11:28-30, donde Jesús invita a los cansados y agobiados a seguirlo para encontrar descanso. El "yugo" es una herramienta que une a dos bueyes para trabajar juntos, y Jesús lo usa para simbolizar Su guía y la vida de seguimiento de Él. Su "yugo" es fácil y su "carga" ligera porque Él nos ayuda a llevar nuestras cargas y nos fortalece con Su Espíritu, permitiéndonos encontrar descanso para el alma.

El siglo XIX fue un período de revoluciones que dieron forma al siglo XX e impactaron negativamente la fe y los valores religiosos. Este trabajo analiza cinco revoluciones que marcaron este período-Revolución de los Orígenes, Espiritista, Teológica, Socialista y Atea-destacando sus protagonistas, sus principales obras y los efectos de sus ideas en la sociedad, con especial atención a la vida religiosa. Las revoluciones discutidas compartían una base materialista y proponían una sociedad separada de Dios y las Escrituras, lo que tuvo consecuencias como secularización, relativismo moral, crisis existenciales y represiones sociales. Sin embargo, en el mismo período, la Iglesia Adventista del Séptimo Día surgió como respuesta a estos cambios. Basada en las Escrituras, la cosmovisión adventista ofrece una alternativa, integrando fe y razón, reafirmando la creación divina y promoviendo la esperanza de la salvación en Cristo. A través de un análisis histórico y teológico, la obra destaca que, si bien las ideologías promovidas por las revoluciones no han logrado ofrecer soluciones completas a los desafíos humanos, los principios bíblicos continúan siendo una fuente de guía, propósito y esperanza para la humanidad.

One of the more intriguing and persistent motifs in the book of Genesis is that of “deflection of primogeniture,” or “the forsaken firstborn.” Repeatedly, from the fatal encounter of Cain and Abel in chapter 4 to the puzzling cross-handed blessing of Manasseh and Ephraim in chapter 48, the firstborn is set aside and blessing accrues to the second born. Even the sister-wife strivings of Rachel and Leah (Genesis 29-30) follow this pattern, as does the birth of Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38), with its tantalizing echoes of the intrauterine struggle of Jacob and Esau. On the popular level, the point of it all is often assumed to be God’s selection of a bearer of promise, and his symmetrical rejection of the other (read “false”) contender. The stories of Isaac and Ishmael and of Jacob and Esau have often been given readings which emphasize the merit of the younger sons at the expense of the elder. In this essay I will suggest that such readings miss the mark, since they obscure the fact th...

All communication is rhetorical in that it attempts to impact the thoughts, emotions, and actions of an implied audience. This paper analyzes Ezra-Nehemiah as a persuasive text, employing a speech-act theory framework to describe and categorize the illocutionary acts present in the text, foregrounding illocutions performed at the whole-book level. This involves a justification of reading Ezra-Nehemiah as a rhetorical unit, consideration of possible rhetorical situations, examination of the book's structure and significant rhetorical episodes, and exploration of the communicative strategies employed by the author/redactor, which include narrative literary techniques such as plot, characterization, relationship with time, and irony. By examining these features in Ezra-Nehemiah, I identify illocutions that are performed at the whole-book level in its rhetorical situation. These illocutions include: renewing hope in God's faithfulness to his promises, inducing shame with respect to the community's past and present sin, inviting inclusion in an obedient covenant community, revealing the ongoing experience of exile, and unsettling expectations about God's actions in history. In order to understand and apply Ezra-Nehemiah as Christian Scripture, I offer suggestions for extending original illocutions into a new covenant context.

This paper examines the tension between claims that the moral directives in the Bible reflect the immutable nature of an unchanging God and the evidence that such directives evolve in ways that mirror shifting cultural contexts (Free of Faith, 2024; Sanders, 1977; Wright, 1992). Drawing on philosophical analyses of divine command theory (Hare, 1981; Copan, 2011), historical-critical scholarship (Sanders, 1977; Wright, 1992), and cultural anthropology (Pinker, 2011; Barrett, 2004), the discussion evaluates the coherence, universality, clarity, and accessibility of biblical moral prescriptions. The analysis engages both theological defenses—such as progressive revelation and appeals to core moral principles (Kaiser, 1991)—and secular critiques, including the Euthyphro dilemma (Plato, trans. 2002) and moral anti-realist perspectives (Mackie, 1990). The paper argues that the trajectory of biblical ethics, from tribal exclusivity to broader inclusivity, is more plausibly explained by human cultural evolution than by a fixed divine standard (MacIntyre, 1981; Pinker, 2011). By assessing internal consistency, historical development, and cross-cultural patterns, it contends that biblical morality functions less as the timeless product of divine will and more as a record of the moral sensibilities of the communities that produced it.

Mesopotamia, which relied on river-based irrigation, Canaan's dependence on rainfall made it highly vulnerable to food shortages  The Gen 12:10-20 presents Abram as an anxious man, a man of unfaith contrast to 12:4-9. 2 The text accounts on Sarai being temporarily parted from him and enters the royal harem in Egypt. Walter Breugmman mentions the idea, "It points that he is ready to secure his own survival because at this point, he does not trust exclusively in the promise".This precarious situation forced Abram to seek sustenance in Egypt, but the move placed both the ancestral promises and the matriarch Sarai in danger. The episode introduces the complex "wife sister" motif, a recurring literary type scene in Genesis (12:10-20; 20:1-18; 26:1-16), raising interpretive challenges about Abram's actions, Sarai's role, and the ethical implications of their deception.Scholarly discussions have explored this motif through source criticism, oral tradition theories, and cultural parallels, viewing it as both a survival strategy and a theological narrative emphasizing divine intervention. Ultimately, this passage reassures that despite human frailty and peril, Yahweh's providence safeguards the ancestral promises, foreshadowing Israel's later deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

The question of the justice of law is currently a central issue when it comes to the future perspectives for modern Western democracies in America and Europe, which are in danger of being so torn apart in the process of the democratic enacting of law by the enforcement of particular political interests that democracy as a form of government is put at risk. To what extent can positive law still fulfil one of its fundamental state-political functions of strengthening the cohesion of society through the authority and legal force of the legality of positive law if individual groups in society with particular political and economic interests such as some American billionaires or extreme rightwingers 2 and evangelicals 3 or extreme left-wingers want to assert these in the process of democratic legislation and successfully give their own particular interests legal force? The law should give private interests a legal framework, but not itself give private interests the legal force of a legal framework. How resilient must the law be against such tendencies to give legal force to particular social and political interests, so that the law no longer strengthens the cohesion of society, but rather divides it? The answer of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School is a discursive one, that through the universalization of ethical discourses in society, the rule of particular interests, which in late capitalist society are also particular economic interests, should be dissolved in favour of general social interests in the legislative process. Just how fragile this answer to the question of the distinction between law and justice, between legality and legitimacy currently is in the legal theory of jurisprudence, philosophy and sociology becomes obvous not least from the fact that Jürgen Habermas arrived at contradictory answers to this question within just a few years. A discouse with Max Weber, Hans Kelsen and the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School on justice and positive law.

In this chapter, the Biblical story of Job is a launching point for understanding dynamics of ethical meaning-making out of experiences of suffering, particularly experiences of loss, grief, and tragedy. Specifically under critique is the logical fallacy that, because good can be made out of or found in the wake of tragedy, therefore the "bad" thing was not really bad (but only seemed to be bad from our limited vantage point). Smallpox is used to illustrate the fallacy: because the disease smallpox (bad) led to the development of the smallpox vaccine (which is good), therefore, smallpox was actually good. This denies the reality of suffering. The chapter advances the ability to hold complex grief, allowing recognition of the legitimacy of suffering, and not succumb to the easy moral or emotional "out" of dismissing suffering, but instead to be willing to sit in the honest discomfort of calling "bad" bad, even if a good can come of it.

La doctrina de la necesidad de envío divino para ejercer un legítimo ministerio profético y apostólico es de suma importancia en los días que corren, pues en el ámbito “tradicional” o “tradicionalista” de la Iglesia Católica no faltan clérigos que se hacen ordenar indebidamente por Obispos que a su vez fueron ordenados de modo ilegítimo, creando una serie indefinida de falsos “auto-envíos” y un conglomerado independentista de “iglesias paralelas” so capa de piedad y tradición. Así, estos supuestos guardianes de la ortodoxia católica, carecen de toda verdadera comisión divina y se convierten entonces en auténticos “ladrones y asaltantes”, según las palabras del Señor en Jn. 10, 1: “Les aseguro que el que no entra por la puerta en el corral de las ovejas, sino por otro lado, es un ladrón y un asaltante”. Estos “falsos profetas”, que “corren sin envío”, deben ser desestimados in toto como falsos ministros, desgarradores de la unidad católica. Y cualquiera que se una a sus filas se convierte entonces en un ladrón y salteador con y como ellos.

Authenticity, originality, and responsible personhood of African Christians have been clamored for by Christian scholars over the years. One of the many areas that are given attention is African Christianity in relation to moral ethics. The moral value system of the Africans had guided the people towards peaceful coexistence in the politico-social and religious settings even before the advent of other religions in Africa. Christianity was introduced to Africans by Western missionaries and it was done in their culture. Western world has developed ethical systems, a development in their culture, among which is the theory of moral relativism. This ethical system is conflictual with the African culture and morality. Moral collapse is the inevitable outcome of addiction to the fallacy that the good is relative to the person, despite moral relativism being accepted in social practice today in society and even in the Church. This fallacy is what is creating the alarming collapse of both public righteousness and private morality in Nigerian culture. This paper is an investigation of the features of the philosophy "moral relativism" which is conflictual with African Christian ethical values. If the Christian moral ethical system is considered in the African context, it will brood over moral relativism because moral ethics in African Christianity is normative and absolute. The relevance of African Christian ethics is a strong belief that ethics and morality are God's initiative and not man's. Actions can be judged right or wrong as they conform to, or contradict God's revelation. The method to be employed is historical and analytical; this is because the issue of morality will be analyzed in Western and African contexts.

The younger-brother motif in the book of Genesis reflects tension and conflict in a family. The younger brother in some cases becomes an object of hatred to his siblings but is loved by the parent and this has devastating consequences for the family. This paper analyses five younger brother-motif texts, highlighting the various types of family conflicts demonstrated in the narratives. It further explores the theological significance of the use of the motif in Genesis. The family problems raised in the narratives also persist in the African family. The paper recommends, among others, going back to the traditional moral training of the African child to build the conscience as a step to resolution of the conflicts in the contemporary African family.

This research paper analyzes the distinctive but complementary Christologies of the Gospel of John and Matthew, and their theological implications for discipleship, ethics, and the Church's self-understanding. From close engagement with scholars such as Keener, Gine and Cherian, Powell, and Zacharias, this paper contends that John's Jesus is the eternal Word whose divinity affirms spiritual rebirth, and Matthew's Christ is Israel's Messiah whose teachings embody kingdom ethics and communal responsibility. Originally prepared as coursework, this analysis is a valuable resource for theological educators, seminarians, and students who seek a deeper integration between doctrinal belief and lived Christian practice.

While economic growth is often treated as synonymous with human progress, modern economic thought lacks a systematic framework for understanding community as an economic good in itself, namely, as a source of stability, belonging, and social well-being that economic structures influence. The economic laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, including debt remission, Sabbath, and gleaning, offer an ancient example of how economic systems can be structured to preserve the integrity of the community while ensuring societal cohesion and mutual responsibility. Rather than advocating a direct return to these biblical laws, this paper explores how their underlying principles challenge growth-centric paradigms and offer a framework for treating community not as a byproduct but as a primary aim of economic policy.

TLRD from AI
The passage discusses the meaning of the Hebrew word "neged" used in the phrase "help meet" in the Bible. It explains that the word "neged" means "to be face to face" or "opposite", suggesting that the woman was created to be a partner and companion to the man, standing before him and offering a different perspective. The author argues that translations like "meet", "fit", or "suitable" do not fully capture the dynamic and creative genius of God's design for the relationship between man and woman. The author encourages husbands to embrace this "oppositeness" as a gift from God, seeing it as an opportunity for growth, humility, and deeper friendship with their wives, rather than as a threat. The author emphasizes that the woman is not just a helper, but a unique and essential part of God's plan, able to see what the man cannot and guide him towards better decisions.
1. What is the main point of the passage regarding the meaning of the Hebrew word "neged"?
2. According to the passage, how should husbands view the "oppositeness" of their wives, and why?

In recent times, polarization has increased in the world, and in our country, in our cities, neighborhoods, districts, families and religious communities. It seems as if we can no longer reach each other and keep ending up in a us-them thinking. We are good and they are bad. We see it the right way, but they do not. We offer the right solutions, but they do not want to cooperate. We interpret our spiritual sources (Bible, Torah, Koran) the right way, but they see it completely wrong. We consider ourselves civilized, moderate, and the other as scum, liars or naive, etc. This polarized way of thinking drives us apart. We seek protection and confirmation from like-minded people and set ourselves apart from others, who seem to be getting blacker and meaner. Because in many cases you cannot or do not want to avoid each other completely, we choose to simply not bring up the subject, or subjects, anymore and pretend that it does not exist. That causes discomfort, but we just must endure it. Yet this us-versus-them thinking is disastrous. Not only for our relationships, but also for our society, our neighborhood, our family, our religious communities, not to mention our mental health. We see worldwide how groups of people come to oppose each other, fight each other with words, and then also with actions. This has far-reaching consequences, as we see or have seen in the Middle East, for example, or in the Balkans, and in our own cities, where demonstrations often end in violence.

SARAH: MOTHER OF NATIONS Taking a literary and feminist hermeneutical approach, reflect on the three versions of the "wife/sister" myth in Genesis 12, 20 and 26. Choose an explanation which seems plausible to you and integrate it with the narrative of the role and character of Sarah portrayed in Genesis.

This is chapter 12 of the Routledge Companion to Jewish Philosophy edited by Ty Goldschmidt  and Daniel Rynhold. 
It examines the truth status of liturgical claims about God through "Speech-Act Theory,"  claims about Divine Subjectivity, and the Testimonies of Israel

The traditional understanding of Genesis 2:21–22 as describing the removal of a literal rib from Adam has persisted for centuries in both scholarly and popular Christian thought. However, a closer linguistic and contextual analysis of the Hebrew term ṣēlāʿ (צֵלָע) and its Greek counterpart pleura (πλευρά) suggests a broader and more theologically rich meaning—namely, that God took from Adam’s side, not merely a bone. This paper defends the “side” interpretation by examining lexical evidence from both the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint, reinforced by intertextual parallels in the New Testament, particularly John 19:34.
Theologically, the act of forming Eve from Adam’s side rather than from dust, as with Adam himself, speaks to unity, shared nature, and the covenantal bond of marriage. Further support is drawn from ancient Near Eastern architecture and literary patterns, in which ṣēlāʿ signifies sacred structural sides, adding a typological layer to the creation of woman. This study also integrates modern genetic insights regarding Adam’s XY composition to highlight the scientific plausibility of Eve’s formation from male genetic material. Ultimately, the text reveals a profound theology of human origin, gender, and divine intentionality that has often been obscured by oversimplified translations.

The study explored the roles of the bible in early Christian church worship from a historical perspective. The Christian book was among the numerous books that were read publicly in the earliest years of the Christian church. Then, the early Christians read, translated, explained, and applied appropriately the sacred book during their liturgical services. The central feature of the synagogue worship was the reading of the scripture. The paper argued that the christians' devotion to the reading,teaching, interpretation, and application of the bible in Christian worship today has become a matter of concern. Therefore, the objectives of this paper were to explore an overview of the early Christian church, examine the historical overview of the role of scripture in the early Christian church, evaluate the role of the bible in the early Christian church and draw some lessons for the contemporary Christian leaders. The paper employed the historical-analytic research approach, backed by qualitative use of existing literature. The only books Christians accessed during the late first and early second centuries were the scriptures of Judaism. The reasons were: Christian writing was just made its way into circulation and had not gained the status of scripture, the canon of the scripture had not been done as in the first and second centuries. It is revealed in this paper that the bible was used as a source of inspiration, guidance, instructions and for reading at mass, community prayer, sermon, occasional office, and evangelistic work. Contemporary Christians should cultivate how bible was put to use by the early Christians. There should be adequate preparation for any Christian assigned to communicate the word of God in the congregation. The scripture's contents should be well articulated, translated, explained, and applied appropriately to achieve their intended purposes.

The sanctuary articulated the doctrines and mission of Adventism in the past. In recent times, however, some have emphasized the initial experience of those being discipled at the expense of their doctrinal preparation and Christian lifestyle. This carries with it the serious risk of the church losing its identity and diluting its distinctive message to the world. This articule suggests ways in which the sanctuary can help Adventists to reshape again their mission in the light of the sanctuary.

El santuario articuló las doctrinas y la misión del adventismo en el pasado. Sin embargo, en los últimos tiempos, algunos han enfatizado la experiencia inicial de quienes son discipulados, en detrimento de su preparación doctrinal y estilo de vida cristiano. Esto conlleva el grave riesgo de que la iglesia pierda su identidad y diluya su mensaje distintivo al mundo. Este artículo sugiere maneras en que el santuario puede ayudar a los adventistas a redefinir su misión a la luz del santuario.

Marilynne Robinson reads Genesis as both a theologian-preacher and a writer. Fully aware of classical and more modern theories of biblical philology as well as the deeper interpretive frameworks of literary analysis, she draws on these tools with discernment, while also maintaining a critical distance, free of academic pedantry. For Robinson, Genesis is a narrative that can be appreciated regardless of its original language-it is, for her, fundamentally an English text, which is underscored by her inclusion of the King James Version in the second part of the book. She occasionally references a few Hebrew terms, mainly for contrast, to highlight the limitations and connotations of the English words used to translate them. Robinson's prose moves slowly through the exegetical sections, unpacking the biblical narratives with a methodical pace. Her interpretations-rife with comparisons, connections, and reflections-often read like preparatory sermon notes, much like those found among the papers of the protagonist in Gilead. These explorations circle around the biblical text, before closing with gnomically terse, elegantly phrased insights, sharpened by her characteristically precise and refined language. It is genuinely difficult to say whether Reading Genesis is essential reading for lovers of the Bible or of Robinson's work-perhaps both.

My first experience pertaining to God's judgment of nations began quietly in the spring of 1973. I was a junior in high school, working as a live-in nanny for a family with four children. I attended school during the day and nannied the rest of the time with respite to attend church on Sundays. In my English-Lit class we were assigned a four-page paper on a topic of interest to us. I had just read a very brief article in a medical magazine on what they called "Early Infantile Autism." (Yes! I was a total nerd even back then!) The article itself was very brief, perhaps a column of about two-inches, mostly observing a new phenomenon marked by head-banging, echolalia, and a failure to engage as babies normally do at certain stages of development. Intriguing! I decided that would be the subject of my English-Lit paper. Surely I would easily be able to find four-pages of information to write about. I mark this as my first existential experience of God's judgment, but had no clue about Divine justice at the time and couldn't have even guessed as to what it all meant. My grandmother lived in a neighboring town and agreed to help me get to two of what I considered to be the most critical interviews I would conduct. Both interviews were with physicians, one a pediatrician, the other a man who had only newly come to Astoria after completing his residency somewhere else. I was excited that I had been able to get two such important people to sit down with me so they could pour forth their vast knowledge and have it somehow saturate my paper. Both interviews failed miserably. Both physicians had only just heard of the malady striking infants early in their first year; neither had ever seen a patient with these curious symptoms, and so my knowledgebase, long before the Internet, was suddenly down to almost nothing. The paper was due and there was exceedingly little I could find out about it; not in dictionaries, through healthcare professionals or a variety of print resources I looked up at the library. There simply was no information to be had! I sat down the night before the paper was due and used every shred of the notes I had made, giving long quotes to my "healthcare experts." How else could I come up with anything near four-pages? Making my handwriting somewhat larger than usual, I ended it with three. The next day I turned my paper in knowing that it contained a lot of bluff and no genuine substance. I had invested a lot of time into writing on a disease so uncommon that it was as if it hardly existed at all. I got my paper back with a disappointing by understandable "C" marked on it in red ink. A note next to the grade stated "But for your fine writing style, this paper doesn't complete the assignment and would have failed." I was crushed, but at the same time I was haunted by my own understanding that I knew no more at the end of the assignment than I knew after reading the small two-inch article at the start. And of course, my grandmother who had so vigorously tried to help me was incensed at the grade. I later learned that she called the teacher and "gave Mr. Dennis a good talking too." All I got for all my effort was a sense of shame at a job poorly done, but I was grateful to my grandmother for the support she gave to me. Today, well-over 40-years later, we see a diagnosis of Autism and almost everyone in developed countries on the planet has some knowledge or experience with the malady. Yet curiously, to this day, no one really knows why children are so often struck with this odd developmental disability. My own personal thinking is that it is directly related to the post-polio tendency of healthcare providers to think that they are gods as they arrogantly push out vaccines, six different diseases prevented in a single multi-vax dose. Most parents of autistic children report that early on their children appeared to be engaging as expected. But then they hit the "booster-shot" age and began a slow retreat away from their parents. And the anticipated milestones of cognitive development went into a severe decline. Just lately I have come to understand that in this experience, God was engaging with me, though I did not comprehend it. I would understand later in life that this was just my first personal experience of many judgments He was allowing to strike America and other places in the world.

Ce livre célèbre la carrière d’Odette Mainville, professeur titulaire à l’Université de Montréal (1989-2009). Ce collectif regroupe diverses contributions touchant les domaines d’intérêt de la professeure Mainville, tels que les lettres de Paul, l’Évangile selon Luc, et les Actes des Apôtres, ainsi que les thématiques de l’Esprit, l’éthique, et la résurrection.

Romans 13:1-7, which commands subjection to governing authorities, can be given too much weight in the moral analysis of undocumented immigrants. This article considers Romans 13 in the broader context of Romans and of the biblical canon to show biblical reasons for permitting civil disobedience toward immigration law. Rather than viewing undocumented immigrants as universally immoral lawbreakers, these biblical factors combined with analysis of civil disobedience for the preservation of life, legal ambiguities arising from competing jurisdictions, and other socio-political factors show that it may be a prudent action for undocumented immigrants to disobey immigration law.

Bezeichnung für die Stufen der Passion Christi, die den Tageszeiten zugeordnet wurden und man die Abendandacht (Vesper) mit der Entgegennahme seines Leichnams durch Maria in Verbindung brachte. Bezeichnung für die Darstellung der sitzenden Mutter Gottes, die auf ihrem Schoß den toten Sohn hält.

This article examines the challenges surrounding Sabbath observance in some Pacific Island nations affected by a moveable International Date Line. Adventists in those islands worship on what is locally called "Sunday." This causes tension for some SDAs, especially those who equate the Sabbath with "Saturday" and insist on observing no other day. This paper challenges that assumption and encourages a more flexible approach grounded in the Bible's definition of the seventh day Sabbath. Further, two theological tools are discussed in this paper to help address the complex Sabbath issues. With the "Context" tool, Sabbath observance is better understood within its historical, cultural, and scriptural contexts, allowing for a nuanced approach that does not compromise its sanctity. In the Absolutes vs. Variables framework, doctrines (such as the Sabbath) are established as immutable (absolute), while variable practices are context-sensitive. Applying these tools, the Sabbath, an absolute doctrine rooted in creation and the unbroken seven-day week cycle, transcends local time or calendar changes and remains unchangeable..

The tragedy of Cain and Abel is a shocking one that reflects humanity's insatiable lust for conflict. Their story is traditionally examined from the standpoint of 'what happened to Abel, and why?', but a greater lesson emerges when we look at what happened afterwards.

In both the OT and the NT, the heart refers to the center of one's life and from it arises both positive and negative thoughts, actions, and emotions. This article offers suggestive ideations concerning its role in the beginning of sin. The Psalmist (51:10) cried out, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." May the brief comments in this article signal urgent motivation and incentives to echo these words of the Psalmist in our own life's adventures.

Weisheitsspruch und Weisheitserzählung sind geprägt von sprachlich komplementären Weltzugängen. Der Weisheitsspruch als Form der Poesie stellt Ordnung durch Anordnen und Kontrastieren der Phänomene her. Erzählen schafft als Ordnung mit der Zeit auch dem Kontingenten und Ungeordneten Raum. Entsprechend zeigen sich die sogenannten weisheitlichen Lehrerzählungen Josef, Rut und Achiqar als Problemerzählugnen an den Grenzen der Spruchweisheit.

In its narrative, rhetorical and pragmatic aspects, the trajectory of the deictic expression “today” in Deuteronomy reveals what the book is all about: a progressive merging of represented and representing time (and communication). Or, to use the category coined by  Gérard Genette, it is a “metalepsis”, “the transgression of a line of demarcation that authors usually do not touch, namely the ‘shifting but sacred frontier between two worlds, the world in which one tells, the world of which one tells’” (Dorit Cohn). Purposeful uses of the expression, by Moses, in past, present and future references, and by the narrator, conjointly build Deuteronomy’s climax: “today”, as the urgent time of decision.

Many Pentateuchal stories present Israelite heroes poorly for a contemporary Western audience. A culture that values tolerance, inclusivity, equity, opportunity, and social justice struggles to see how these Israelite heroes are praiseworthy due to their questionable actions. Typical evangelical answers to these issues seem calloused to today's uninitiated, unchurched, and trauma-informed audience. A trauma-informed reading of the Pentateuch can help explain the actions of Israelite characters in Scripture while simultaneously appealing to the virtues cherished by the present-day audience.

La experiencia muestra que la misión del pueblo de Dios puede ser descuidada o ignorada, pero existe otro peligro que pocos parecen notar: la misión del pueblo de Dios también puede ser desnaturalizada y exagerada. Personalmente creo que estos últimos desafíos son los que plantea lo que ha venido a ser llamado «teología de la última generación» en el adventismo; lo que no debe ser confundido con la enseñanza bíblica de una última generación de creyentes que se identificad en el Apocalipsis como «los que guardan los mandamientos de Dios» (Ap 12:17; 14:12).

Theologians and scholars have long found the Book of Ecclesiastes to be a difficult book to explain. I asked myself whether it was really written as a book of random mental doodlings or whether there was a deeper purpose. I find that many of the difficulties disappear when the book is read as a eulogy or oration to be given at a funeral or memorial service in ancient times.

This book is an introduction to Christian ethics that provides a new, constructive framework for Christian moral and political thought. Connecting theory and practice, it draws on and integrates classic sources, concepts, and approaches to the pursuit of wisdom with contemporary liberationist and critical voices while making the ethical relationship between human and nonhuman life a central concern. As well as addressing a broad range of ethical questions, the book situates moral formation and the pursuit of human and nonhuman flourishing alongside a concern for spirituality, pastoral care, and political struggles to survive and thrive in the contemporary context. Part 1 focuses on ethics as a form of moral description. It examines a theological understanding of what it means to describe the world in moral terms and how moral descriptions are discovered through listening to creation, Scripture, strangers, those crying out for liberation, and ancestors. Part 2 focuses on moral agency. Its chapters examine how commands, rules, virtues, and practical wisdom enable good action, while a chapter on sin, evil and tragic circumstances reflect on what inhibits or wrecks the ability to judge and act well. Part 3 addresses the question of how to live well with others over time. Chapters on intimacy, work, and politics detail how each of these is essential to the formation of shared flourishing and can be the building blocks of a loving and just common life. Part 3 also acts as a series of interlinked case studies that exemplify the framework set out in parts 1 and 2.

In continuation of my previous research on the presence of the Word of God in the theology of Bernhard Häring of 2008 («La Parola di Dio nella teologia di Bernhard Häring», Studia Moralia 47 [2009] Supplemento 4 [Parola di Dio e morale. Atti della Giornata di Studio, Accademia Alfonsiana, Roma, 20.11.2008], 39-60), this article examines the concept of the “Law of Christ” itself as present in Häring’s The Law of Christ (1954), on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of this most important work as born in the spirit of the Vatican II new perspectives. This work opens up the perspectives of the “law of faith” (Rom. 3:27) to that responsibility for the gift of life that arises from a personal and communal encounter with the God of life and love. The moral response of the person is preceded by the call of Christ, in a dynamic
and liberating relationship between the gift of grace and the task of following Him in the freedom of evangelical growth. Bernard Häring has thus realized a paradigm change between the moral subject’s submission to merely human regulations and the filial freedom to give a joyful response to the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2). Such a response becomes a way of evangelical solidarity among those who “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), in the joy of being an agapic expression of the “law of Christ”, received as a gift and accepted as a commitment to participate in the life of the Trinity.

The marriage union and covenant bond are a revelation that was given to Adam and Eve while they were still in the Garden of Eden. This is telling because it denotes that marriage is not part of the curse, but it is part of God's original intention of His human family to flourish with Him in the garden that He planted eastward in Eden (cf. Gen. 2:8). There are layers of depth found in Scripture and within in the Ancient Near Eastern context about marriage and how it translates into a practical identity for the believer.