Simon Kistemaker on Two Lukan Parables

The following articles are now available online in PDF. Please visit the latest additions page for the links:


Simon Kistemaker, “Shrewd Manager: An Exposition of Luke 16:1-9,” Evangel 2:2 (1984): 13-14.

Simon Kistemaker, “Children in the Market Place,” Evangel 4:2 (1986): 12.

My thanks to Professor Kistemaker for his kind permission.

Norman Hillyer on Matthew's Use of the Old Testament

The following article is now available on-line in PDF:

Norman Hillyer, "Matthew's Use of the Old Testament," The Evangelical Quarterly 36.1 (Jan.-Mar. 1964): 12-26. Click here to read.

Reverend Hillyer (who is 90 this year) has kindly granted permission to place all his articles published in Evangelical Quarterly on-line. He would be pleased to know if they are still helpful - so if you like the article please leave a comment below. I will forward the feedback to the author.

Clinton Chisholm on 'After the Sabbath' (Matt. 28.1a)

The following article is now online in PDF:

Clinton Chisholm, "'After the Sabbath' (Matt. 28.1a) - Into the Crux Yet Again," Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology 8 (2004): 57-66. Click here to read the article.

Chisholm offers a viable solution to an old problem with the translation on Matthew 28:1a - well worth a read.

James Leonard's Research on Codex Schøyen forthcoming

James Leonard has been carrying out research on the Codex Schøyen at Tyndale House in Cambridge. His findings are soon to be presented to the Society of Biblical Literature. To whet your appetite here is an abstract of the forthcoming article which should prove of great interest to anyone involved in NT textual criticism. If, like myself, you don't know what Vorlage means, click here for a helpful definition.

Codex Schøyen is a substantial but fragmentary Coptic manuscript of Matthew’s Gospel which only became public in 1999. It dates perhaps to the early fourth century, and may be the earliest witness to Matthew in 13 entire chapters, and to many portions of other chapters. However, its textual character has not yet been adequately analysed. Analysis of its textual character has been hindered, in part, by the atypical translation method reflected in its text which often makes the Vorlage difficult to discern.

This paper demonstrates how an understanding of the version’s translation technique can help discern its Vorlage. Analysis of important test passages will show its textual character and relationship with other manuscripts. Ultimately, the paper will address the issue of whether Codex Schøyen is the closest ally to Sinaiticus and Vaticanus in Matthew’s Gospel.

Howard C. Bigg on the The State of the Q Hypothesis in 1988

The following article is now available on-line in PDF:

Howard C. Bigg, "The Present State of the Q Hypothesis," Vox Evangelica 18 (1988): 63-73.

This should prove useful to anyone studying Gospel origins.

F.F. Bruce on the Use of the Book of Zechariah in the Passion Narrative

The following article is now online in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "The Book of Zechariah and the Passion Narrative," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 43 (March 1961): 336-353.

Quotatle quote (I love the characteristic understatement here):

Even so, one may well hesitate to go so far as to find an echo of Zechariah ix-xiv in his statement that the high priest’s slave whom Peter wounded at Jesus’ arrest was called Malchus (John xviii. 10). It has been suggested in one of the most important studies of the Fourth Gospel to appear in recent years that John called the slave Malchus to show that the narrative of the arrest fulfilled Zechariah xi. 6, “I will cause men to fall each into the hand of his neighbour, and each into the hand of his king (malkô)”. But there is a basic appropriateness about John’s other allusions to Zechariah ix-xiv which is lacking here; no one fell into Malchus’ hand, and why, of all the people present, should the high priest’s slave be chosen to fulfil the prophecy about a “king”? It is more likely that the Evangelist tells us that the slave’s name was Malchus because he happened to know that Malchus, in fact, was his name.

Donald E. Cook on the Gospel Portrait of the Pharisees

The following article is now available in PDF:

Donald E. Cook, "A Gospel Portrait of the Pharisees," Review & Expositor 84.2 (Spring 1987): 221-233.

The Pharisees were an important group in Jewish society in the time of Jesus with whom both He and the early church interacted. It is interesting to read how the different Gospel writers each had their own take on them.

F.F. Bruce on the End of Matthew's Gospel

The following article is now available on-line in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "The End of the First Gospel," The Evangelical Quarterly 12 (1940): 203-214.

Bruce concludes:

Thus our study of the closing paragraph of Matthew’s Gospel suggests that our application of the great commission must control our application of the rest of the book. If it is for the Church, so also is the Lord’s Prayer, despite assertions that its use by the Church “is wrong, decidedly unchristian” and that the future remnant “will undoubtedly use this prayer during the great tribulation”. It is not its use, but its misuse, that is “wrong, decidedly unchristian”. And as we use it aright and pray “Thy kingdom come”, let us realize that it is partly in our own power to “hasten the coming of the day of God” by fulfilling the terms of this commission; for “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come”―that “end” which will be but the beginning of the new, unending day...

John Nolland on Matthew's Genealogy

The following article is now avialable on-line in PDF:

John Nolland, "Jechoniah and His Brothers (Matthew 1:11)," Bulletin for Biblical Research 7 (1997): 169-178.

The abstract reads:

Matthew directs his reader’s engagement with the genealogy he provides by means of framing materials and the use of internal annotation. The omis­sion of three generations of kings from the genealogical list (1:8) and the confusions involved in identifying Josiah as father of Jechoniah and his brothers (v. 11) can be shown to have a similar annotative role: by careful manipulation of the traditions available to him Matthew is able to use these apparent aberrations not only to achieve his fourteen generations schema, but also to evoke significant elements in the history of the period covered by his genealogy.