Tag: Biblical Studies
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The Problem of Circumcision
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 11, 2010 – Pages 1-38; Revised September 2019 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus. (Luke 2:21) The methodology Unification theology leads to critiques of all religious practices that do not support God’s ultimate purpose of creation, as defined by the Three Great…
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The End-Time Calculation of Johann Albrecht Bengel
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 11, 2010 – Pages 137-166 Recently, “The End” has been on the minds of many people. According to various New Age prognosticators, the Mayan Long Count Calendar indicates that “the End” will occur on December 21, 2012. Mayan culture flourished during “the Classic Period (from about 250 A.D. until around 900…
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The Gospel of Judas: Is it a Hoax?
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 9, 2008 – Pages 35-48 What shall we make of the authenticity of the recently published Gospel of Judas? Was this sensational find really written by a second-century scribe, a Gnostic whose theology we are familiar with from the Nag Hammadi texts?[1] Or was it written in our own time,…
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A Unificationist Gospel
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 7, 2006 – Pages 129-199 I have for a very long time thought it might be helpful to have a direct, narrative version of the gospel events informed by the biblical theology of the Reverend Sung Myung Moon. In many of his speeches, key passages of which are compiled in…
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The Marginality of the Cross
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 6, 2004-2005 – Pages 23-38 Has the significance of the cross in the New Testament has been overrated? Can it be that, at least in significant portions of the New Testament, we have become used to reading familiar texts through the even more familiar lens of Western atonement theologies? It…
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Was Jesus the Son of the Priest Zacharias?
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 5, 2003 – Pages 1-16 Let no one think it a cliché when teachers say they are often the learners in the process of classroom discovery. I had the rare privilege of substituting for a friend on the faculty of the Unification Theological Seminary a few years ago when he…
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Amorous Archons in Eden and Corinth
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 2, 1998 – Pages 19-34 A preoccupation with the textual minutiae of Scripture may stem from either a strict belief in verbal inspiration or simply the scholarly love of trivia, but in any case few Bible students can resist a good exegetical puzzle. One of the most intriguing of such…
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A New Perspective on John the Baptist’s Failure to Support Jesus
Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 1, 1997 – Pages 71-92 “At the heart of all dialogues between Christians and Jews there is, inevitably, the question of the Messiah: ‘Are you he who is to come, or shall we wait for another?” -Jürgen Moltmann Applied to the New Testament, some of the tasks of the historical-critical…