Introduction -- By: Benjamin L. Merkle

Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 08:1 (Spring 2017)
Article: Introduction
Author: Benjamin L. Merkle


Introduction

Benjamin L. Merkle

STR Editor

This volume of STR brings several changes to the journal. First, we have redesigned the front cover to be more in line with what would be expected from something associated with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Second, we have moved the issues from Summer and Winter to Spring and Fall. Because we are a seminary (and college), it makes sense to produce issues consistent with our annual semester cycle. Issues will typically be posted on our website March 21 (Spring issue) and September 21 (Fall issue). Third, we have redesigned and relaunched our website (www.southeasternreview.com). All individual essays and entire volumes can now be downloaded for free. Consequently, we are no longer printing hard copies of the journal. Please subscribe to the journal on our website if you wish to receive an email reminder when a new issue is posted.

The Spring issue of STR is typically un-themed. In this issue we have two New Testament essays, one Old Testament essay, and one essay that is cross-disciplinary. In the first essay, Charles L. Quarles, professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, addresses the citation of Hos 11:1 in Matt 2:15. He argues that Matthew correctly interprets the Hosea passage (“Out of Egypt I called my son”) as a reference to Israel’s exodus out of Egypt led by Moses which then anticipated a future, eschatological exodus led by the Messiah.

The second essay is by Murray Vasser, a PhD student at Asbury Theological Seminary. Vasser’s essay, “Sell Your Possessions: Luke 12:33 and the Greco-Roman Utopian Ideal,” won first place in the 2016 SEBTS Intersect Project PhD Symposium Competition sponsored by the Kern Family Foundation. The Symposium featured paper presentations from ten PhD students from around the world on issues related to the intersection of faith, work, and economics. In his essay, Vasser seeks to answer the tension between Jesus’ command to “sell your possessions” and the fact that many Christians in the early church retained significant possessions. By using the insights of redaction criticism and the work of Abraham J. Malherbe, Vasser concludes that Jesus’ command to “sell your

possessions” should be understood as a command to relinquish all superfluous possessions and embrace equality.

In the third essay, “The Curse of Cain Reconsidered,” Todd Borger, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, takes on the traditional interpretation of Cain’s curse which is typically rendered “You are cursed from the ground.” Dr. Borger ...

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