What happened to the reign of God when it visited John's world? At first glance, it looks like it got short shrift, appearing in just two verses (John 3:3, 5). However, what if, like the ubiquitous reign of God in the Synoptic Gospels, its two verses are the early planting of a seed that grows and spreads through the book? What if the diction of a parable of God's reign is diffused throughout the text, as is arguably the case with the wildly generous father and his prodigal son? What if th...

What if the texts of the canonical Gospel authors provide commentary alongside the texts they created? That is the interpretative question pursued in many of these essays that supplement the collection done in 2012 for Wipf and Stock. Taking a cue from Aratos and Vergil, among others, these studies point to configurations of letters that reference some aspect of the topic dealt with in already integral words in the main text. Attention to letters sprinkled throughout a passage may uncover ...

Is meticulous Matthew also mathematically so? Why does Matthew alone in the canon discuss guards at Jesus' tomb? For popular storytellers in the early church, is the serpent of the Garden the unseen catalyst in the murder of John the Baptist? Why do almost three dozen words beginning with the Hebrew letter ayin have analogues in Luke's infancy narratives? Why do Mary's meditations there cohere with Psalm 19? John's Jesus describes himself as Way, Truth and Life. Does this bear any relation...