Raimo Hakola

University of Helsinki | HY · Department of Biblical Studies

This article offers an overview of what every theologian and scholar of religion should know about changes in biblical studies that have taken place concerning the past depreciation of Second Temple Judaism, the use of newly discovered sources and their implications, as well as integrative approaches to top-down (reflected beliefs, prescribed pract...

The article challenges the model of economic oppression in Galilee and argues that the development of Galilean fishing industry and trade gave an economic boost to the local economy. There has emerged a significant interest in ancient fishing technologies and fish production in recent classical scholarship. The article uses these discussions, toget...

The concepts of social memory and social identity have been increasingly used in the study of ancient Jewish and Christian sources. In this collection of articles, international specialists apply interdisciplinary methodology related to these concepts to early Jewish and Christian sources. The volume offers an up-to-date presentation of how social...

The article takes issue with recent attempts to deny that the New Testament Gospels were addressed to distinct early Christian communities and argues that it is still meaningful to trace how these writings construct distinct early Christian identities. Hakola applies the social identity approach and concepts related to the symbolic construction of...

The article examines Jewish and Christian groups in the eastern rural Galilee in relation to synagogues and churches that can be dated to Late Antiquity. Hakola first provides an overview of recent scholarly discussions about Jewish-Christian relations elsewhere in the ancient world. Building on this, he discusses Galilean synagogues and their dive...

Places and spaces are key factors in how individuals and groups construct their identities. Identity theories have emphasized that the construction of an identity does not follow abstract and universal processes but is also deeply rooted in specific historical, cultural, social and material environments. The essays in this volume explore how variou...

Reconsidering Johannine Christianity presents a full-scale application of social identity approach to the Johannine writings. This book reconsiders a widely held scholarly assumption that the writings commonly taken to represent Johannine Christianity – the Gospel of John and the First, Second and Third Epistles of John – reflect the situation of a...

The article presents the preliminary results from four seasons of excavations at Horvat Kur in the Galilee. The excavations conducted by the Kinneret Regional Project have exposed the remains of a broad-house synagogue from the Byzantine period. The most important finds include an elevated platform (i.e., a bemah) that supported a chest holding Tor...

Others and the Construction of Early Christian Identities/i is a collection of essays that examine how those perceived as others were differentiated, excluded and devalued in various early Christian sources, both inside and outside the New Testament canon. Early Christian polemic is set in its larger historical and cultural contexts in essays that...

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Nicodemus is an enigmatic literary character who is wavering in no man's land in John's narrative between Jesus' opponents and his true disciples. Some scholars have taken Nicodemus as an example of someone of inadequate faith who remains an outsider throughout the narrative, while others have traced his development from initial and tentative faith...

Many scholars have recently maintained that it is difficult if not impossible to postulate the definite parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. It is argued in this paper that recent criticisms against the ‘parting of the ways’‐model resemble criticisms levelled against the classical identity theory formulated by Erik H....

The title of this volume asks two questions. The first-What do we really know about the Pharisees?-implies that while it is possible to know something about the historical Pharisees, our knowledge may be more meager than some might think. The second-How do we know it?-raises the tricky methodological issue of how to read history from texts and arti...