A Long-Form RAF Study
Samuel Vincent
Web Edition
This edition presents the complete study in a format designed for online reading. The original PDF remains available below.
Contents
Prologue — Grace Before Fences
Preface — When the Fence Isn’t Home
Epilogue — Why This Matters for Apostolic Faith
26. Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove:
34. Rev 7:16–17; 12:11; 22:1–5.³⁴ 35. Melito of Sardis, On the Passover 65–71.³⁵
Bibliography Primary & Early Christian Sources
Prologue — Grace Before Fences
Long before there was Law, there was mercy. Before the tablets, before the temple, before incense rose from an altar, there was the unwavering insistence of a God who refused to abandon what was His. Scripture does not record God learning compassion. It records humanity learning how far compassion would go.
Every covenant is the same heartbeat extended across time: grace preserving promise until the Promise Himself appears. From the whisper of conscience in the garden, to the thunder at Sinai, to the cry in a manger, YHWH (Adonai) crafted ways to remain near without consuming the people He loved. The fence, the Law, the prophets—none were ends in themselves. They were scaffolds of mercy, necessary until the structure could stand in Person.
This monograph traces that mercy’s thread. Not a record of rules. Not a chronicle of rebellion. But the story of the Shepherd who used both to keep His flock alive long enough to bring them home.
Preface — When the Fence Isn’t Home
Every age mistakes the fence for the field. Israel did it with Sinai. The Church has done it with creed and system. We sanctify the rails, polish them, and call the enclosure faithfulness. But Scripture tells a different story.
The fence was mercy, not arrival—a temporary constraint to keep the flock alive long enough for the Shepherd to come.¹ The Law was not a cage of control but a quarantine of grace, a hedge raised in a world consumed by idolatry and empire.² The Shepherd never meant the rails to replace His voice.
In the ancient world, the holier the god, the farther He was kept—on mountains, in clouds, behind curtains. YHWH (Adonai) did the opposite. He fenced His people not to keep them away, but to keep them alive in His nearness. The Law was life-support, not elevation. It preserved a covenant until the covenant could take flesh.
But when the guardians of the Law began to love the fence more than the Presence within it, grace changed shape. The Shepherd stepped over the rails, not to abolish them, but to lead from the inside. This work traces that movement:
- conscience before Torah,³
- custody under Torah,
- Christ tearing the fence from within—
not to release us into autonomy, but to lead us into pasture where freedom means allegiance.¹³
Because in Scripture, freedom is never the absence of a master. Freedom is finding the right One.⁴⁴
Conscience and the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Humanity did not need Sinai to know the difference between loyalty and rebellion. The tree in Genesis 3 is called the knowledge of good and evil—not the invention of morality, but the awareness of what had already been entrusted. Before the bite, righteousness was not a concept to argue, but a relationship to keep. The first law was communion. The first transgression was betrayal. When the fellowship broke, judgment did not disappear—it moved inward.
The voice that once walked in the garden began speaking inside the human chest. Conscience became the place where YHWH (Adonai) still testified.
So when Cain burned with envy, there was no priest to consult, no scroll to unroll. Yet the summons was unmistakable:
“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;
its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:7)⁶ Exile had begun, but the courtroom remained open. Paul later describes the same reality:
“They show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness.” (Rom 2:15) Conscience is not a feeling. Conscience is testimony. It declares allegiance—to YHWH or to another master. For lexical clarity:
- ḥaṭṭāʾt (תאָטַּח) does not mean error, but breach of loyalty.⁷
- hamartía (ἁμαρτία) is not a misstep, but aiming the heart at another lord.
Sin is not primarily the breaking of a rule. Sin is adultery of worship.
The early fathers recognized this gravity. Irenaeus called conscience “the lingering echo of Eden,” the residual memory of walking with God.⁸⁸ Even judgment, in that light, is mercy calling the heart home.
Our age has not lost conscience; it has renamed it. What Scripture calls guilt, we call stress. What Scripture calls conviction, we call overthinking. What Scripture calls idolatry, we call self-actualization. We are not less moral, we are less honest. The ache behind the ribs is not pathology.
It is the Shepherd’s knock. Ignore it long enough, and mercy begins to sound like threat.
Grace’s first pasture was not Sinai. It was the inner summons that still knows His name.
Judgment Before the Law
If conscience is real, then judgment before Sinai is not arbitrary—it is righteous. Genesis records verdicts before written statute: the Flood, Babel, Sodom. None required scrolls.⁹ All exposed a collapse of allegiance. In the Flood, “The wickedness of man was great… every intent of his heart only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5). This is not impulse. It is identity re-formed around violence. The flood is not divine rage—it is mercy preventing total ruin. A surgeon removing rot to preserve the body. At Babel they said, “Let us make for ourselves a name.” (Gen 11:4) It was not ignorance of God, it was replacement of God.
Scattering is not punishment; it is protection from humanity’s appetite for its own worship. Concerning Sodom, Ezekiel reframes the sin with precision:
“Pride, fullness of bread, and careless ease… but she did not help the poor and needy.”
(Ezek 16:49–50) No tablets were written yet—but guilt already evident. Creation itself testified against them.
Paul threads the conclusion without romanticism:
“Until the Law, sin was in the world,¹⁰
but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” (Rom 5:13) He does not mean innocence, he means the charges had not yet been written in ink. The crime was real. The record simply awaited transcription. The Law did not invent sin. The Law named it. As Abraham was before Sinai, before a single command was carved in stone, YHWH (Adonai) spoke:
“Go… and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Gen 12:1–3)¹¹ Abraham believed—and belief was counted as righteousness. (Gen 15:6) Paul then seizes the timeline:
“The Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later,
does not nullify the covenant previously established.” (Gal 3:17)
Faith precedes fence. Grace precedes statute. The covenant rested not on regulation, but allegiance.
The early Church understood judgment this way: Clement said, “Men knew righteousness and preferred violence.¹²”¹ Ignatius continued, “Forgetting God is the beginning of death.”¹² Judgment was not God losing patience. Judgment was God refusing to abandon His promise to creation. The pattern stands:
- When conscience collapses, judgment restores the frame.
- When judgment cannot preserve it, covenant raises the fence.
- When the fence fails, the Shepherd comes in person.
This is not the story of a God who discovered mercy late. It is the story of a God who refused to surrender humanity to its own gods. Grace is older than Law. Grace is older than covenant. Grace is as old as breath.
Sinai: Isolation, Not Exaltation
Abraham received a promise. Sinai delivered a containment strategy. When the mountain shook, Israel mistook confinement for coronation. They believed they were being lifted above the nations. In truth, YHWH (Adonai) was pulling them out of infection range.
The Ancient Near East was a furnace of gods and kings. To survive meant to worship power, secure alliances, and offer children to idols that demanded blood. In that world, the Law was not elevation. It was triage.
“Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law.¹⁴” (Gal 3:23)
Paul’s verb, phroureō, does not mean taught. It means **garrisoned. Guarded. Watched because we were fragile.**¹⁴ The fence was not honor, it was life support.
The dietary laws, Sabbaths, and feasts were not cultural ornament. They were survival discipline—rituals that prevented the flock from dissolving into the worship systems surrounding them.
“You shall be holy to Me…² I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine.”
(Lev 20:26) Separation was not arrogance. It was anesthesia before surgery. Custody, not classroom.
“The Law has become our tutor (paidagōgos) to lead us to Christ.¹⁵” (Gal 3:24–25)
In Roman households, the paidagōgos was not a gentle instructor. He was the household slave who dragged the child to the teacher, stick in hand. Discipline, not dialogue. That is how Paul describes Sinai. The Mishnah later institutionalized the instinct:¹⁶ “Make a fence around the Torah.” (Avot 1:1) Then Qumran hardened it into identity: “Separate from the men of the pit.” (1QS 5–8) Philo spiritualized it into moral idealism. Paul called it temporary custody. Fences prevent collapse, but they also form habits.
Over time, protection hardened into pride. The fence became identity, and identity became idol. Jesus names the inversion without hesitation, “You tithe mint and dill, and neglect justice and mercy and faithfulness.¹⁷” (Matt 23:23)
The Law was holy the way a quarantine ward is holy—set apart for healing, not admiration. No one builds a shrine to the fence once the disease is cured. Grace fenced Israel so that grace could one day walk among them.
Failed Shepherds and the Exile
If Sinai built the fence, Israel’s shepherds were meant to guard it. They did not. “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!¹⁸” (Jer 23:1 and “My sheep were scattered for lack of a shepherd.” (Ezek 34:5)⁵ The structure stood, but the leadership collapsed.
Priests consumed the offerings meant to sustain the flock. Kings used the flock to fortify their own power. Scribes defended the boundary while ignoring the famine inside it. The fence held shape, but the pasture was barren. Jerusalem did not fall because Babylon was strong. Jerusalem fell because covenant loyalty had already rotted from within. The Law could preserve identity, but it could not produce allegiance. You can fence a flock from wolves. You cannot fence a heart from pride. Exile exposed the truth: Israel had the form of holiness, but not the resemblance.
By the rivers of Babylon, with the temple reduced to memory, holiness was forced to relocate—from geography to conscience. From outer boundary to inner allegiance. The remnant returned to the land. But some misread the lesson.
Qumran’s error was that they concluded the failure was infiltration. Their cure was more fences, it was tighter boundaries, stricter separation. It was holiness measured by distance.
But YHWH (Adonai) had already spoken the remedy: “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you.¹⁹” (Ezek 36:26) Holiness restored by nearness, not withdrawal. Allegiance restored by renewal, not insulation. Origen later captured the shift precisely:²⁰ “The Law is fulfilled when the heart, not the nation, becomes the fold of God.”²⁰ Exile was not failure of protection. It was the revelation that protection is not transformation. The fence had done its work. The shepherds had failed theirs. The stage is now set for the Owner Himself to enter the pasture. No more intermediaries. No more stewards. No more borrowed voices. The Shepherd is coming.
Ezekiel 34 — YHWH (Adonai) Will Shepherd
The fence had preserved the flock, and the shepherds had consumed it. Ezekiel names the turning point with no negotiation, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.” (Ezek 34:11)²¹ This is not metaphor. It is the Owner terminating the management.
The priests can still offer sacrifices. The kings can still rule from their thrones. The scribes can still argue the fences line by line. But authority is already being repossessed. “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest.” (Ezek 34:15) The verbs do not describe care delegated. They describe care reclaimed. No prophet or priest is invited to assist. No human office is authorized to mediate. The Shepherd is coming personally. Then the paradox drops, “I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David.” (Ezek 34:23)
David has been dead for centuries. This is not nostalgia. This is incarnation in advance. The Shepherd will be God Himself (“I Myself will shepherd”) from David’s line (“My servant David will shepherd”).
Divinity and humanity in one Shepherd is not a later doctrine. It is Ezekiel’s grammar. The Hebrew raʿah means to feed, to tend, to guard. The Septuagint renders it poimainō—the same verb Jesus speaks to Peter: “Shepherd My sheep.” (John 21:16)
The apostles did not invent Christology. They recognized it. Early Christians read Ezekiel 34 as the hinge-point of the entire covenant. Justin Martyr proclaimed that The Shepherd of Israel now shepherds all nations in the Christ.²1 Irenaeus: The Son restores in Himself **all that Adam and David lost.²² The Law preserved the flock. The exile exposed the wound. Ezekiel announces the cure: YHWH Himself will shepherd from within the flock.
There is no return to old fences after this. Only the Shepherd’s voice and those who recognize it.
David as Prototype
David is not the goal. David is the pattern.
“He took him from the sheepfolds… to shepherd Jacob His people.” (Ps 78:70–
71)²³ David learns rule by being ruled. He learns care by receiving care. His authority is derivative— never self-originating. Psalm 23 is not a creed of power. It is a confession of dependence: “YHWH (Adonai) is my Shepherd.” Even Israel’s greatest king identifies as sheep before he is shepherd.
And even he fails. Bathsheba and Uriah are not a scandal to be remembered with embarrassment. They are the theological conclusion: Even the best shepherd, left to himself, devours the flock. Israel did not need a stronger king. Israel needed a shepherd who could not fall.
By the second century BCE, “Son of David” had shifted from covenantal promise to political expectation—a leader who would restore Israel’s power. The Psalms of Solomon dream of a throne, a sword, a purge of enemies.²⁴²⁴
But Ezekiel’s promise was not political; It was relational. The true Son of David would restore allegiance, not empire. Resemblance to the Shepherd, not dominance over nations. Philo glimpsed it dimly: “A true shepherd rules not by force but by feeding reason with virtue.”²⁴ The Gospels reveal the clarity of it: The Shepherd multiplies bread instead of tribute. He heals instead of conscripts. He gathers instead of conquers.
The earliest theologians did not see Christ as a new figure. They saw Him as David fulfilled and David surpassed.
- Irenaeus: Christ is “the David renewed, who leads humanity by the cords of love.
- Clement: The harp of David prefigures the harmony of Word and flesh.
David was the shadow cast forward by the coming Shepherd. The throne was never the point. The resemblance was. David shows what a shepherd-king looks like. Christ shows what a shepherd-king is.
John 10 — The Good Shepherd and the Gate
By the time Jesus spoke in Solomon’s portico, the fence still stood and the flock still recited Moses. The shepherds of Israel guarded boundaries with precision. But no one was leading. Then a voice speaks the words Ezekiel had left hanging:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep …²⁵
I am the good Shepherd.” (John 10:7, 11) The Greek construction is deliberate: egō eimi — “I, I Myself am.” This is the same form used when YHWH names Himself at the bush. This is not metaphor, It is identity. The One who promised, “I Myself will shepherd them,” has stepped into His own prophecy. In the gate of the fold In Judean night-pens there was no wooden door. The shepherd lay across the opening, His body the boundary. A predator or wanderer passed through him or not at all “The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (10:11) This is not poetic sentiment. It is logistical reality. Thieves and Hired Hands.
“All who came before Me are thieves (kleptai) and robbers (lēstai).²⁷” (10:8) Two indictments:
- . kleptai — the subtle usurpers, the religious manipulators.
- . lēstai — the violent zealots, the would-be liberators.
Both claim authority, but neither feeds the flock. Recognition, not compulsion.
“My sheep hear My voice … and they follow Me.” (10:27)
In the East, flocks mingle as one until a shepherd calls. Separation is not enforced; it is recognized. Salvation is not membership. It is allegiance to a voice.
The Shepherd walks ahead. Sheep are not driven from behind; they follow the one who goes first. Discipleship is not behavioral compliance. It is proximity. The early believers remembered this before they remembered miracles. Their faith was not built on spectacle. It was built on recognition. The Shepherd has entered the fold. The fence is now His body. Allegiance is now personal.
Paul — From Custody to Freedom
Paul knew the fence from the inside. He could trace his line to Benjamin, his zeal to Torah, his confidence to performance. Then the Shepherd spoke—and custody became clarity.
“Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law.” (Gal 3:23) The term is precise. Phroureō means **to hold something fragile under guard.**¹⁴ The Law did not train Israel to maturity. It prevented collapse while maturity was impossible. “The Law has become our tutor (paidagōgos) to lead us to Christ.” (Gal 3:24) The paidagōgos was not a teacher. He was the household slave who forced the child to the teacher, cane in hand.¹⁵ Not for instruction, but for custody.
“Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” (Gal 3:25) The fence served its purpose. Its time is over. Family by Allegiance.
“Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” (Gal 3:7) Lineage is not determined by ancestry, covenant badge, or cultural continuity. The true descendant of Abraham is the one who hears and follows the Shepherd. The Fence Moves Inward.
“The whole Law is fulfilled in one word:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal 5:14)²⁸ Through the Spirit, the fence is internalized: no longer a boundary of separation but the shape of fidelity. Freedom is not autonomy. Paul never defines liberty as self-direction. “Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” (Rom 6:18) The only true freedom is the ability to serve the right Master without fear. Autonomy is bondage disguised. Allegiance is liberation. The Law restrained. The Spirit reorders. The Law managed behavior. The Shepherd forms desire. Where the Shepherd leads, the flock is free, because freedom is proximity, not distance.
The fence is no longer external. It is the Shepherd’s own voice within the believer.
Hebrews 13 — The Great Shepherd of the Sheep
Resurrection is not escape, lt is leadership. The letter to the Hebrews ends by naming the Shepherd not as memory, symbol, or title—but as the One who has already gone ahead.
“Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant,²⁹
Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will.” (Heb 13:20–21) This is the arc in one sentence:
- God of peace — the war between holiness and humanity has been answered, not
ignore.
- Brought up from the dead — the Shepherd entered death first.
- The great Shepherd — not example only, but ruler and guide.
- Eternal covenant — the fence has been replaced by union, not law.
The resurrection is not spectacle. It is pathmaking.
Ancient shepherds led flocks through ravines known as “valleys of deep shadow.” The first one through risked the wolf. If he survived, the flock followed. Christ does not call His people into death. He walks into it, and out of it, ahead of them. This is why the benediction speaks of equipping. The verb katartisai means:³⁰ to reset a bone, to mend a net, to restore something to proper function.²⁹ ³⁰ The Law could restrain. It could not repair. The Shepherd repairs, not by removing weakness, but by re-ordering desire to match His own. The benediction is not sentimental blessing. It is commission, “May He equip you…to do His will.” (Heb 13:21) Freedom is now capacity, not permission.
The Shepherd has gone first. The flock follows where He has already walked. Death is no longer boundary. It is pathway.
The Early Church — Living in the Pasture
The first believers did not call the faith a religion. They called it The Way. (Acts 9:2) Their lives make one claim unmistakable: The Shepherd did not simply rise. He continued to lead.
Baptism — Passing Through the Gate
The Didache calls baptism “the way of life.”³¹ To descend into water was to enter the death Christ had already entered, and to rise where He had already risen. This was not symbolism. It was allegiance enacted.
Tertullian called baptism the seal—³¹ the moment a sheep ceased being guarded by the fence and began being guarded by the Shepherd.
Eucharist — Feeding in the Pasture
The Eucharist was not a memorial. It was sustenance. Justin Martyr said:
“This is not common bread and drink,³²
but the flesh and blood of Jesus who was made flesh for our sake.”³² The Law fed Israel reminders of sin. The Shepherd feeds His flock His own life. The pasture is not the absence of danger. It is the presence of the Shepherd.
Hymns — Learning the Voice
The Odes of Solomon sing:³³ “The Lord is the Shepherd, and I am without pain in Him.”³³ Song was not ornament. It was orientation—the tuning of the heart to recognize one voice among many. Where truth is recognized by sound, formation is acoustic.
Burial — Trust Beyond Death
Early Christians buried their dead facing the East. Not for symbolism, but direction. For, if the Shepherd has already crossed death, the grave is not an ending—it is following. So they wrapped their dead in linen and prayed the Shepherd’s benediction, not to keep them, but to release them to Him. The Way was not defined by spectacle, certainty, or cultural separation. It was defined by recognition: the Shepherd speaks, the sheep hear and they follow. Not driven. Not coerced. Led.
Revelation — The Lamb Who Shepherds
The story ends where it began: A people in the presence of their God. But now the Shepherd is visible.
“For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their Shepherd,
and will guide them to springs of the water of life;
and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (Rev 7:17) The paradox is intentional: The Shepherd is the Lamb. The leader is the offering. The throne is occupied by the One who gave Himself. This is not reversal. It is completion. Authority in the kingdom of God is not domination. Authority is self-giving made sovereign.35
In Eden, life flowed outward from the presence of God. In the new creation, life flows from the Lamb Himself. “They shall hunger no more, nor thirst anymore.” (Rev 7:16) Scarcity is ended. Separation is ended. Threat is ended.
There are no fences in the new creation. Not because holiness is relaxed, but because holiness has filled everything. The flock no longer needs to be guarded. It is home.
Revelation does not introduce a new Christ. It reveals the One who has been Shepherd from the beginning:
- calling in Eden,
- guarding through covenant,
- walking in Galilee,
- leading through death,
- and reigning without borders.
He is the same. The Lamb shepherds, and the Shepherd reigns.
From Genesis to Revelation — The Arc Complete
Trace the thread and the pattern stands:
- Conscience — the Shepherd’s voice within.
- Judgment — the Shepherd guarding what is His.
- Sinai — the Shepherd fencing the flock for survival.
- Exile — the Shepherd exposing false caretakers.
- Incarnation — the Shepherd entering the fold Himself.
- Cross and Resurrection — the Shepherd leading through death.
- Pentecost — the Shepherd placing the fence within the heart.
- Revelation — the Shepherd reigning where no fences are needed.
Sin is not misbehavior. It is misplaced allegiance. Law was not imprisonment. It was preservation. Grace is not leniency. It is Presence. Discipleship is not mastery of information. It is recognition of a voice. The Church is not a fortress. It is a flock that follows. The Kingdom is not escape. It is participation in the Shepherd’s reign. “They will reign forever and ever.³⁶” (Rev 22:5) The pasture was always preparation for co-rule. The Shepherd does not merely save His flock. He trains it for the Kingdom.
Epilogue — Why This Matters for Apostolic Faith
To restore apostolic faith is not to revive ancient aesthetics, rebuild old structures, or return to the comfort of well-worn traditions. It is to hear the Shepherd again. Faith is allegiance. Worship is nearness. Holiness is imitation. Freedom is obedience without fear. The Church is not sustained by fences, systems, or heritage. It lives by the Shepherd’s voice.37³⁷ The fence was temporary. The pasture is open. The Shepherd is alive.
And the voice that called Abraham, confronted Moses, thundered at Sinai, walked Galilee, wept at Gethsemane, broke death in the tomb, and spoke peace in the upper room— still speaks.
Our task is not to guard the pen. Our task is to follow Him.
Endnotes
- Rom 6:18; Gal 5:13–14.
- Lev 20:26; Exod 19:5–6.
- John 10:7–18; Gal 3:23–29.
- Rom 6:18; cf. 1 Cor 7:22.
- Ps 23; Ezek 34; John 10; Rev 7:17.
- Gen 3; Rom 2:15; Gen 4:7 (NASB 1995).
- HALOT, s.v. “אטח”; BDAG, s.v. “ἁμαρτία.”
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.13.1–4.
- Gen 6–8; 11:1–9; Ezek 16:49–50.
- Rom 5:12–14.
- Gen 12:1–3; 15:6; Gal 3:17–18.
- Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 7; Ignatius of Antioch, To the Ephesians 14.
13. Exod 19–24; Lev 18–20.¹³
- BDAG, s.v. “φρουρέω.”
- BDAG, s.v. “παιδαγωγός.”
- Mishnah Avot 1:1; 1QS 5–8; Philo, Life of Moses 2.8–12.
- Matt 23:23; Hos 6:6.
- Jer 23:1–2; Ezek 34:1–10.
- Ps 137; Ezek 36:26–27; Jer 31:31–34.
- Origen, Homilies on Ezekiel 13.2.
- Ezek 34:11, 15, 23.
- CD 3:2–4; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 85; Irenaeus, Against Heresies
3.23.7.
- Ps 78:70–71; Ps 23.
- 2 Sam 11–12; Psalms of Solomon 17–18; Philo, Life of Moses 2.52.
- John 10:7–11; Exod 3:14 LXX; cf. John 8:58.
26. Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove:
IVP Academic, 2008), 165–68.²⁶
- John 10:8, 27; Jer 23; Ezek 34.
- Gal 3:23–25; 5:14; Rom 6:18; 2 Cor 3:17.
- Heb 13:20–21; Athanasius, On the Incarnation 26.
- BDAG, s.v. “καταρτίζω”; Matt 4:21; Gal 6:1.
- Didache 7; Tertullian, De Baptismo 7.
- Justin Martyr, First Apology 66.
- Odes of Solomon 17; Larry W. Hurtado, At the Origins of Christian Worship (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 50–53.
34. Rev 7:16–17; 12:11; 22:1–5.³⁴ 35. Melito of Sardis, On the Passover 65–71.³⁵
- Rev 22:5.
- Ignatius of Antioch, To the Philadelphians 3.
Bibliography Primary & Early Christian Sources
Athanasius. On the Incarnation. Translated by A Religious of C.S.M.V. Yonkers, NY: St
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011. Bailey, Kenneth E. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels.
Downers Grove, IL: IVPAcademic, 2008. Clement of Rome. 1 Clement. In The Apostolic Fathers, edited by Michael W. Holmes. 3rd ed.
Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. Didache. In The Apostolic Fathers, edited by Michael W. Holmes. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2007. Ignatius of Antioch. Letters. In Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers. Irenaeus. Against Heresies. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho and First Apology. In The First and Second Apologies,
translated by Leslie William Barnard. New York: Paulist Press, 1997. Melito of Sardis. On the Passover. Translated by Alistair Stewart-Sykes. Crestwood, NY: St
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001. Origen. Homilies on Ezekiel. Translated by Thomas P. Scheck. Washington, DC: Catholic
University of America Press, 2010. ———. Commentary on the Gospel of John. Translated by Ronald E. Heine. Washington, DC:
Catholic University of America Press, 1989. Philo of Alexandria. On the Life of Moses. In The Works of Philo, translated by C. D. Yonge.
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993. Tertullian. Against Marcion and On Baptism. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3. Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 1994.
Jewish & Intertestamental Texts
Damascus Document (CD). In Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead
Sea Scrolls Study Edition. Leiden: Brill, 1997–98. Mishnah. Translated by Herbert Danby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933. Odes of Solomon. In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, edited by James H.
Charlesworth. New York: Doubleday, 1985. Psalms of Solomon. In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, edited by James H.
Charlesworth. New York: Doubleday, 1985. Qumran: Community Rule (1QS). In Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study
Edition.
Modern Reference Works & Scholarship
BDAG. Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd
ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. HALOT. Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000. Hurtado, Larry W. At the Origins of Christian Worship. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. Wright, N. T. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013.
Bible Translation
New American Standard Bible (1995 Update). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
Restoring Apostolic Faith 