Restoring Apostolic Faith

RAF does not treat scholars as authorities to be collected in support of predetermined conclusions. Their value lies in the quality of their research, their command of primary sources, their historical and linguistic expertise, and their ability to challenge assumptions.

Some scholars cited by RAF will strongly support a particular interpretation. Others will disagree with it. Both matter.

Research becomes little more than confirmation bias when only agreeable voices are consulted. Scholars who challenge a conclusion can reveal weaknesses in an argument, expose overlooked evidence, or force greater precision. A position that survives serious criticism is generally stronger than one protected from it.

For that reason, RAF engages scholarship across theological traditions and methodological perspectives. Citation does not imply wholesale agreement with a scholar’s theology or conclusions. It means their work contributes something important to understanding the evidence.

NEW TESTAMENT / EARLY CHRISTIANITY / SECOND TEMPLE CONTEXT

N. T. Wright — Second Temple Jewish context, Pauline theology, resurrection, Kingdom, and early Christian eschatology; frequently useful even where RAF reaches different conclusions.

James D. G. Dunn — Pauline studies, early Christology, the New Perspective, and the development of earliest Christian belief and practice.

Larry Hurtado — Early devotion to Jesus, Christology, worship practices, and the religious environment of the first Christians.

Richard Bauckham — Gospel traditions, early Christology, eyewitness testimony, Revelation, and Jewish-Christian context.

John Behr — Patristics, early Christian theology, Christology, and the development of theological interpretation in the early church.

Dale C. Allison Jr. — Historical Jesus research, eschatology, resurrection traditions, and careful engagement with competing historical explanations.

Brant Pitre — Jewish backgrounds to the New Testament, Gospel traditions, Temple imagery, messianic expectation, and Second Temple context.

HEBREW BIBLE / ANCIENT NEAR EAST

John H. Walton — Ancient Near Eastern cognitive environment, Genesis, cosmology, temple concepts, and comparative cultural context.

Walter Brueggemann — Hebrew Bible theology, prophetic literature, rhetoric, and the social and theological worlds of Israel’s texts.

Joel Baden — Pentateuchal composition, source criticism, literary development, and historical-critical approaches to the Torah.

Christopher J. H. Wright — Old Testament ethics, mission, covenant, Israel’s social world, and theological interpretation rooted in the Hebrew Bible.

Victor H. Matthews — Social customs, daily life, institutions, and cultural background of the ancient Near East and biblical world.

Mark W. Chavalas — Mesopotamian history, ancient Near Eastern texts, comparative material, and historical context for the Hebrew Bible.

Mark S. Smith — Israelite religion, divine council traditions, Canaanite and Ugaritic backgrounds, and the development of ancient Israelite theology.

K. Lawson Younger Jr. — Ancient Near Eastern historiography, inscriptions, imperial contexts, and comparative texts relevant to biblical history.

Benjamin D. Sommer — Divine embodiment, ancient Israelite conceptions of God, Jewish theology, and the relationship between biblical and later Jewish categories.

Carol Meyers — Archaeology, social history, gender, household structures, and the lived world behind biblical texts.

Susan Niditch — Oral culture, folklore, warfare, violence, identity, and literary traditions in the Hebrew Bible.

RAF’s use of a scholar in one area should not be read as endorsement of that scholar’s entire theological or historical framework. Scholars are conversation partners, not authorities above the evidence.

PRIMARY SOURCES

Primary sources—such as the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Philo, the Didache, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Irenaeus, and other early witnesses—are treated separately from modern scholarship.